Where is Malvolio? Mar. He's coming, madam; but in very strange Oli. Why, what's the matter? does he rave? ladyship were best to have some guard about - Oli, Go call him hither. I am as mad as he, If sad and merry madness equal be. Re-enter MARIA, with MALVOLIO. How now, Malvolio ! Mal. Sweet lady, ho, ho. Oli. Smilest thou? I sent for thee upon a sad occasion. ΙΟ [Exit Maria. 15 Mal. Sad, lady! I could be sad: this does make some obstruction in the blood, this crossgartering; but what of that? if it please the eye of one, it is with me as the very true sonnet is, "Please one, and please all." Oli. Why, how dost thou, man? what is the matter with thee? 8, 9.] As verse in F; arranged as prose by Pope, etc. Keightley. 15. I am] F, Ff, Rowe, etc.; I'm Pope, etc. ha, ha Ff, Rowe, etc.; omitted Capell. 19, 20. Smilest... etc.; as one line F. 21-25.] As prose, Pope, etc.; as verse, has it Capell, hath it Collier MS. 20 25 8. very] F, a very 18. ho, ho.] F; occasion.] Capell, F. 25. is] F, 26. Oli.] See note below; dost] doest F. 8, 9... 11-13.] I have not thought it worth while to include in the textual notes the attempts made by some editors to arrange these two speeches of Maria as verse. Although the Folio prints the first of them in two lines, each ending "Madam,' we may be sure that Shakespeare intended Maria to use her customary prose. 9. possessed] in its modern sense (by an evil spirit). II, 12. your ladyship were best] See note on I. v. 31, 32. 13. tainted] For the metaphor, cf. III. i. 72. 20. sad] See line 5, note; but here the word may retain some of its modern meaning. 24. the very true sonnet] “sonnet," i.e. poem or ballad-an earlier sense. The sonnet here referred to is "A prettie newe Ballad, intytuled— The Crowe sits vpon the wall Please one and please all. To the tune of, Please one and please all." Nineteen quaint stanzas follow this title, and to these the letters R. T. are appended; they may stand for Richard Tarleton. The ballad was published in 1592. One copy is extant (Huth). 26, 27. Why ... thee] In F this speech is assigned to Mal., a misprint doubtless for Mar. But Ff have printed Ol., and to Olivia the speech may best belong. Mal. Not black in my mind, though yellow in my legs. It did come to his hands, and commands shall be executed: I think we do know the 30 sweet Roman hand. Oli. Wilt thou go to bed, Malvolio? Mal. To bed! ay, sweetheart, and I'll come to thee. Oli. God comfort thee! Why dost thou smile so, and kiss thy hand so oft? Mal. At your request! Yes; nightingales answer daws. 35 Mar. How do you, Malvolio? Mar. Why appear you with this ridiculous boldness before my lady? 40 Mal. "Be not afraid of greatness: " 'twas well writ. Oli. What meanest thou by that, Malvolio? Mal. "Some are born great," Oli. Hal Mal. "Some achieve greatness," 45 Oli. What sayest thou? Mal. "And some have greatness thrust upon them." who Mal. "Remember stockings," commended thy yellow 30, 31. the sweet] F, that sweet Rowe, etc. meanest] Ff, meanst F. 28. Not black... yellow] Possibly a reference to an old ballad tune called "Black and Yellow" (Collier). 30, 31. the. hand] Cf. "carved in Roman letters," Titus Andronicus, v. i. 139. "Delicate Italian handwriting" (Deighton). 33.] As Mr. Craig suggests, Malvolio may here be quoting. Mr. Craig's reference is to the following: "Go to bed, sweetheart, I'le come to thee, Make thy bed fine and soft, etc."; from a verse of a ballad quoted in Brome, The EnglishMoor; or, The Mock-Marriage; quoted also in Tarlton's Jests, 1611. Malvolio, we may notice, has already made a similar quotation (line 25); possibly also he quotes in lines 28 and 37; all this supports the above sugges tion. Mr. Craig would interpret Olivia's remark in line 32 as being equivalent to "I think you must be drunk"; but I am not sure that the context will bear out this interpretation. 35. kiss thy hand] Cf. Othello, II, i. 175, "It had been better you had not kissed your three fingers so oft, which now again you are most apt to play the sir in." 37, 38. At... daws] Am I bound to answer a servant? Well, nightingales seem to sing in response to the call of jackdaws, and therefore I shall not lose dignity if I reply to the question of this serving maid. As to the figure, it may be derived from the natural world, but partly also, as I think, from fiction; or the saying may be proverbial. 1 Oli. Thy yellow stockings! Mal. "And wished to see thee cross-gartered." Oli. Cross-gartered! Mal. "Go to, thou art made, if thou desirest to be so; "— Oli. Am I made? Mal. "If not, let me see thee a servant still." Oli. Why, this is very midsummer madness. Enter Servant. Serv. Madam, the young gentleman of the Count Oli. I'll come to him. 55 60 [Exit Servant. Good Maria, let this fellow be looked to. Where's [Exeunt Olivia and Maria. Mal. O, ho! do you come near me now? no worse 51. Thy] F, My Lettsom. Count] F, Duke Rowe. 58. is very, F, is a very Theobald, etc. 64. cousin] Cosine F, Uncle Rowe. 51, 52. Thy... thee] It has been proposed to change these to "My" and "me"; but we should better understand that Olivia in her amazement repeats the words of Malvolio, taking "thy" in the sense of "my"; and, of course, she does not know that Malvolio is quoting the letter. 56. Am I made] It has been conjectured that Olivia here puns upon the word "maid," for, according to Manningham (see Introduction, p. xi), she was a widow; if Manningham was correct, he might have seen some earlier text of the play; but it is more probable that he mistook the mourning garments that Olivia was wearing in memory of her brother, for those of a widow for her husband. 58. midsummer madness] A proverbial expression. "Tis midsummer moon with you' is a proverb in Ray's Collection; signifying, you are mad,' Steevens. It was supposed that intense heat (cf. our "dog days") 59. excited the imagination, and tended to produce melancholy and madness. Also cf. Novissimum oris illius pura insania (Promus, Fol. 88); and Ĉraig quotes Nash-"Ere he be come to the full Midsommer Moone and raging Calentura of his wretchedness" (Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596). 66. miscarry] come to harm; often in this sense in Shakespeare. 67. come near me] "Ah, you are beginning to understand me now." The words are addressed to Olivia, who had found his talk unintelligible; he thinks she has "come near him," for thus he interprets her directions "let this fellow be look'd to," etc., which included his being entrusted to Sir Toby. For the phrase come near, see also note on II. v. 27. Mr. Craig quotes Lyly, Galatea (1592), III. i. (Fairholt, i. 242), "Eurota. Indeed, Rania, if lovers were not virtuous, then wert thou vicious. Rania. What, are you come so near me? Tel. Think we This concurs 70 man than Sir Toby to look to me! 80 73, 74. tang with] Ff, etc., langer with F, tang Capell, etc., twang Hudson. 78. limed lymde F. 79. Jove's... Jove] F; God's. God Halliwell, Hudson. came near you when we said you loved"; also Cyril Tourneur, The Revenger's Tragedy, 1607, "Vindici (to his mother). All thrive but chastity, she lyes a cold; Nay, shall I come nearer to you?" senses, 75. consequently] Perhaps in two "thereafter" and "accordingly"; but the former is the sense often borne by the word in our earlier literature. 76. sad] See note on line 5. 77. habit] We may suppose that the cross-gartering and the yellow stockings were to Malvolio suitable items " 'in the habit of some sir of note," though the word may have the further sense of "bearing" or deportment" (cf. "I will speak to him like a saucy lackey, and under that habit play the knave with him," As You Like It, III. ii. 314). 77. sir] Cf. 'This ancient Sir," The Winter's Tale, Iv. iv. 372. 78. limed] caught as a bird with birdlime. The figure occurs in Apolonius and Silla, "like the foule whiche is once limed." It is used as late as Tennyson's Princess, "True, we had limed ourselves." 79. Jove's... Jove] The original reading, as is most likely, would be God's... God"; see note on II. v. 177. Some editors would read "Love's ... Love," but more probably it is a reference to "This is the Lord's doing," Psalm cxviii. 23. 80. fellow] "This word, which originally meant companion, was not yet totally degraded to its present meaning, and Malvolio takes it in the favourable sense," Johnson. 81, 82. after my degree] according to my position as steward. 82. adheres] coheres; cf. Merry Wives of Windsor, II. i. 62. 83. dram, etc.] "We must take the first and last scruple' in the moral sense, the second as the weight of the third part of a dram" (N. and Qu. 111. xii. 61, 1867). For a like play on the words, cf. 2 Hen. IV. 1. ii. 147. 84. incredulous] incredible-causing incredulity. We have already (note on 1. v. 281) noticed an Elizabethan uncertainty in the force of participial and adjectival inflexions; traces of this uncertainty are found even in Milton. unsafe] perhaps "untrustworthy." circumstance-What can be said? Nothing that 85 Re-enter MARIA, with SIR TOBY BELCH and Sir To. Which way is he, in the name of sanctity? If Fab. Here he is, here he is. How is 't with you, sir? how is 't with you, man? Mal. Go off; I discard you: let me enjoy my private; go off. Mar. Lo, how hollow the did not I tell you? 95 fiend speaks within him! you to have a care of him. Mal. Ah, ha! does she so? Sir To. Go to, go to: peace! peace! we must deal 100 gently with him; let me alone. How do you, Malvolio? how is 't with you? What, man! defy the devil: consider, he's an enemy to mankind. Mal. Do you know what you say? Mar. La you! an you speak ill of the devil, how 105 he takes it at heart. Pray God, he be not bewitched! 91. possessed] possest F, possess Collier 101. let me] Let me F, let him 90. of hell] F, in hell, Rowe, etc. MS. 94. private] F, privacy Rowe, etc. Rowe, etc. 105. an you] and you F, 89. sanctity] An emendation "sainty" has been proposed by Walker, but the context supports the present reading. " 66 90. drawn in little] compressed into a small space; probably not 'represented in miniature (as in Hamlet, II. ii. 384, "His picture in little)." 90. Legion] Mark v. 9; cf. also Hamlet, I. ii. 244. 93. how man] This part of the speech probably belongs to Sir Toby. 94. my private] privacy; probably not an affectation of Malvolio's; cf. "Whose private with me of the Dauphin's love," King John, IV. iii. Ff; if you, Pope. 16; also, "Nor must I be unmindful of my private,' Catiline, III. ii. ; or again, Bacon, Essay, xxxiii., "Besides some spots of ground that any Particular Person, will Manure, for his own Private." 96. how hollow him] Mr. Craig quotes Cotgrave, “Engastryimyte, That speaks out of the belly as one possessed"; also "Engastrimythes (The same) crooked backt are tearmed because commonly their voice is hollow." 105. La you] Cf. The Winter's Tale, 11. iii. 49. Cf. Lo, l. 96. |