with which she uses to seal: 'tis my lady: To whom should this be? FAB. This wins him, liver and all. MAL. [reads] Jove knows, I love: Lips do not move, No man must know. No man must know.-What follows? the numbers altered!-No man must know :-If this should be thee, Malvolio? 8 SIR TO. Marry, hang thee, brock ! FAB. A fustian riddle! SIR TO. Excellent wench, say 1. MAL. M, O, A, I, doth sway my life 9.—Nay, but first, let me see,-let me see,-let me see. FAB. What a dish of poison has she dressed him! SIR TO. And with what wing the stannyel' checks at it! 8-brock!] i. e. badger. He uses the word as a term of contempt, as if he had said, hang thee, cur! Out filth to stink like a brock being proverbial. RITSON. "Marry, hang thee, brock!" i. e. Marry, hang thee, thou vain, conceited coxcomb, thou over-weening rogue! Brock, which properly signifies a badger, was used in this sense in Shakspeare's time. So, in The Merrie Conceited Jests of George Peele, 4to. 1657: "This self-conceited brock had George invited," &c. MALONE. 9-doth sway my life.] This phrase is seriously employed in As You Like It, Act III. Sc. II. : I "Thy huntress name, that my full life doth sway." STEEVENS. stannyel] The name of a kind of hawk is very judiciously put here for a stallion, by Sir Thomas Hanmer. JOHNSON. Here is one of at least a hundred instances of the transcriber of MAL. I may command where I adore. Why, she may command me; I serve her, she is my lady. Why, this is evident to any formal capacity. There is no obstruction in this;-And the end,-What should that alphabetical position portend? if I could make that resemble something in me,-Softly!— M, 0, A, I.— SIR TO. O, ay! make up that:-he is now at a cold scent. 3 FAB. Sowter will cry upon't, for all this, though. it be as rank as a fox 4. these plays being deceived by his ear. The eye never could have confounded stannyel and stallion. MALONE. To check, says Latham, in his book of Falconry, is, "when crows, rooks, pies, or other birds, coming in view of the hawk, she forsaketh her natural flight, to fly at them." The stannyel is the common stone-hawk, which inhabits old buildings and rocks; in the north called stanchil. I have this information from Mr. Lambe's notes on the ancient metrical history of the battle of Floddon. STEEVENS. 2 formal capacity.] i. e. any one in his senses, any one whose capacity is not dis-arranged, or out of form. So, in The Comedy of Errors: "Make of him a formal man again." Again, in Measure for Measure: "These informal women." STEEVens. 3 Sowter-] Sowter is here, I suppose, the name of a hound. Sowterly, however, is often employed as a term of abuse. So, in Like Will to Like, &c. 1587 : "You sowterly knaves, show you all your manners at once?" A sowter was a cobler. So, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1608; " If Apelles, that cunning painter, suffer the greasy sowter to take a view of his curious work," &c. STEEVENS. I believe the meaning is-" This fellow will, notwithstanding, catch at and be duped by our device, though the cheat is so gross that any one else would find it out." Our author, as usual, forgets to make his simile answer on both sides; for it is not to be wondered at that a hound should cry or give his tongue, if the scent be as rank as a fox. MALONE. 4-as rank as a fox.] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads,—" not as rank." The other editions, "though it be as rank," &c. JOHNSON. MAL. M,-Malvolio ;-M,-why, that begins my name. FAB. Did not I say, he would work it out? the cur is excellent at faults. MAL. M.-But then there is no consonancy in the sequel; that suffers under probation: A should follow, but O does. FAB. And O shall end, I hope 3. SIR TO. Ay, or I'll cudgel him, and make him cry, O. MAL. And then I comes behind; FAB. Ay, an you had any eye behind you, you might see more detraction at your heels, than fortunes before you. MAL. M, O, A, I;-This simulation is not as the former: and yet, to crush this a little, it would bow to me, for every one of these letters are in my name. Soft; here follows prose.-If this fall into thy hand, revolve. In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Thy fates open their hands; let thy blood and spirit embrace them. And, to inure thyself to what thou art like to be, cast thy humble 5 And O shall end, I hope.] By O is here meant what we now call a hempen collar. JOHNSON. I believe he means only, "it shall end in sighing," in disappointment. So, in Romeo and Juliet : - the "Why should you fall into so deep an O?" Again, in Decker's Honest Whore, second part, 1630: brick house of castigation, the school where they pronounce no letter well but O!" Again, in Hymen's Triumph, by Daniel, 1623: "Like to an O, the character of woe." STEEVENS. 6 are BORN great,] The old copy reads-" are become great.” The alteration by Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS. It is justified by a subsequent passage in which the clown recites from memory the words of this letter. MALone. 7 Some ACHIEVE greatness,] So in Fletcher's Night Walker: "Although I am no gentlewoman born, "I hope I may atchieve it by my carriage." BOSWELL. slough, and appear fresh. Be opposite with a kinsman, surly with servants: let thy tongue tang arguments of state; put thyself into the trick of singularity: She thus advises thee, that sighs for thee. Remember who commended thy yellow stockings; and wished to see thee ever cross-gartered1: I say, 8 Be OPPOSITE] That is, be adverse, hostile. An opposite, in the language of our author's age, meant an adversary. See a note on K. Richard III. Act V. Sc. IV. To be opposite with was the phraseology of the time. So, in Sir T. Overbury's Character of a Precisian, 1616: "He will be sure to be in opposition with the papist," &c. MALONE. 9-yellow stockings;] Before the civil wars, yellow-stockings were much worn. So, in D'Avenant's play, called The Wits, Act IV. p. 208. Works, fol. 1673: "You said, my girl, Mary Queasie by name, did find your uncle's yellow stockings in a porringer; nay, and you said she stole them." PERCY. So, Middleton and Rowley in their masque entitled The World Toss'd at Tennis, no date, where the five different-coloured starches are introduced as striving for superiority, Yellow starch says to white: "Wear her own linen yellow, yet she shows "Her love to't, and makes him wear yellow hose." Again, in Decker's Match Me in London, 1631 : 66 because you wear "A kind of yellow stocking." Again, in his Honest Whore, second part, 1630: "What stockings have you put on this morning, madam? if they be not yellow, change them." The yeomen attending the Earl of Arundel, Lord Windsor, and Mr. Fulke Greville, who assisted at an entertainment performed before Queen Elizabeth, on the Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun-week, 1581, were dressed in yellow worsted stockings, The book from which I gather this information was published by Henry Goldwell, gent. in the same year. STEEVENS. 1-cross-gartered:] So, in The Lover's Melancholy, 1629: "As rare an old youth as ever walk'd cross-gartered." Again, in A Woman's a Weathercock, 1612: "Yet let me say and swear, in a cross-garter, "Pauls never shew'd to eyes a lovelier quarter." Very rich garters were anciently worn below the knee. So, in Warner's Albion's England, b. ix. ch. 47: "Garters of listes; but now of silk, some edged deep with gold." It appears, however, that the ancient Puritans affected this fashion. Thus, Barton Holyday, speaking of the ill success of his TEXNOTAMIA, says: remember. Go to; thou art made, if thou desirest to be so; if not, let me see thee a steward still, the fellow of servants, and not worthy to touch fortune's fingers. Farewell. She that would alter services with thee, The fortunate-unhappy. Day-light and champian discovers not more1: this is open. I will be proud, I will read politick authors, I will baffle Sir Toby, I will wash off gross acquaintance, I will be point-de-vice, the very man2. I do not now fool myself, to let imagination jade me; for every reason excites to this, that my lady loves me. She did commend my yellow stockings of late, she did praise my leg being cross-gartered; "Had there appear'd some sharp cross-garter'd man "Then," &c. In a former scene Malvolio was said to be an affecter of puritanism. STEEVENS. • The fortunate-unhappy. Day-light and champian discovers not more:] We should read-"The fortunate, and happy."-" Day-light and champian discovers not more :" i. e. 'broad day and an open country cannot make things plainer. WARBURton. The folio, which is the only ancient copy of this play, reads, "The fortunate-unhappy," and so I have printed it."The fortunate-unhappy" is the subscription of the letter. STEEVENS. -I will be POINT-DE-VICE, the very man.] This phrase is of French extraction-a points-devisez. Chaucer uses it in the Romaunt of the Rose : "Her nose was wrought at point-device." i. e. with the utmost possible exactness. Again, in K. Edward I. 1599: "That we may have our garments point-device." Kastril, in The Alchemist, calls his sister Punk-device: and again, in The Tale of a Tub, Act III. Sc. VII. : "——— and if the dapper priest "Be but as cunning point in his devise, |