have reason, be brief: '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

Vio. No, good swabber: I am to hull 13 here a little longer. Some mollification for your giant 14, sweet lady.

Oli. Tell me your mind.15

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.

Vio. It alone concerns your ear.

I bring no overture of war, no taxation of homage; I hold the olive in hand: my words are as full of peace as matter. Oli. Yet you began rudely. What are you? what would you?

my

Vio. 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, profanation.

Oli. Give us the place alone; we will hear this divinity. [Exit MARIA.] Now, sir, what is your text? Vio. Most sweet lady,

Oli. A comfortable doctrine, and much may be said of it. Where lies your text?

13 To hull means to drive to and fro upon the water without sails or rudder.

14 Ladies in romance are guarded by giants. Viola seeing the waiting-maid so eager to oppose her message entreats Olivia to pacify her giant. There is also a pleasant allusion to the diminutive size of Maria, who is subsequently called little villain, youngest wren of nine, &c. It should be recollected that the female parts were played by boys.

15 In the folio the words, "Tell me your mind" form part of Viola's speech, which ends with, "I am a messenger." Thus making her ask for an answer to a message yet undelivered. "I am a messenger," implies, I have to tell not my mind but that of another, and Olivia accordingly corrects herself: "Speak your office."

Vio. In Orsino's bosom.

Oli. In his bosom? In what chapter of his bosom ? Vio. 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 ?

Vio. Good madam, let me see your face.

Qi. Have you any commission from your lord to negotiate 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 I was this present 16 :—Is’t [Unveiling.

hot well done?

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 :
Lady, you are the cruel'st she alive,

If you will lead these graces to the grave,
And leave the world no copy 17.

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 labell'd to my will: : as, item, two lips indifferent red; item, two gray eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth. Were you sent hither to praise 18 me?

Vio. I see you what you are: you are too proud;

16 This is the reading of the old copy, which will convey a meaning; but I must confess I should prefer reading: "such a one I was as this presents," notwithstanding Mr. Hunter's argument and the explanation of Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight.

17 Shakespeare has a similar thought repeated in his third, , eleventh, and thirteenth sonnets.

praise me, i. e. to appraise or value. That Malone was is conjecture, and that both Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight will be evident from the following passage in Baret's ). 601. "To praise or value. Adæro. Ulp. Indicare, And Estimator a praiser or valuer, Priseur, estimaSee also Minsheu in "To praise or value."

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,

With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire.
Oli. Your lord does know my mind, I cannot love

him :

Yet I suppose him virtuous, know him noble,
Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth;
In voices well divulg'd 19, free, learn'd, and valiant,
And, in dimension, and the shape of nature,
A gracious person: but yet I cannot love him.
He might have took his answer long ago.
Vio. If I did love you in my master's flame,
With such a suffering, such a deadly life,
In your denial I would find no sense,

I would not understand it.

Oli.

Why, what would you?

Vio. Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
And call upon my soul within the house;
Write loyal cantons 20 of contemned love,
And sing them loud even in the dead of night;
Holla your name to the reverberate hills,
And make the babbling gossip of the air 21
Cry out, Olivia! O, you should not rest
Between the elements of air and earth,
you should pity me.

But

Oli. You might do much. What is your parentage? Vio. Above my fortunes, yet my state is well:

I am a gentleman.

Oli.

Get you to your lord;

I cannot love him: let him send no more;

19 In voices well divulg'd, i. e. well spoken of by the world.
20 Cantons, i. e. cantos, verses.

21 A most beautiful expression for an echo.

you

Unless, perchance, you come to me again,
To tell me how he takes it. Fare well:
I thank you for your pains: spend this for me.
Vio. I am no fee'd post, lady; keep your purse;
My master, not myself, lacks recompense.
Love make his heart of flint, that you
shall love;

And let your fervour, like my master's, be
Plac'd in contempt! Farewell, fair cruelty. [Exit.
Oli. What is your parentage?

Above my fortunes, yet my state is well:

I am a gentleman.—I'll be sworn thou art,

Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit, Do give thee five-fold blazon ;-Not too fast :-soft!

soft!

Unless the master were the man.-How now!
Even so quickly may one catch the plague!
Methinks, I feel this youth's perfections,
With an invisible and subtle stealth,

To creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be.—
What, ho! Malvolio !—

Mal.

Re-enter MALVOLIO.

Here, madam, at your service.
Oli. Run after that same peevish 22 messenger,
The county's man: he left this ring behind him,
Would I, or not; tell him, I'll none of it.
Desire him not to flatter with his lord,

Nor hold him up with hopes! I am not for him:
If that the youth will come this way to-morrow,
I'll give him reasons for't. Hie thee, Malvolio.

Mal. Madam, I will.

Oli. I do I know not what; and fear to find Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind 23.

22 Peevish, i. e. silly, foolish.

[Exit.

23 Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind, i. e. she fears that her eyes had formed so flattering an idea of the supposed youth

Fate, show thy force: ourselves we do not owe? ; What is decreed, must be; and be this so!

[Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I. The Sea Coast.

Enter ANTONIO and SEBASTIAN.

Antonio.

ILL you stay no longer? nor will you not that I go with you?

Seb. By your patience, no: my stars shine darkly over me; the malignancy of my fate might, perhaps, distemper yours; therefore I shall crave of you your leave, that I may bear my evils alone: It recompense for your love, to lay any of them

were a bad

on you.

Ant. Let me yet know of you, whither you are

bound.

Seb. No, 'sooth, sir; my determinate voyage is mere extravagancy. But I perceive in you so excellent a touch of modesty, that you will not extort from me what I am willing to keep in; therefore it charges me in manners the rather to express1 myself. You must know of me, then, Antonio, my name is Sebastian, which I call'd Rodorigo: my father was that Sebastian of Messaline2, whom, I know, you have heard Cesario, that she should not have strength of mind sufficient to resist the impression.

24 Ourselves we do not owe, i. e. we are not our own masters, we cannot govern ourselves, owe for own, possess.

To express myself, i. e. reveal myself.

2 The recurrence of Messaline in metre, in the last scene (p. 470), shows that this is not a misprint, and we may take our choice between Mitylene and Messina, as equally unlikely to be intended.