OLI. If I do not usurp myself, I am. V10. Most certain, if you are she, you do usurp yourself; for what is yours to bestow, is not yours to reserve. But this is from my commission: I will on with my speech in your praise, and then shew you the heart of my message. OLI. Come to what is important in't: I forgive you the praise. Vio. Alas, I took great pains to study it, and 'tis poetical. OLI. It is the more like to be feigned; I pray you, keep it in. I heard, you were saucy at my gates; and allowed your approach, rather to wonder at you than to hear you. If you be not mad, be gone; if you have reason, be briefs: 'tis not that time of moon with me, to make one in so skipping a dialogue. MAR. Will you hoist sail, sir? here lies your, way. V10. No, good swabber; I am to hull here' a 8 - If you be NOT mad, be gone; if you have reason, be brief:] The sense evidently requires that we should read: 66 If f you be mad, be gone," &c. For the words "be mad," in the first part of the sentence, are opposed to reason in the second. M. MASON. 9 skipping] Wild, frolick, mad. JOHNSON. So, in K. Henry IV. Part I.: "The skipping king, he ambled up and down," &c. Again, in The Merchant of Venice : take pain "To allay, with some cold drops of modesty, Thy skipping spirit." MALONE. STEEVENS. I am to HULL here-] To hull means to drive to and fro upon the water, without sails or rudder. So, in Philemon Holland's translation of the 9th Book of Pliny's Natural History, 1601, p. 239: " - fell to be drowsie and sleepie, and hulled to and fro with the waves, as if it had beene halfe dead." Again, in The Noble Soldier, 1634: "That all these mischiefs hull with flagging sail." STEEVENS. little longer. Some mollification for your giant 2, sweet lady. OLI. Tell me your mind. Vio. I am a messenger". OLI. Sure, you have some hideous matter to deliver, when the courtesy of it is so fearful. Speak your office. V10. It alone concerns your ear. I bring no overture of war, no taxation of homage; I hold the olive in my hand: my words are as full of peace as matter. OLI. Yet you began rudely. What are you? what would you? V10. The rudeness, that hath appear'd in me, have I learn'd from my entertainment. What I am, and what I would, are as secret as maidenhead: to your ears, divinity; to any other's, prophanation. 2 OLI. Give us the place alone: we will hear this -some mollification for your giant,] Ladies, in romance, are guarded by giants, who repel all improper or troublesome advances. Viola, seeing the waiting-maid so eager to oppose her message, intreats Olivia to pacify her giant. JOHNSON. Viola likewise alludes to the diminutive size of Maria, who is called on subsequent occasions, “little villain, youngest wren of nine," &c. STEEVENS. So, Falstaff to his page, in K. Henry IV. Part II. Act I. : "Sirrah, you giant,” &c. MALONE. 3 Oli. Tell me your mind. Vio. I am a messenger.] These words (which in the old copy are part of Viola's last speech) must be divided between the two speakers. Viola growing troublesome, Olivia would dismiss her, and therefore cuts her short with this command, "Tell me your mind." The other, taking advantage of the ambiguity of the word mind, which signifies either business or inclination, replies as if she had used it in the latter sense, "I am a messenger." WARBUrton. As a messenger, she was not to speak her own mind, but that of her employer. M. MASON. divinity. [Exit MARIA.] Now, sir, what is your text? V10. Most sweet lady, OLI. A comfortable doctrine, and much may be said of it. Where lies your text? Vio. In Orsino's bosom. OLI. In his bosom? In what chapter of his bosom? V10. To answer by the method, in the first of his heart. OLI. O, I have read it; it is heresy. Have you no more to say? V10. Good madam, let me see your face. OLI. Have you any commission from your lord to negociate with my face? you are now out of your text but we will draw the curtain, and shew you the picture. Look you, sir, such a one as I was this present: Is't not well done? [Unveiling. 4 Look you, sir, such a one as I was this present: Is't not well done?] This is nonsense. The change of was to wear, I think, clears all up, and gives the expression an air of gallantry. Viola presses to see Olivia's face: The other at length pulls off her veil, and says: "We will draw the curtain, and shew you the picture." I wear this complexion to-day, I may wear another tomorrow; jocularly intimating, that she painted. The other, vext at the jest, says, Excellently done, if God did all." Perhaps, it may be true, what you say in jest; otherwise 'tis an excellent face. "'Tis in grain," &c. replies Olivia. WARBURTON. 66 I am not satisfied with this emendation. We may read-"Such a one I was. This presence, is't not well done?" i. e. this mien, is it not happily represented? Similar phraseology occurs in Othello: "This fortification, shall we see it? STEEVENS. This passage is nonsense as it stands, and necessarily requires some amendment. That proposed by Warburton would make sense of it; but then the allusion to a picture would be dropped, which began in the preceding part of the speech, and is carried on through those that follow. If we read presents, instead of present, this allusion will be preserved, and the meaning will be clear. I have no doubt but the line should run thus : "Look you, sir, such as once I was, this presents." Vio. Excellently done, if God did all. OLI. 'Tis in grain, sir; 'twill endure wind and weather. Vio. 'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on : If you will lead these graces to the grave, Presents means represents. So, Hamlet calls the pictures he shews his mother: "The counterfeit presentment of two brothers." She had said before-" But we will draw the curtain, and shew you the picture; " and concludes with asking him, if it was well done. The same idea occurs in Troilus and Cressida, where Pandarus, taking off her veil, says: "Come draw this curtain, and let us see your picture." M. MASON. I suspect, the author intended that Olivia should again cover her face with her veil, before she speaks these words. MALONE. 5 'Tis beauty truly BLENT,] i. e. blended, mixed together. Blent is the ancient participle of the verb to blend. So, in A Looking Glass of London and England, 1617: 66 the beautiful encrease "Is wholly blent." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. i. c. 6: 66 for having blent My name with guile, and traiterous intent." STEEVENS. 6 If you will lead these graces to the grave, And leave the world no copy.] How much more elegantly is this thought expressed by Shakspeare, than by Beaumont and Fletcher in their Philaster: 66 I grieve such virtue should be laid in earth, "Without an heir." Shakspeare has copied himself in his 11th Sonnet : "She carv'd thee for her seal, and meant thereby "Thou should'st print more, nor let that сору die." Again, in the 3d Sonnet: Die single, and thine image dies with thee." STEEVENS. Again, in his 9th Sonnet: "Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die, "The world will hail thee like a makeless wife; "That thou no form of thee hast left behind." OLI. O, sir, I will not be so hard-hearted; I will give out divers schedules of my beauty: It shall be inventoried; and every particle, and utensil, labelled to my will: as, item, two lips indifferent red; item, two grey eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth. Were you sent hither to 'praise me?? Vio. I see you what you are: you are too proud; But, if you were the devil, you are fair. My lord and master loves you; O, such love Could be but recompens'd, though you were crown'd The nonpareil of beauty! OLI. How does he love me? VIO. With adorations, with fertile tears o, With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire'. Again, in the 13th Sonnet : "O that you were yourself! but, love, you are 66 And your sweet semblance to some other give." MALONE. 7 — to 'PRAISE me?] i. e. to appraise, or appretiate me. The foregoing words, schedules, and inventoried, shew, I think, that this is the meaning. So again, in Cymbeline: "I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration; though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his side, and I to peruse him by items." MAlone. Malone's conjecture is ingenious, and I should have thought it the true reading, if the foregoing words, schedule and inventoried, had been used by Viola: but as it is Olivia herself who makes use of them, I believe the old reading is right, though Steevens has adopted that of Malone. Viola has extolled her beauty so highly, that Olivia asks, whether she was sent there on purpose to praise her. M, MASON. 8 O, such love Could be but recompens'd, though you were crown'd The nonpareil of beauty!] Though your beauty were unparalleled, it would not be more than a just recompence for such love as my master's. MALONE. 9 WITH fertile tears,] With, which is not in the old copy, was added by Mr. Pope to supply the metre. MALONE. With groans that THUNDER love, with sighs of fire.] This |