Fab. Carry his water to the wise-woman.

Mar. Marry, and it shall be done to-morrow morning, My lady would not lose him for more 110 than I'll say.

Sir To. Prithee, hold thy peace; this is not the way: do you not see you move him? let me alone with 115

Fab. No way but gentleness; gently, gently: the
fiend is rough, and will not be roughly used.
Sir To. Why, how now, my bawcock! how dost thou,
chuck?

Sir To. Ay, Biddy, come with me. What, man! 'tis not for gravity to play at cherry-pit with Satan: hang him, foul collier!

114. this is] F; that is F 4, Rowe, etc.

122. Ay, . . . me] F; as a quotation, Collier, iii.

Mar. Get him to say his prayers, good Sir Toby, get 125

him to pray.

Mal. My prayers, minx!

Mar. No, I warrant you, he will not hear of godliness. Mal. Go, hang yourselves all! you are idle shallow things: I am not of your element. You shall 130 know more hereafter.

Sir To. Is't possible?

Fab. If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.

[Exit.

Sir To. His very genius hath taken the infection of 135 the device, man.

Mar. Nay, pursue him now, lest the device take air,

and taint.

Fab. Why, we shall make him mad indeed.

Mar. The house will be the quieter.

140

Sir To. Come, we'll have him in a dark room, and bound. My niece is already in the belief that he's mad: we may carry it thus, for our pleasure and his penance, till our very pastime, tired out of breath, prompt us to have mercy on him; at which 145 time we will bring the device to the bar, and crown thee for a finder of madmen.

128. Mar.] F, Fab. Anon. ap. Camb. he is Johnson and many edd.

127. minx] Of uncertain etymology. Cotgrave gives "Gadrouillette : f. A minx, gigle, flirt, callet, Gixie (a fained word applyable to any such cattell)."

"

130. element] See note on III. i, 62. 135, 136. His ... device] "The plot has taken possession of his very soul,' Wright. In the word " 'genius" we have a reference to the old belief that human beings are attended through life by a good and a bad angel. See my note on The Tempest, IV. i. 27.

137, 138. take air, and taint] become known and spoilt; one of those quaint figures (and the notion of infection is used by Shakespeare most variously and most abundantly) that give evidence of something more than a literary interest on the part of the writer. We may compare the theory in Cymbeline, I. ii. 1-5.

But see, but see.

137. lest] least F. 143. he's] F,

137. air] in this passage seems used for foul air; cf. "infection" two lines above. Otherwise it refers to some "tainting," unknown to us, that follows exposure to air.

141. dark room] This was the recognised treatment of lunacy until almost recent times. Cf. As You Like It, III. ii. 421, "Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do."

143. carry it] manage it. Cf. Midsummer-Night's Dream, III. ii. 240.

146. to the bar] "of public opinion, for the verdict to be passed upon it," Deighton. Schmidt explains "bar" as "a place of public function (other than the law courts)." There is perhaps a quibble on crown and crowner (coroner).

147. a finder] a quibble on the finding or verdict of a jury, with a possible

Enter SIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK,

Fab. More matter for a May morning.

Sir And. Here's the challenge; read it; I warrant

there's vinegar and pepper in't.

Fab. Is't so saucy?

Sir And. Ay, is 't, I warrant him: do but read.

Youth, whatsoever thou art, thou art but a scurvy

fellow.

Fab. Good, and valiant.

Sir To. Wonder not, nor admire not in thy mind, why I do call thee so, for I will show thee no reason for't.

150

155

Fab. A good note, that keeps you from the blow of 160 the law.

165

Sir To. Thou comest to the Lady Olivia, and in my sight she uses thee kindly: but thou liest in thy throat; that is not the matter I challenge thee for. Fab. Very brief, and to exceeding good sense-less. 152. Ay, is't] most edd., I, ist? F. 157. admire not] F; admire F 3, 4, Rowe, i. comst F. 165. and to] F, Ff, etc.; and Rowe, etc.; and thereto Lettsom; and, too, Kinnear; good] F, good, Halliwell; sense-less.] sence-lesse F. See note below.

reference to the "finders of madmen" who acted under the writ "De Lunatico inquirendo."

148.] "I finde also, that in the Moneth of May, the Citizens of London (of all estates) lightly in every Parish, or sometimes two or three Parishes coming together, had their seuerall Mayings, and did fetch May-poles, with diuers warlike shewes, with good Archers, Morice-dauncers, and other deuices for pastime all the day long, and towards the Evening, they had Stage playes and Bonefiers in the streets;" Stowe, Survey of London.

151. saucy] In two senses.

152. warrant him] warrant my statement to (or, in regard to) him; "him" is dative of the person challenged.

157. admire] in Latin sense of "wonder," ," "be astonished." For the negatives, see Abbott, § 406.

160. note] remark; apparently the

153. Give] F, Give't Lettsom. 162. comest] Malone and others,

only example in Shakespeare of the word in this sense.

163, 164. thou... throat] supposed to bear a deeper significance than other modes of lying. Cf. "An honourable man, when he gives the lie is wont to say thou dost not speak the truth; another will give the lie by saying thou dost lie in thy throat, etc. etc." This passage, which sets forth the various gradations of lying, is quoted by Staunton (quoted by Furness) from an old Italian treatise, Vallo Libro Continente appertenentie ad Capitanii, etc., 1524; it occurs in the chapter headed "Della Divisione del Mentire." Cf. "as low as to thy heart, Through the false passage of thy throat," Richard II. i. i. 125, and 2 Henry IV. 1. ii. 94, “I had lied in my throat."

165. sense-less] the "less" being added as an aside.

Sir To. I will waylay thee going home; where, if it be thy chance to kill me,

Fab. Good.

Sir To. Thou killest me like a rogue and a villain.

Fab. Still you keep o' the windy side of the law: 170 good.

Sir To. Fare thee well; and God have mercy upon one of

our souls! He may have mercy upon mine, but my hope is better; and so look to thyself. Thy friend, as thou usest him, and thy sworn enemy, ANDREW AGUECHEEK.

If this letter move him not, his legs cannot. I'll
give 't him.

175

Mar. You may have very fit occasion for 't: he is now in some commerce with my lady, and will 180 by and by depart.

Sir To. Go, Sir Andrew; scout me for him at the corner of the orchard, like a bum-baily: so soon as ever thou seest him, draw; and, as thou drawest, swear horrible; for it comes to pass oft that a 185 172. one of] F; omitted F 3, 4, Rowe, i. 183. bum-baily] bum-Baylie F, bum-Baily Ff. 185. horrible] F; horribly Ff, Rowe, etc.

170. o' the windy... law] so that the law cannot find you out by getting scent of you, as a hound does the game. This, the usual interpretation, must depend on the meaning conveyed by the word "windy," which is doubtful; is the law like a hound on the "windward" of the scent? It is by no means easy to define the relative positions of hound and game. Otherwise the metaphor may carry on the notion contained in "blow" in the former speech of Fabian, and we may explain thus: 'you keep to the windward, and so take the wind out of the sails of the law." The figure occurs again in Much Ado about Nothing, 11. i. 327, "It keeps on the windy side of care,' i.e. on the safe side, the advantageous side; cf. "get the wind of." As to the form of words that keep the speaker on the windy side of the law, we may note that he merely compares his antagonist to a "rogue and a

"

villain," and does not assert the fact. Cf. "the blow of the law" in lines 160, 161. Some think that the reference is to the law of the duello. See line 321.

173. mine] "thine" is suggested by Johnson; but "mine" is the better reading; Sir Andrew thinks he will win the fight, and have no need of mercy. (Or perhaps thinks he may be killed.) 180. commerce] intercourse. Cf. Tennyson, In Memoriam, 85, 1. 93. 181. by and by sometimes in the sense of "at once.' (Here perhaps “presently.")

182. scout me] I will ask you to keep watch for him (see note on III. ii. 34).

183. bum-baily] An inferior officer employed to execute the sheriff's writs, and arrest debtors; one who clutches at the back of his victim. Cf. Fr. pousse-cul.

185. horrible] An "ambiguous descriptive." See line 210, note; also Abbott, §§ 1 and 2.

terrible oath, with a swaggering accent sharply
twanged off, gives manhood more approbation
than ever proof itself would have earned him.
Away!

Sir And. Nay, let me alone for swearing. [Exit. 190 Sir To. Now will not I deliver his letter: for the behaviour of the young gentleman gives him out to be of good capacity and breeding; his employment between his lord and my niece confirms no less: therefore this letter, being so excellently 195 ignorant, will breed no terror in the youth: he will find it comes from a clodpole. But, sir, I will deliver his challenge by word of mouth; set upon Aguecheek a notable report of valour; and drive the gentleman, as I know his youth will 200 aptly receive it, into a most hideous opinion of his rage, skill, fury, and impetuosity. This will so fright them both that they will kill one another by the look, like cockatrices.

Fab. Here he comes with your niece: give them way 205 till he take leave, and presently after him.

Sir To. I will meditate the while upon some horrid message for a challenge.

[Exeunt Sir Toby, Fabian, and Maria.

Re-enter OLIVIA, with VIOLA.

Oli. I have said too much unto a heart of stone,

191. his] F; this F 3, 4, Rowe, i.

187. twanged off] See note on II. v. 154.

187. gives approbation] gives a man more credit for courage. 187. approbation] convincing testimony; see next note.

188. proof] actual trial; test. The word explains "approbation" above.

197. clodpole] blockhead; with head like a clod. Here the F has "cloddepole"; in King Lear (1. iv. 51) and elsewhere, it is clotpoll.

199. report] Cf. II. ii. 39.

fied with the Basilisk, fabulously said to kill by its mere glance, and to be hatched from a cock's egg." M.E. cocatris, -ice, O. Fr. cocatris, Provençal calcatriz, It. calcatrice, Latin calcatricem; this latter being a mediæval rendering of the Greek xvevuur; and ́ both Latin and Greek have much the same original meaning "a tracker out," etc. Beyond this the word has a curious history, for which, however, we have no space.

206. presently]"immediately." See 204. cockatrices] "A serpent, identi- note on "by and by," line 181.