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Enter VALENTINE.

Val. So please my lord, I might not be admitted,
But from her handmaid do return this answer:
The element itself, till seven years heat,8
Shall not behold her face at ample view:
But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk,

story of Acteon, by which Shakspeare seems to think men cautioned against too great familiarity with forbidden beauty. Acteon, who saw Diana naked, and was torn to pieces by his hounds, represents a man, who indulging his eyes, or his imagination, with the view of a woman that he cannot gain, has his heart torn with incessant longing. An interpretation far more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who, in his Wisdom of the Ancients, supposes this story to warn us against inquiring into the secrets of princes, by shewing, that those who know that which for reasons of state is to be concealed, will be detected and destroyed by their own servants. Johnson. This thought, (as I learn from an anonymous writer in the Gentleman's Magazine) is borrowed from the 5th sonnet of Daniel:

"Whilst youth and error led my wand'ring mind,

"And sette my thoughts in heedles waies to range,

"All unawares, a goddesse chaste I finde,

"(Diana like) to worke my suddaine change,
"For her no sooner had mine eye bewraid,

"But with disdaine to see mee in that place,
"With fairest hand the sweet unkindest maid
"Casts water-cold disdaine upon my face:
"Which turn'd my sport into a hart's despaire,
"Which still is chac'd, while I have any breath,
By mine own thoughts, sette on me by my faire;
My thoughts, like hounds, pursue me to my
"Those that I foster'd of mine own accord,

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death.

"Are made by her to murder thus theyr lord." See Daniel's Delia Rosamond, augmented, 1594. Steevens.

8 The element itself, till seven years heat,] Heat for heated. The air, till it shall have been warmed by seven revolutions of the sun, shall not, &c. So, in King John:

"The iron of itself, though heat red hot —.”

Again, in Macbeth:

66 And this report

"Hath so exasperate the king-" Malone.
Again, in Chapman's version of the nineteenth Odyssey:
When the sun was set,

“And darkness rose, they slept till days fire het
"Th' enlighten'd earth." Steevens.

And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine: all this, to season
A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh,
And lasting, in her sad remembrance.

Duke. O, she, that hath a heart of that fine frame, To pay this debt of love but to a brother,

How will she love, when the rich golden shaft,
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else

2

That live in her! when liver, brain, and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill'd (Her sweet perfections)3 with one self king!4.

9

dia: "

-

the flock of all affections

-] So, in Sidney's Arca-
Steevens.
has the flock of unspeakable virtues."

1 O, she, that hath a heart of that fine frame,
To pay this debt of love but to a brother,
How will she love, when the rich golden shaft
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else

That live in her!] Dr. Hurd observes, that Simo, in the Andrian of Terence, reasons on his son's concern for Chrysis in the same manner:

Nonnunquam conlacrumabat: placuit tum id mihi. "Sic cogitabam: hic parvæ consuetudinis

"Causâ mortem hujus tam fert familiariter:

66

Quid si ipse amâsset? quid mihi hic faciet patri ?”

Steevens.

2 These sovereign thrones,] We should read-three sovereign thrones. This is exactly in the manner of Shakspeare. So afterwards, in this play: Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit, do give thee five-fold blazon. Warburton.

3 (Her sweet perfections)] Liver, brain, and heart, are admitted in poetry as the residence of passions, judgment, and sentiments. These are what Shakspeare calls, her sweet perfections, though he has not very clearly expressed what he might design to have said. Steevens.

with one self king!] Thus the original copy. The editor of the second folio, who in many instances appears to have been equally ignorant of our author's language and metre, readsself same king: a reading, which all the subsequent editors have adopted. The verse is not defective. Perfections is here used as a quadrisyllable. So, in a subsequent scene:

"Methinks I feel this youth's perfections."

Self-king means self-same king; one and the same king. So, in King Richard II:

66

that self-mould that fashion'd thee,

"Made him a man." "" Malone.

In my opinion, the reading of the second folio ought to be adopted, as it improves both the language and the metre.

Away before me to sweet beds of flowers;
Love-thoughts lie rich, when canopied with bowers.

SCENE II.

The Sea-coast.

Enter VIOLA, Captain, and Sailors.

Vio. What country, friends, is this?

Cap.

Vio. And what should I do in Illyria?

My brother he is in Elysium.7

[Exeunt.

Illyria, lady. 6

Perchance he is not drown'd: -What think you, sailors?

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,

When you, and that poor number saved with you,
Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother,
Most provident in peril, bind himself

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 Shaks. peare, 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.

5 Enter Viola,] Viola is the name of a lady in the fifth book of Gower de Confessione Amantis. Steevens.

6 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.

in Illyria?

My brother he is in Elysium.] There is seemingly a play upon the words-Illyria and Elysium. Douce.

8

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.

(Courage and hope both teaching him the practice).
To a strong mast, that lived upon the sea;
Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,
I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves,
So long as I could see.

Vio.

For saying so, there 's gold: Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope, Whereto thy speech serves for authority, 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.

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Vio. Orsino! I have heard my father name him: He was a bachelor then.

Cap.

Or was so very late: for but a month

And so is now,

Ago I went from hence; and then 'twas fresh
In murmur, (as, you know, what great ones do,
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 twelve months 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; 1

A noble duke, in nature,

As in 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.

1 They say, she hath abjur'd the company

And sight of men.

Q, that I served that lady;] The old copy reads:

They say she hath abjur3d 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. Steevers›

And might not be deliver'd to the world,
Till I had made mine own occasion mellow,
What my estate is!

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,*

And might not be deliver'd 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.

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.

4 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 an 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 emasculation (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 Occasionally 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 1604, eunuchs are mentioned by J. Marston, in the Malcontent, one of our poet's contemporaries, as excelling in singing. Malone.

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