[But 'tis that miracle, and queen of gems,
That nature pranks her in]
[W: pranks, her mind] The _miracle and queen of gems_ is her _beauty_,
which the commentator might have found without so emphatical an
enquiry. As to her mind, he that should be captious would say,
that though it may be formed by nature it must be _pranked_ by education.
Shakespeare does not say that _nature pranks her in a miracle_,
but _in the miracle of gems_, that is, _in a gem miraculously beautiful_.
II.v.43 (191,2) [the lady of the Strachy] [W: We should read _Trachy_.
i.e. _Thrace_; for so the old English writers called it] What we
should read is hard to say. Here it an allusion to some old
story which I have not yet discovered.
II.v.51 (191,3) [stone-bow] That is, a cross-bow, a bow which shoots
stones.
II.v.66 (192,4) [wind up my watch] In our author's time watches were
very uncommon. When Guy Faux was taken, it was urged as a
circumstance of suspicion that a watch was found upon him.
II.v.70 (192,5) [Tho' our silence be drawn from us with carts] I believe
the true reading is, _Though our silence be drawn from us
with_ carts, _yet peace_. In the _The Two Gentlemen of_ Verona, one of
the Clowns says, _I have a mistress, but who that is_, a team of
horses _shall not_ draw from me. So in this play, _Oxen and wainropes
will not bring them together_.
II.v.97 (193,7) [her great _P_'s] [Steevens: In the direction of the
letter which Malvolio reads, there is neither a C, nor a P, to be
found] There may, however, be words in the direction which he does
not read. To formal directions of two ages ago were often added
these words, Humbly _Present_. (1773)
II.v.144 (195,2) [And _O_ shall end, I hope] By _O_ is here meant what
we now call a _hempen collar_.
II.v.207 (197,6) [tray-trip] The word _tray-trip_ I do not understand.
II.v.215 (198,7) [aqua vitae] Is the old name of _strong waters_.
III.i.57 (200,9) [lord Pandarus] See our author's play of _Troilus
and Cressida_.
III.i.71 (200,1) [And, like the haggard, check at every feather] The
meaning may be, that he must catch every opportunity, as the wild
hawk strikes every bird. But perhaps it might be read more properly,
Not _like the haggard_.
He must chuse persons and times, and observe tempers, he must fly
at proper game, like the trained hawk, and not fly at large like
the _haggard_, to seize all that comes in his way. (1773)
III.i.75 (201,2) [But wise-men's folly fall'n] Sir Thomas Hammer
reads, _folly shewn_. [The sense is, _But wise men's folly, when it
is once fallen into extravagance, overpowers their discretion_.
Revisal.] I explain it thus. The folly which he shows with proper
adaptation to persons and times, _is fit_, has its propriety,
and therefore produces no censure; but the folly of wise men when
it _falls_ or _happens_, taints their wit, destroys the reputation of
their judgment. (see 1765, II,402,2)
III.i.86 (202,4) [she is the list of my voyage] Is the _bound, limit,
farthest point_.
III.i.100 (202,5) [most pregnant and vouchsafed ear] _Pregnant_ is a
word in this writer of very lax signification. It may here mean
_liberal_. (1773)
III.i.123 (203,6) [After the last enchantment (you did hear)]
[W: enchantment you did here] The present reading is no more nonsense
than the emendation.
III.i.132 (203,8) [a Cyprus] Is a transparent stuff.
III.i.135 (204,9) [a grice] Is a _step_, sometimes written _greese_ from
_degres_, French.
III.i.170 (205,1) [I have one heart, one bosom, and one truth, And
that no woman has] And that heart and boson I have never yielded
to any woman.
III.ii.45 (207,5) [Go, write it in a martial hand; be curst and brief]
_Martial hand_, seems to be a careless scrawl, such as shewed the
writer to neglect ceremony. _Curst_, is petulant, crabbed--a curst
cur, is a dog that with little provocation snarls and bites. (1773)
III.iv.61 (213,1) [midsummer madness] Hot weather often turns the
brain, which is, I suppose, alluded to here.
III.iv.82 (214,3) [I have lim'd her] I have entangled or caught her,
as a bird is caught with birdlime.
III.iv.85 (214,4) [Fellow:] This word which originally signified companion,
was not yet totally degraded to its present meaning; and
Malvolio takes it in the favourable sense.
III.iv.130 (215,6) [Hang him, foul collier] The devil is called _Collier_
for his blackness, _Like will to like, says the Devil to the
Collier_. (1773)
III.iv.154 (216,7) [a finder of madmen] This is, I think, an allusion
to the _witch-finders_, who were very busy.
III.iv.184 (217,8) [_God have mercy upon one of our souls! He may
have mercy upon mine, but my hope is better_] We may read, _He may
have mercy upon_ thine, _but my hope is better_. Yet the passage
may well enough stand without alteration.
It were much to be wished, that Shakespeare in this and some
other passages, had not ventured so near profaneness.
III.iv.228 (218,9) [wear this jewel for me] _Jewel_ does not properly
signify a single gem, but any precious ornament or superfluity.
III.iv.257 (219,2) [Be is knight, dubb'd with unhack'd rapier, and on
carpet consideration] That is, he is no soldier by profession, not
a Knight Banneret, dubbed in the field of battle, but, _on carpet
consideration_, at a festivity, or on sone peaceable occasion, when
knights receive their dignity kneeling not on the ground, as in
war, but on a _carpet_. This is, I believe, the original of the
contemptuous term a carpet knight, who was naturally held in scorn by
the men of war.
III.iv.301 (222,4) [I have not seen such a virago] _Virago_ cannot be
properly used here, unless we suppose Sir Toby to mean, I never
saw one that had so much the look of woman with the prowess of man.
III.iv.408 (225,7) [Methinks, his words do from such passion fly,
That he believes himself;--so do not I]
This I believe, means, I do not yet believe myself, when, from this
accident, I gather hope of my brother's life.
IV.i.14 (227,8) [I am afraid this great lubber the world will prove a
cockney] That is, affectation and foppery will overspread the world.
IV.i.57 (228,2) [In this uncivil and unjust extent] _Extent_ is, in law,
a writ of execution, whereby goods are seized for the king. It is
therefore taken here for _violence_ in general.
IV.i.60 (228,3) [This ruffian hath botch'd up] I fancy it is only a
coarse expression for _made up_, as a bad taylor is called a _botcher_.
and to botch is to make clumsily.
IV.i.63 (229,4) [He started one poor heart of mine in thee] I know
not whether here be not an ambiguity intended between _heart_ and
_hart_. The sense however is easy enough. _He that offends thee attacks
one of my hearts_; or, as the antients expressed it, _half my
heart_.
IV.i.64 (229,5) [What relish is this?] How does it taste? What judgment
am I to make of it?
IV.ii.53 (231,9) [constant question] A settled, a determinate, a regular
question.
IV.ii.68 (232,1) [Nay, I am for all waters] I rather think this expression
borrowed from sportsmen, and relating to the qualifications
of a complete spaniel.
IV.ii.99 (233,2) [They have here property'd me] They have taken possession
of me as of a man unable to look to himself.
IV.ii.107 (233,3) [Maintain no words with him] Here the Clown in the
dark acts two persons, and counterfeits, by variation of voice, a
dialogue between himself and Sir Topas.--_I Will, sir, I Will_. is
spoken after a pause, as if, in the mean time, Sir Topas had whispered.
IV.ii.121 (234,4) [tell me true, are you not mad, indeed, or do you
but counterfeit?] If he was not mad, what did be counterfeit by
declaring that he was not mad? The fool, who meant to insult him,
I think, asks, _are you mad, or do you but counterfeit_? That is,
_you look like a madman, you talk like a madman_: _Is your madness
real, or have you any secret design in it_? This, to a man in poor
Malvolio's state, was a severe taunt.
IV.ii.134 (234,5) [like to the old vice] _Vice_ was the fool of the old
moralities. Some traces of this character are still preserved in
puppet-shows, and by country mummers.
IV.ii.141 (235.6)_'Adieu, goodman devil_] This last line has neither
rhime nor meaning. I cannot but suspect that the fool translates
Malvolio's name, and says,
_Adieu, goodman mean-evil_. (1773)
IV.iii.12 (236,8) [all instance, all discourse] _Instance_ is _example_.
(see 1765, II,433,9)
IV.iii.15 (236,9) [To any other trust] To any other belief, or confidence,
to any other fixed opinion.
IV.iii.29 (236,1) [Whiles] Is _until_. This word is still so used in
the northern counties. It is, I think, used in this sense in the
preface to the Accidence.
IV.iii.33 (237,2) [And, having sworn truth, ever will be true]
_Truth_ is _fidelity_.
V.i.23 (238,3) [so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four
negatives make your two affirmatives, why, then the worse for my
friends, and the better for my foes] Though I do not discover much
ratiocination in the Clown's discourse, yet, methinks, I can find
some glimpse of a meaning in his observation, that _the conclusion
is as kisses_. For, says he, _if four negatives make two affirmatives,
the conclusion is as kisses_; that is, the conclusion follows
by the conjunction of two negatives, which, by _kissing_ and
embracing, coalesce into one, and make an affirmative. What the
_four_ negatives are I do not know. I read, _So that conclusions be
as kisses_.
V.i.42 (239,4) [bells of St. Bennet] When in this play he mentioned
the _bed of_ Ware, he recollected that the scene was in Illyria,
and added _in England_; but his sense of the same impropriety
could not restrain him from the bells of St. Bennet.
V.i.67 (240,5) [desperate of shame, and state] Unattentive to his
character or his condition, like a desperate man.
V.i.112 (241,5) [as fat and fulsome] [W: flat] _Fat_ means _dull_; so
we say a _fatheaded_ fellow; _fat_ likewise means _gross_, and is
sometimes used for _obscene_; and _fat_ is more congruent to _fulsome_
than _flat_.
V.i.168 (244,7) [case] _Case_ is a word used contemptuously for _skin_.
We yet talk of a _fox case_, meaning the stuffed skin of a fox.
V.i.204 (246,9) [A natural perspective] A _perspective_ seems to be
taken for shows exhibited through a glass with such lights as
make the pictures appear really protruberant. The Duke therefore
says, that nature has here exhibited such a show, where shadows
seem realities; where that which is _not_ appears like that which is.
V.i.306 (249,3) [but to read his right wits, is to read thus] Perhaps
so,--_but to read his_ wits right _is to read thus_. To represent his
present state of mind, is to read a madman's letter, as I now do,
like a madman. (1773)
V.i.326 (249,4) [One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please
you] [Revisal: an't so] This is well conjectured; but _on't_ may relate
to the double character of sister and wife. (1773)
V.i.347 (250,5) [to frown Upon sir Toby, and the lighter people] People
of less dignity or importance.
V.i.351 (250,6) [geck] A fool.
(253) General Observation. This play is in the graver part elegant
and easy, and in some of the lighter scenes exquisitely humorous.
Ague--cheek is drawn with great propriety, but his character is, in
a great measure, that of natural fatuity, and is therefore not the
proper prey of a satirist. The soliloquy of Malvolio is truly
comic; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride. The marriage
of Olivia, and the succeeding perplexity, though well enough
contrived to divert on the stage, wants credibility, and fails to
produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits
no just picture of life.