MAR. Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of Puritan. SIR AND. O, if I thought that, I'd beat him like a dog. SIR TO. What, for being a puritan? thy exquisite reason, dear knight? SIR AND. I have no exquisite reason for't, but I have reason good enough. MAR. The devil a Puritan that he is, or any thing constantly, but a time pleaser; an affectioned ass that cons state without book, and utters it by great swarths the best persuaded of himself, so crammed, as he thinks, with excellencies, that it is his ground of faith, that all, that look on him, love him; and on that vice in him will my revenge find notable cause to work. SIR TO. What wilt thou do? MAR. I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love; wherein, by the colour of his beard, the shape of his leg, the manner of his gait, the expressure of his eye, forehead, and complexion, he shall find himself most feelingly personated: I can write very like my lady, your niece; on a forgotten matter we can hardly make distinction of our hands. SIR TO. Excellent! I smell a device. SIR AND. I have't in my nose too. SIR TO. He shall think, by the letters that thou So, in The Merchant of Venice, Shylock says: "I have possess'd your grace of what I purpose." Douce. 9an AFFECTION'D ass,] Affection'd means affected. In this sense, I believe, it is used in Hamlet: " no matter in it that could indite the author of affection," i. e. affectation. STEEVENS. great SWARTHS:] A swarth is as much grass or corn as a mower cuts down at one stroke of his scythe. Thus Pope, in his version of the 18th Iliad: "Here stretch'd in ranks the levell'd swarths are found." STEEVENS. wilt drop, that they come from my niece, and that she is in love with him. . MAR. My purpose is, indeed, a horse of that colour. SIR AND. And your horse now would make him an ass 2. MAR. ASS, I doubt not. SIR AND. O, 'twill be admirable. MAR. Sport royal, I warrant you: I know, my physick will work with him. I will plant you two, and let the fool make a third, where he shall find the letter; observe his construction of it. For this night, to bed, and dream on the event. SIR TO. Good night, Penthesilea 3. Farewell. [Exit. SIR AND. Before me, she's a good wench. SIR TO. She's a beagle, true-bred, and one that adores me; What o' that? SIR AND. I was adored once too. SIR TO. Let's to bed, knight.-Thou hadst need send for more money. SIR AND. If I cannot recover your niece, I am a foul way out. SIR TO. Send for money, knight; if thou hast her not i' the end, call me Cut 5. 2 Sir And. And your horse now, &c.] This conceit, though bad enough, shews too quick an apprehension for Sir Andrew. It should be given, I believe, to Sir Toby; as well as the next short speech: "O, 'twill be admirable." Sir Andrew does not usually give his own judgement on any thing, till he has heard that of some other person. TYRWHITT. 3- Penthesilea.] i. e. Amazon. STEEVENS. 4 Send for money, knight;] Sir Toby, in this instance, exhibits a trait of Iago : "Put money in thy purse." STEEVENS. 5-call me ČUT.] So, in A Woman's a Weathercock, 1612: "If I help you not to that as cheap as any man in England, call me Cut." Again, in The Two Angry Women of Abingdon, 1599: VOL. XI. SIR AND. If I do not, never trust me, take it how you will. SIR TO. Come, come; I'll go burn some sack, 'tis too late to go to bed now: come, knight; come, knight. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in the Duke's Palace. Enter Duke, VIOLA, CURIO, and others. DUKE. Give me some musick :-Now, good morrow, friends : Now, good Cesario, but that piece of song, 6 CUR. He is not here, so please your lordship, that should sing it. DUKE. Who was it? This term of contempt, perhaps, signifies, only-call me gelding. STEEVENS. call me Cut." i. e. call me horse. So, Falstaff in King That Henry IV. Part I.: “ spit in my face, call me horse." this was the meaning of this expression is ascertained by a passage in The Two Noble Kinsmen : "He'll buy me a white Cut forth for to ride." Again, in Sir John Oldcastle, 1600: "But master, 'pray ye, let me ride upon Cut." Curtal, which occurs in another of our author's plays, (i. e. a horse, whose tail has been docked,) and Cut, were probably synonymous. MALONE. 6 recollected - Studied. WARBURTON. I rather think, that recollected signifies, more nearly to its primitive sense, recalled, repeated, and alludes to the practice of composers, who often prolong the song by repetitions. JOHNSON. Thus in Strada's Imitation of Claudian : et se Multiplicat relegens-. STEEVENS. CUR. Feste, the jester, my lord; a fool, that the lady Olivia's father took much delight in: he is about the house. while. DUKE. Seek him out, and play the tune the [Exit CURIO.-Musick. Come hither, boy; If ever thou shalt love, In the sweet pangs of it, remember me: For, such as I am, all true lovers are; Unstaid and skittish in all motions else, Save, in the constant image of the creature That is belov'd.-How dost thou like this tune? Vio. It gives a very echo to the seat Where Love is thron'd". DUKE. Thou dost speak masterly: My life upon't, young though thou art, thine eye Hath stay'd upon some favour that it loves; Hath it not, boy? 7 Of your complexion. DUKE. She is not worth thee then. What years, i' faith. Vio. About your years, my lord. to the seat Where Love is thron'd.] i. e. to the heart. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "My bosom's lord [i. e. Love] sits lightly on his throne." Again, in Othello : 66 Yield up, O Love, thy crown, and hearted throne-." So before, in the first act of this play: 66 when liver, brain, and heart, "These sovereign thrones, are all supplied and fill'd 66 (Her sweet perfections) with one self-king." The meaning is, (as Mr. Heath has observed,) "It is so consonant to the emotions of the heart, that they echo it back again." 8 MALONE. favour.] The word favour ambiguously used. JOHNSON. Favour, in the preceding speech, signifies countenance. STEEVENS. DUKE. Too old, by heaven; Let still the woman take An elder than herself; so wears she to him, VIO. I think it well, my lord. DUKE. Then let thy love be younger than thyself, Or thy affection cannot hold the bent: For women are as roses; whose fair flower, Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour. Vio. And so they are: alas, that they are so ; To die, even when they to perfection grow! Re-enter CURIO, and Clown. DUKE. O fellow, come, the song we had last night: Mark it, Cesario; it is old, and plain : The spinsters and the knitters in the sun, And the free1 maids, that weave their thread with bones, 9 lost and wORN,] Though lost and worn may mean lost and worn out, yet lost and won being, I think, better, these two words coming usually and naturally together, and the alteration being very slight, I would so read in this place with Sir T. Hanmer. JOHNSON. The text is undoubtedly right, and worn signifies, consumed, worn out. So Lord Surrey, in one of his Sonnets, describing the spring, says: "Winter is worn, that was the flowers bale." Again, in King Henry VI. Part II. : "These few days' wonder will be quickly worn." Again, in The Winter's Tale: 66 - and but infirmity, "Which waits upon worn times MALONE. -free-] Is, perhaps, vacant, unengaged, easy in mind. JOHNSON. |