ACT....III. SCENE I.

Olivia's Garden.

Enter VIOLA, and Clown, with a tabor.

Vio. Save thee, friend, and thy music: Dost thou live by thy tabor?

Clo. No, sir, I live by the church."

Vio. Art thou a churchman?

Clo. No such matter, sir; I do live by the church: for I do live at my house, and my house doth stand by the church.

Vio. So thou may'st say, the king lies by a beggar,8 if a beggar dwell near him: or, the church stands by thy tabor, if thy tabor stand by the church.

Clo. You have said, sir,To see this age!-A sentence is but a cheveril glove to a good wit; How quickly the wrong side may be turned outward!

Vio. Nay, that's certain; they, that dally nicely with words, may quickly make them wanton.

Clo. I would therefore, my sister had had no name, sir.

Vio. Why, man?

Clo. Why, sir, her name 's a word; and to dally with that word, might make my sister wanton: But indeed, words are very rascals, since bonds disgraced them.

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by thy tabor?

Clo. No, sir, I live by the church.] The Clown, I suppose, wilfully mistakes Viola's meaning, and answers, as if he had been asked whether he lived by the sign of the tabor, the ancient designation of a music shop. Steevens.

It was likewise the sign of an eating-honse kept by Tarleton, the celebrated clown or fool of the theatre before our author's time, who is exhibited in a print prefixed to his Jests, quarto, 1611, with a tabor. Perhaps in imitation of him the subsequent stage-clowns usually appeared with one. Malone.

8

the king lies by a beggar,] Lies, here, as in many other places in old books, signifies-dwells, sojourns. See King Henry IV, P. II, Act, III, sc. ii. Malone.

9 cheveril glove i. e. a glove made of tid leather? chevreau, Fr. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "--a wit of cheveril →→ Again, in a proverb in Ray's Collection: "He hath a conscience like a cheverel's skin." Steevens.

VOL. III.

Vio. Thy reason, man?

Clo. Troth, sir, I can yield you none without words; and words are grown so false, I am loth to prove reason with them.

Vio. I warrant thou art a merry fellow, and carest for nothing.

Clo. Not so, sir, I do care for something: but in my conscience, sir, I do not care for you; if that be to care for nothing, sir, I would it would make you invisible. Vio. Art thou not the lady Olivia's fool?

Clo. No, indeed, sir; the lady Olivia has no folly: she will keep no fool, sir, till she be married; and fools are as like husbands, as pilchards are to herrings, the husband's the bigger; I am, indeed, not her fool, but her corrupter of words.

Vio. I saw thee late at the count Orsino's.

Clo. Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb, like the sun; it shines every where. I would be sorry, sir, but the fool should be as oft with your master, as with my mistress: I think, I saw your wisdom there.

Vio. Nay, an thou pass upon me, I'll no more with thee. Hold, there 's expenses for thee.

Clo. Now Jove, in his next commodity of hair, send thee a beard!

Vio. By my troth, I'll tell thee; I am almost sick for one; though I would not have it grow on my chin. Is thy lady within?

Clo. Would not a pair of these have bred sir?1

Vio. Yes, being kept together, and put to use. Clo. I would play lord Pandarus2 of Phrygia, sir, to bring a Cressida to this Troilus.

1

have bred, sir?] I believe our author wrote-have breed, sir. The Clown is not speaking of what a pair might have done, had they been kept together, but what they may do hereafter in his possession; and therefore covertly solicits another piece from Viola, on the suggestion that one was useless to him, without another to breed out of Viola's answer corresponds with this train of argument: she does not say-" if they had been kept together," &c. but, "being kept together," i. e. Yes, they will breed, if you keep them together. Our poet has the same image in his Venus and Adonis:

"Foul cank'ring rust the hidden treasure frets,

"But gold, that's put to use, more gold begets." Malone.

Vio. I understand you, sir; 'tis well begg'd.

Clo. The matter, I hope, is not great, sir, begging but a beggar; Cressida was a beggar.3 My lady is within, sir. I will construe to them whence you come; who you are, and what you would, are out of my welkin: I might say, element; but the word is over-worn. [Exit.

Vio. This fellow 's wise enough to play the fool;
And, to do that well, craves a kind of wit:
He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
The quality of persons, and the time;

And, like the haggard, check at every feather
That comes before his eye. This is a practice,
As full of labour as a wise man's art:

For folly, that he wisely shows, is fit;

But wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit.

2

lord Pandarus-] See our author's play of Troilus and Cressida. Johnson.

$ Cressida was a beggar.]

66 great penurye

"Thou suffer shalt, and as a beggar dye."

Chaucer's Testament of Creseyde.

Cressida is the person spoken of. Malone.
Again, ibid:

"Thus shalt thou go begging from hous to hous,
"With cuppe and clappir, like a Lazarous." Theobald.

the haggard,] The hawk called the haggard, if not well trained and watched, will fly after every bird without distinction. Steevens.

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 choose persons and times, and observe tempers; he must fly at proper game, like the trained hawk, and not fly at large like the unreclaimed haggard, to seize all that comes in his way. Johnson.

5 But wise men, folly-fallen,] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, folly shewn. Johnson.

The first folio reads, But wise men's folly falne, quite taint their wit. From whence I should conjecture, that Shakspeare possibly wrote:

But wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit.

i. e. wise men, fallen into folly. Tyrwhitt.

The sense is: But wise men's folly, when it is once fallen into extravagance, overpowers their discretion. Heath.

Enter Sir TOBY BELCH, and Sir ANDREW
AGUE CHEEK.

Sir To. Save you, gentleman.

Vio. And you, sir.

Sir And. Dieu vous garde, monsieur.

Vio. Et vous aussi; votre serviteur.

Sir And. I hope, sir, you are; and I am yours." Sir To. Will you encounter the house? my niece is desirous you should enter, if your trade be to her.

Vio. I am bound to your niece, sir: I mean, she is the list of my voyage.

I explain it thus: The folly which he shews 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. Johnson.

I have adopted Mr. Tyrwhitt's judicious emendation.

Steevens.

Şir And. I hope, sir, you are; and I am yours.] Thus the old copy. Steevens.

I have ventured to make the two knights change speeches in this dialogue with Viola; and, I think, not without good reason. It were a preposterous forgetfulness in the poet, and out of all probability, to make Sir Andrew not only speak French, but understand what is said to him in it, who in the first Act did not know the English of pourquoi. Theobald.

Mr. Theobald thinks it absurd that Sir Andrew, who did not know the meaning of pourquoi in the first Act, should here speak and understand French; and therefore has given three of Sir Andrew's speeches to Sir Toby, and vice versa, in which he has been copied by the subsequent editors, as it seems to me, without necessity. The words,-" Save you, gentleman,-" which he has taken from Sir Toby, and given to Sir Andrew, are again used by Sir Toby in a subsequent scene; a circumstance which renders it the more probable that they were intended to be attributed to him here also.

With respect to the improbability that Sir Andrew should understand French here, after having betrayed his ignorance of that language in a former scene, it appears from a subsequent passage that he was a picker up of phrases, and might have learned by rote from Sir Toby the few French words here spoken. If we are to believe Sir Toby, Sir Andrew "could speak three or four languages word for word without book."

Malone.

Sir To. Taste your legs, sir, put them to motion. Vio. My legs do better understand me, sir, than I understand what you mean by bidding me taste my legs.

Sir To. I mean, to go, sir, to enter.

Vio. I will answer you with gait and entrance: But we are prevented."

Enter OLIVIA and MARIA.

Most excellent accomplished lady, the heavens rain odours on you!

Sir And. That youth's a rare courtier! Rain odours! well.

Vio. My matter hath no voice, lady, but to your own most pregnant and vouchsafed ear.1

Sir And. Odours, pregnant, and vouchsafed;-I 'll get 'em all three ready.2

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the list is the bound, limit, farthest point. Johnson.

8 Taste your legs, sir, &c.] Perhaps this expression was employed to ridicule the fantastic use of a verb, which is many times as quaintly introduced in the old pieces, as in this play, and in The True Tragedies of Marius and Scilla, 1594:

"A climbing tow'r that did not taste the wind." Again, in Chapman's version of the 21st Odyssey:

he now began

"To taste the bow, the sharp shaft took, tugg'd hard." In the Frogs of Aristophanes, however, a similar expression occurs, v. 465: "гEUZAI ras Ovpas;" i. e. taste the door, knock gently at it. Steevens.

9 prevented.] i. e. our purpose is anticipated. So, in the 119th Psalm:

1

"Mine eyes prevent the night-watches." Steevens.

most pregnant and vouchsafed ear.] Pregnant for ready; as in Measure for Measure, Act I, sc. i. Steevens. Vouchsafed for vouchsafing. Malone.

2 all three ready.} The old copy has-all three alrea ly. Mr. Malone reads-" all three all ready." Steevens.

The editor of the third folio reformed the passage by reading only-ready. But omissions ought always to be avoided if possible. The repetition of the word all is not improper in the mouth of Sir Andrew. Malone.

Preferatur lectio brevior, is a well known rule of criticism; and in the present instance I most willingly follow it, omitting the useless repetition-all. Steevens.