Oli. Read it you, sirrah. [TO FABIAN. Fab. [reads.] By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know it: though you have put me into darkness, and given your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced me to the semblance I put on; with the which I doubt not but to do myself much right, or you much shame. Think of me as you please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of my injury. The madly-used MALVOLIO. Oli. Did he write this? Clo. Ay, madam. Duke. This savours not much of distraction. Oli. See him deliver'd, Fabian; bring him hither. [Exit FABIAN. My lord, so please you, these things further thought on, One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please you, Duke. Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer.Your master quits you; [To VIOLA.] and, for your service done him, So much against the mettle of your sex, So far beneath your soft and tender breeding, Here is my hand; you shall from this time be Mal. Lady, you have. Pray you, peruse that letter: Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing, First told me, thou wast mad; then cam'st in smiling, Upon thee in the letter. Pr'ythee, be content: Of thine own cause. Fab. Good madam, hear me speak; And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come, Taint the condition of this present hour, Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not, 8 9 geck,] A fool. at sir Toby's great importance ;] Importunacy. In recompense whereof, he hath married her. That have on both sides past. Oli. Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee! Clo. Why, some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrown upon them. I was one, ŝir, in this interlude; one sir Topas, sir; but that's all one:-By the Lord, fool, I am not mad;-But do you remember? Madam, why laugh you at such a barren rascal? an you smile not, he's gagg'd: And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges. Mal. I'll be reveng'd on the whole pack of you. [Exit. Of our dear souls-Mean time, sweet sister, SONG. Clo. When that I was and a little tiny boy, A foolish thing was but a toy, For the rain it raineth every day. But when I came to man's estate, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, 1 [Exeunt. convents,] i. e. shall serve, agree, be convenient. But when I came, alas! to wive, But when I came unto my bed, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, A great while ago the world begun, And we'll strive to please you every day. [Exit. 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. JOHNSON. |