SCENE III. OLIVIA'S Garden. Enter SEBASTIAN. SEB. This is the air; that is the glorious sun ; Yet there he was; and there I found this credit, The reason why the Vice exhorts the Devil to pare his nails, is, because the Devil was supposed from choice to keep his nails always unpared, and therefore to pare them was an affront. So, in Camden's Remaines, 1615: "I will follow mine own minde and mine old trade; MALONE. This last line has neither rhyme nor meaning. I cannot but suspect that the fool translates Malvolio's name, and says: "Adieu, goodman mean-evil." JOHNSON. We have here another old catch; apparently, I think, not of Shakspeare. I am therefore willing to receive the common reading of the last line : The name of Malvolio seems to have been formed by an accidental transposition in the word, Malivolo. I know not whether a part of the preceding line should not be thrown into a question, pare thy nails, dad?" In Henry V. we again meet with "this roaring devil i' th' old play; every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger." FARMER. In the old translation of the Menæchmi, 1595, Menæchmus says to Peniculus: 66 Away, filthie mad drivell, away! I will talk no longer with thee.” As I cannot suppose the author of this ballad designed that devil should be the corresponding rhyme to devil, I read with Dr. Farmer, drivel. STEEVENS. I believe, with Johnson, that this is an allusion to Malvolio's name, but not in his reading, which destroys the metre. We should read 86 Adieu, good mean-evil.” that is, good Malvolio, literally translated. M. MASON. That he did range the town to seek me out 2. 2 Yet there he was; and there I found this CREDIT, That he did range, &c.] i. e. I found it justified, credibly vouched. Whether the word credit will easily carry this meaning, I am doubtful. The expression seems obscure; and though I have not disturbed the text, I very much suspect that the poet wrote 66 and there I found this credent." He uses the same term again in the very same sense in The Winter's Tale : "Then 'tis very credent, "Thou may'st cojoin with something, and thou dost," &c. THEOBALD. Credit, for account, information. The Oxford editor roundly alters it to current; as he does almost every word that Shakspeare uses in an anomalous signification. WARBURTON. Theobald proposes to read credent, but credent does not signify justified or vouched; it means probable only, as appears from the passage he himself has quoted. Warburton says, that credit means account or information; but as I know no instance of the word's being used in that acceptation, I believe we should read, credited instead of credit. M. MASON. Credent, is creditable, not questionable. So, in Measure for Measure, Angelo says: "For my authority bears a credent bulk." STEEVENS. Perhaps credit is here used for credited. So, in the first scene of this play, heat for heated; and in Hamlet, hoist for hoisted. MALONE. After all, I believe the word-credit, to have been rightly understood by Dr. Warburton, though he has given no example in support of his interpretation. Dr. Robertson, speaking of some memorandums included in the Letters to Mary Queen of Scots, observes, that they were not "the credit of the bearer;" i. e. points concerning which the Queen had given him verbal instructions, or information. Credit therefore might have been the prevalent term for oral intelligence. Again, in Mr. Whitaker's Vindication of the same Queen, vol. ii. p. 145: “ - these are expressly understood from the makers of the letters themselves, when they produced them at York to be the credit gifin to the berar.' This mode of referring to the credit of a bearer was no uncommon one in those times." In this sense also it occurs in the fragment of a Letter from VOL. XI. 21 For though my soul disputes well with my sense, She could not sway her house, command her followers, Take, and give back, affairs, and their despatch, With such a smooth, discreet, and stable bearing, As, I perceive, she does: there's something in't, That is deceivable. But here the lady comes. Enter OLIVIA and a Priest. OLI. Blame not this haste of mine: If you mean well, Now go with me, and with this holy man, Into the chantry by: there, before him, the Earl of Shrewsbury to Queen Elizabeth. See Lodge's Illustrations, &c. vol. ii. p. 129: "—and because Mr. Beale hys credyt ys wth yor Mate to make accompt of hyr ansure, and delyngs the Freche have had here, I leave all to hys reporte." See also letter xxxiii in the Paston Collection, vol. ii. p. 41, in which credence appears to have the same meaning. Again, ibid. p. 331. STEEVENS. 3 all INSTANCE, all DISCOURSE,] Discourse, for reason. WARBURTON. Instance is example. JOHNSON. 4 - To any other TRUST,] To any other belief, or confidence, to any other fixed opinion. JOHNSON. deceivable.] Our author licentiously uses this word for deceptious. MAlone. "That is deceivable. But here comes the lady.] The old copy reads: 66 ·But here the lady comes." STEEVENS. 7 Into the CHANTRY by:] Chantries (says Cowel, in his Law Dictionary,) are usually little chapels, or particular altars, in some cathedral or parochial church; and endowed with revenues for the And underneath that consecrated roof, 8 Whiles you are willing it shall come to note; According to my birth.-What do you say? SEB. I'll follow this good man, and go with you; And, having sworn truth, ever will be true. OLI. Then lead the way, good father;--And heavens so shine', That they may fairly note this act of mine! [Exeunt. The Street before OLIVIA'S House. Enter Clown and FABIAN. FAB. Now, as thou lovest me, let me see his letter. maintenance of one or more priests, whose office it is to sing masses for the souls of their founders, &c. STEEVENS. 8 Whiles] Is until. The word is still so used in the northern countries. It is, I think, used in this sense in the preface to the Accidence. JOHNSON. Almost throughout the old copies of Shakspeare, whiles is given us instead of while. Mr. Rowe, the first reformer of his spelling, made the change. STEEVENS. While is used in this sense in Tarleton's Newes out of Purgatorie. See the novel at the end of The Merry Wives of Windsor, p. 206: 'I was faine to tarrie while he was in bed and asleepe.' MALONE. 9-truth,] Truth is fidelity. JOHNSON. I heavens so shine, &c.] Alluding perhaps to a superstitious supposition, the memory of which is still preserved in a proverbial saying: "Happy is the bride upon whom the sun shines, and blessed the corpse upon which the rain falls." STEEVENS. CLO. Good master Fabian, grant me another request. FAB. Any thing. CLO. Do not desire to see this letter. FAB. That is, to give a dog, and, in recompense, desire my dog again. Enter DUKE, VIOLA, and Attendants. DUKE. Belong you to the lady Olivia, friends ? CLO. Ay, sir; we are some of her trappings. DUKE. I know thee well; How dost thou, my good fellow? CLO. Truly, sir, the better for my foes, and the worse for my friends. DUKE. Just the contrary; the better for thy friends. CLO. No, sir, the worse. DUKE. How can that be? CLO. Marry, sir, they praise me, and make an ass of me; now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass: so that by my foes, sir, I profit in the knowledge of myself; and by my friends I am abused: so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives 2, why, then the worse for my friends, and the better for my foes. DUKE. Why, this is excellent. CLO. By my troth, sir, no; though it please you to be one of my friends. DUKE. Thou shalt not be the worse for me; there's gold. 2 - CONCLUSIONS to be as KISSES, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives,] One cannot but wonder, that this passage should have perplexed the commentators. In Marlowe's Lust's Dominion, the Queen says to the Moor: "Come, let's kisse.' "Moor. Away, away." "Queen. No, no, sayes, I; and twice away, sayes stay." Sir Philip Sidney has enlarged upon this thought in the sixtythird stanza of his Astrophel and Stella. FARMER. |