Away before me to sweet beds of flowers; [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Sea-coast. Enter VIOLA, Captain, and Sailors. VIO. What country, friends, is this? Illyria, lady. VIO. And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium." G Perchance, he is not drown'd:- What think you, sailors? In my opinion, the reading of the second folio ought to be adopted, as it improves both the language and the metre. 2 Malone has proved, that in Richard II. the word self is used to signify-same; but there it is a licentious expression. Once more he accuses the editor of the second folio as ignorant of Shakspeare's language and metre. It is surely rather hardy in a commentator, at the close of the 18th century, to pronounce that an editor in 1632, but 16 years after the death of Shakspeare, was totally ignorant of his language and metre; and it happens unfortunately, that in both the passages on which Mr. Malone has preferred this accusation, the second folio is clearly a correction of the first, which is the case with some other passages in this very play. M. MASON. * Enter Viola,] Viola is the name of a lady in the fifth book of Gower de Confessione Amantis. STEEVENS. Illyria, lady.] The old copy reads " This is Illyria, lady." But I have omitted the two first words, which violate the metre, without improvement of the sense. STEEVENS. My brother he is in Elysium.] There is seemingly a play upon the words-Illyria and Elysium. DOUCE. CAP. It is perchance, that you yourself were saved. VIO. O my poor brother! and so, perchance, may he be. CAP. True, madam: and, to comfort you with chance, Assure yourself, after our ship did split, VIO. For saying so, there's gold: Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope, The like of him. Know'st thou this country? CAP. Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born, Not three hours travel from this very place. VIO. Who governs here? 8 V10. CAP. - and that poor number saved with you,] We should rather read this poor number. The old copy has those. The sailors who were saved, enter with the captain. MALONE. • A noble duke, in nature, As in his name.] I know not whether the nobility of the name is comprised in duke, or in Orsino, which is, I think, the name of a great Italian family. JOHNSON. VIO. Orsino! I have heard my father name him: He was a bachelor then. CAP. And so is now, Or was so very late: for but a month The less will prattle of,) that he did seek The love of fair Olivia. VIO. What's she? CAP. A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count That died some twelvemonth since; then leaving her In the protection of his son, her brother, Who shortly also died: for whose dear love, They say, she hath abjur'd the company And sight of men. VIO. O, that I served that lady: And might not be delivered to the world, And sight of men. O, that I served that lady:] The old copy reads: They say she hath abjur'd the sight And company of men. O, that I served that lady; 'By the change I have made in the ordo verborum, the metre of three lines is regulated, and an anticlimax prevented. STEEVENS. * And might not be delivered to the world,] I wish I might not be made public to the world, with regard to the state of my birth and fortune, till I have gained a ripe opportunity for my design. Viola seems to have formed a very deep design with very little premeditation: she is thrown by shipwreck on an unknown coast, hears that the prince is a bachelor, and resolves to supplant the lady whom he courts. JOHNSON. CAP. That were hard to compass; Because she will admit no kind of suit, No, not the duke's. VIo. There is a fair behaviour in thee, captain; And though that nature with a beauteous wall Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee I will believe, thou hast a mind that suits With this thy fair and outward character. I pray thee, and I'll pay thee bounteously, Conceal me what I am; and be my aid For such disguise as, haply, shall become The form of my intent. I'll serve this duke; 3 Thou shalt present me as an eunuch to him, It may be worth thy pains; for I can sing, 3 I'll serve this duke ;) Viola is an excellent schemer, never at a loss; if she cannot serve the lady, she will serve the duke. JOHNSON. * Thou shalt present me as an eunuch to him,] This plan of Viola's was not pursued, as it would have been inconsistent with the plot of the play. She was presented to the duke as a page, but not as a eunuch. M. MASON. The use of Evirati, in the same manner as at present, seems to have been well known at the time this play was written, about 1600. BURNEY. When the practice of castration (which originated certainly in the east) was first adopted, solely for the purpose of improving the voice, I have not been able to learn. The first regular opera, as Dr. Burney observes to me, was performed at Florence in 1600: "till about 1635, musical dramas were only performed ocsasionally in the palaces of princes, and consequently before that time eunuchs could not abound. The first eunuch that was suffered to sing in the Pope's chapel, was in the year 1600." So early, however, as 1004, eunuchs are mentioned by one of our poet's contemporaries, as excelling in singing: "Yes, I can sing, fool, if you'll bear the burthen; and I can play upon instruments scurvily, as gentlemen do. O that I had been gelded! I should then have been a fat fool for a chamber, a squeaking fool for a tavern, and a private fool for all the ladies." The Malcontent, by J. Marston, 1604. MALONE. 5 And speak to him in many sorts of musick, CAP. Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be : When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see! VIO. I thank thee: Lead me on. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A Room in Olivia's House. Enter Sir TOBY BELCH, and MARIA. SIR TO. What a plague means my niece, to take the death of her brother thus? I am sure, care's an enemy to life. MAR. By my troth, sir Toby, you must come in earlier o'nights; your cousin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours. SIR TO. Why, let her except before excepted.* MAR. Ay, but you must confine yourself within the modest limits of order. SIR TO. Confine? I'll confine myself no finer than I am: these clothes are good enough to drink in, and so be these boots too; an they be not, let them hang themselves in their own straps. • That will allow me - To allow is to approve. So, in King Lear, Act II. sc. iv: 6 66 if your sweet sway "Allow obedience" STEEVENS. let her except before excepted. A ludicrous use of the formal law phrase. FARMER. |