Oli. Alas, it is the baseness of thy fear,
That makes thee strangle thy propriety9:
Fear not, Cesario, take thy fortunes up;

Be that thou know'st thou art, and then thou art
As great as that thou fear'st.-O, welcome, father!

Re-enter Attendant and Priest.

Father, I charge thee, by thy reverence,
Here to unfold (though lately we intended
To keep in darkness, what occasion now
Reveals before 'tis ripe,) what thou dost know,
Hath newly past between this youth and me.
Priest. A contract of eternal bond of love,
Confirm'd by mutual joinder of your hands,
Attested by the holy close of lips,

Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings ';
And all the ceremony of this compáct

Seal'd in my function, by my testimony:

Since when, my watch hath told me, toward my grave, I have travelled but two hours.

Duke. O, thou dissembling cub! what wilt thou be, When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy case??

Or will not else thy craft so quickly grow,
That thine own trip shall be thine overthrow?
Farewell, and take her; but direct thy feet,
Where thou and I henceforth may never meet.
Vio. My lord, I do protest,-

Oli.
O, do not swear ;
Hold little faith, though thou hast too much fear.

Enter Sir ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK, with his head broke. Sir And. For the love of God, a surgeon; send one presently to sir Toby.

9

perty.

1

strangle thy propriety:] Suppress, or disown thy pro

interchangement of your rings;] In our ancient marriage

ceremony, the man received as well as gave a ring.

case?] Case is a word used contemptuously for skin.

Oli. What's the matter?

Sir And. He has broke my head across, and has given sir Toby a bloody coxcomb too: for the love of God, your help: I had rather than forty pound, I were at home.

Oli. Who has done this, sir Andrew?

Sir And. The count's gentleman, one Cesario: we took him for a coward, but he's the very devil incardinate.

Duke. My gentleman, Cesario?

Sir And. Od's lifelings, here he is:-You broke my head for nothing; and that that I did, I was set on to do't by sir Toby.

Vio. Why do you speak to me? I never hurt you: You drew your sword upon me, without cause; But I bespake you fair, and hurt you not.

Sir And. If a bloody coxcomb be a hurt, you have hurt me; I think, you set nothing by a bloody coxcomb.

Enter Sir TOBY BELCH, drunk, led by the Clown.

Here comes sir Toby halting, you shall hear more: but if he had not been in drink, he would have tickled you athergates than he did.

Duke. How now, gentleman? how is't with you?

Sir To. That's all one; he has hurt me, and there's the end on't. Sot, did'st see Dick surgeon, sot?

Clo. O he's drunk, sir Toby, an hour agone; his eyes were set at eight i'the morning.

Sir To. Then he's a rogue. After a passy-measure, or a pavin3, I hate a drunken rogue.

Oli. Away with him: Who hath made this havock with them?

3 Then he's a rogue.

After a passy-measure, or a pavin, I hate a drunken rogue.] i. e. next to a passy-measure or a pavin, &c. It is in character, that sir Toby should express a strong dislike of serious dances, such as the passamezzo and the pavan are described to be. TYRWHITT. Mr. Malone reads, "and a passy measures pavin."

VOL. II.

G

Sir And. I'll help you, sir Toby, because we'll be dressed together.

Sir To. Will you help† an ass-head, and a coxcomb, and a knave? a thin-faced knave, a gull?

Oli. Get him to bed, and let his hurt be look'd to. [Exeunt Clown, Sir TOBY, and Sir ANDREW.

Enter SEBASTIAN.

Seb. I am sorry, madam, I have hurt your kinsman ; But, had it been the brother of my blood,

I must have done no less, with wit, and safety.
You throw a strange regard upon me, and
By that I do perceive it hath offended you;
Pardon me, sweet one, even for the vows
We made each other but so late ago.

Duke. One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons;
A natural perspective', that is, and is not.
Seb. Antonio, O my dear Antonio!

How have the hours rack'd and tortur'd me,
Since I have lost thee!

Ant Sebastian are you?

Seb.

Fear'st thou that, Antonio?

Ant. How have you made division of yourself?—

An apple, cleft in two, is not more twin

Than these two creatures.

Oli. Most wonderful!

Which is Sebastian?

Seb. Do I stand there? I never had a brother:

Nor can there be that deity in my nature,

Of here and every where. I had a sister,

Whom the blind waves and surges have devour'd:-
Of charity, what kin are you to me?
[TO VIOLA.
What countryman? what name? what parentage?

Vio. Of Messaline: Sebastian was my father;
Such a Sebastian was my brother too,

+

"Will you help? An ass-head, &c." MALONE. A natural perspective,] A glass used for optical deception. 1 Of charity,] i. e. out of charity, tell me, &c.

So went he suited to his watery tomb:
If spirits can assume both form and suit
You come to fright us.

Seb.
A spirit I am, indeed:
But am in that dimension grossly clad,
Which from the womb I did participate.
Were you a woman, as the rest goes even,
I should my tears let fall upon your cheek,
And say-Thrice welcome, drowned Viola!

Vio. My father had a mole upon his brow.
Seb. And so had mine.

Vio. And died that day when Viola from her birth Had number'd thirteen years.

Seb. O, that record is lively in my soul!

He finished, indeed, his mortal act,

That day that made my sister thirteen years.
Vio. If nothing lets to make us happy both,
But this my masculine usurp'd attire,
Do not embrace me, till each circumstance
Of place, time, fortune, do cohere, and jump,
That I am Viola: which to confirm,

I'll bring you to a captain in this town,

Where lie my maiden weeds; by whose gentle help
I was preserv'd, to serve this noble count;

All the occurrence of my fortune since
Hath been between this lady and this lord.
Seb. So comes it, lady, you have been mistook:

[TO OLIVIA.

But nature to her bias drew in that.
You would have been contracted to a maid;

Nor are you therein, by my life, deceiv'd,
You are betroth'd both to a maid and man.

Duke. Be not amaz'd; right noble is his blood.—
If this be so, as yet the glass seems true,

I shall have share in this most happy wreck:

Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times, [To VIOLA. Thou never should'st love woman like to me.

Vio. And all those sayings will I over-swear;
And all those swearings keep as true in soul,
As doth that orbed continent the fire

That severs day from night.

Duke.

Give me thy hand;

And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds.

Vio. The captain, that did bring me first on shore, Hath my maid's garments: he, upon some action,

Is now in durance; at Malvolio's suit,

A gentleman, and follower of my lady's.

Oli. He shall enlarge him :-Fetch Malvolio hither:

And yet, alas, now I remember me,

They say, poor gentleman, he's much distract.

Re-enter Clown, with a letter.

6

A most extracting frenzy of mine own

From my remembrance clearly banished his.-
How does he, sirrah?

Clo. Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the stave's end, as well as a man in his case may do: he has here writ a letter to you, I should have given it you to-day morning; but as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much, when they are delivered.

Oli. Open it, and read it.

Clo. Look then to be well edified, when the fool delivers the madman:-By the Lord, madam,—

Oli. How now! art thou mad?

Clo. No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you must allow vox'.

Oli. Pr'ythee, read i'thy right wits.

Clo. So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits, is to read thus: therefore perpend, my princess, and give

ear.

A most extracting frenzy —] i. e. a frenzy that drew me away from every thing but its own object.

7 you must allow vox.] i. e. my tone or voice.