Is now in durance; at Malvolio's fuit,

A gentleman, and follower of my lady's.

Oli. He fhall enlarge him: Fetch Malvolio hither. And yet, alas, now I remember me,

They fay, poor gentleman, he's much diftract,

Re-enter Clown, with a letter,

A moft extracting frenzy of mine own
From my remembrance clearly banish'd his.-
How does he, firrah?

Clo. Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the stave's end, as well as a man in his cafe may do: h'as here writ a letter to you, I fhould have given't you to day morning; but as a madman's epiftles are not gofpels fo it skills not much, when they are deliver'd. Oli. Open't, and read it.

Clo. Look then to be well edify'd, when the fool delivers the madman.-By the Lord, madam, Oli. How now, art thou mad!

Clo. No, madam, I do but read madnefs: an your ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you must allow vox 6.

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

5 A moft extracting frenzy] i. e. a frenzy that drew me away from every thing but its own object. WARBUrton.

Till fome example is produced of the word extracting being used in the fense in which Dr. Warburton explains it, I fhould wish to read-diftracting, which I conjecture, from the preceding line, to have been the author's word. MALONE.

6 -you must allow vox.] I am by no means certain that I understand this paffage, which, indeed, the author of the Revifal pronounces to have no meaning. I fuppofe the Clown begins reading the letter in fome fantastical manner, on which Olivia asks him, if be is mad. No, madam, fays he, I do but barely deliver the fenfe of this madman's epiftle; if you would have it read as it ought to be, that is, with fuch a frantic accent and gefture as a madman would read it, you must allow vox, i. e. you must furnish the reader with a voice, or, in other words, read it yourself.

STEEVENS,

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

Oli. Read it you, firrah.

[To Fabian. Fab. [Reads.] By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world fhall know it: though you have put me into darkness, and given your drunken coufin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my fenfes, as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced me to the femblance I put on; with the which I doubt not but to do myself much right, or you much shame. Think of me as you pleafe. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of my injury. The madly-us'd Malvolio.

Oli. Did he write this?

Clo. Ay, madam.

Duke. This favours not much of diftraction.

Oli. See him deliver'd, Fabian; bring him hither. My lord, so please you, these things further thought

on,

To think me as well a fifter as a wife,

One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please you, Here at my house, and at my proper cost.

Duke. Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer. Your mafter quits you: and, for your service done him,

So much against the metal of your fex,
[To Viola.
So far beneath your foft and tender breeding,
And fince you call'd me mafter for fo long,

7 -but to read his right wits, -] Perhaps fo,- but to read his wits right is to read thus. To reprefent his prefent state of mind, is to read a madman's letter, as I now do, like a madman.

One day hall crown the alliance on't, fo pleafe you,] The word on't, in this place, is mere nonsense. I doubt not the poet wrote: -an't fo pleafe you. REVISAL.

This is well conjectured; but on't may relate to the double character of fifter and wife. JOHNSON.

Here is my hand; you fhall from this time be
Your master's mistress.

Oli. A fifter?-you are the.

Re-enter Fabian, with Malvolio.

Duke. Is this the madman?

Oli. Ay, my lord, this fame: How now, Malvolio? Mal. Madam, you have done me wrong, notorious wrong.

Oli. Have I, Malvolio? no.

Mal. Lady, you have. Pray you, peruse that letter: You must not now deny it is your hand,

Write from it, if you can, in hand, or phrafe;
Or fay, 'tis not your feal, nor your invention :
You can fay none of this: Well, grant it then,
And tell me, in the modefty of honour,

Why you have given me fuch clear lights of favour;
Bade me come failing, and cross-garter'd to you,
To put on yellow ftockings, and to frown
Upon fir Toby, and the lighter people:
And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you fuffer'd me to be imprifon'd,
Kept in a dark house, vifited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck, and gull,

9 cross-garter'd yellow flockings, In an -] In an anter tainment called Cupid and Death, by Shirley, 1653, a Hoft enters in yellow ftockings and cross-garter'd. STEEVENS.

I

2

lighter] People of lefs dignity or importance. JOHNSON.
geck. A fool. JOHNSON.
-]

So, in the vifion at the conclusion of Cymbeline:

"And to become the geck and fcorn

"Of th' other's villainy."

Again, in Ane verie excellent and delectabill Treatife intitulit PHI, LOTUS, &c. 1603:

Again:

"Thocht he be auld, my joy, quhat reck,
"When he is gane give him ane geck,
"And take another be the neck.'

"The carle that hecht fa weill to treit you,
"I think fall get ane geck." STEEVENS.

That

That e'er invention play'd on? tell me why?
Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confefs, much like the character:
But, out of queftion, 'tis Maria's hand.
And now I do bethink me, it was the

First, told me, thou waft mad; then cam'ft in fmiling,
And in fuch forms which here were prefuppos'd'
Upon thee in the letter. Pr'ythee, be content:
This practice hath moft fhrewdly pafs'd upon thee;
But, when we know the grounds and authors of it,
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge.
Of thine own caufe.

Fab. Good madam, hear me fpeak;
And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come,
Taint the condition of this prefent hour,
Which I have wondred at. In hope it shall not,
Moft freely I confefs, myself, and Toby,
Set this device againft Malvolio here,
Upon fome ftubborn and uncourteous parts
We had conceiv'd againft him: Maria writ
The letter, at fir Toby's great importance;
In recompence whereof, he hath marry'd her.
How with a sportful malice it was follow'd,
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge;

3

here were prefuppos'd] Prefuppos'd, for impofed. WARBURTON.

Prefuppos'd rather feems to mean previously pointed out for thy imitation; or fuch as it was fuppofed thou would'st affume after thou hadst read the letter. The fuppofition was previous to the act. STEEVENS.

4 Upon fome ftubborn and uncourteous parts.
We had conceiv'd against him :]

Surely we fhould rather read: conceiv'd in him. TYRWHITT. 5 at fir Toby's great importance;]

Importance is importunacy, importunement, So, in the Comedy of Errors:

་

"At your important letters." STEEVENS.

So, in Heywood's Hiftory of Women, 1624: "Their importancy fo far prevailed, that the first decree was quite abrogated."

MALONE.

If that the injuries be justly weigh'd,
That have on both fides past.

Oli. Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee"? Clo. Why, fome are born great, fome atchieve greatnefs, and fome have greatness thrown upon them. I was one, fir, in this interlude; one fir Topas, fir; but that's all one:By the Lord, fool, I am not mad;But do you remember, madam 7,-Why laugh you at fuch a barren rafcal? an you fmile 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.

Oli. He hath been moft notoriously abus❜d. Duke. Purfue him, and intreat him to a peace:He hath not told us of the captain yet;

When that is known, and golden time convents,
A folemn combination fhall be made

Of our dear fouls:-Mean time, sweet fifter,
We will not part from hence.-Cefario, come;
For fo you fhall be, while you are a man;
But, when in other habits you are seen,
Orfino's mistress, and his fancy's queen.

Clown fings.

When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,

[Exeunt.

A foolish

how have they baffled thee?] See Mr. Tollet's note on a paffage in the first scene of the first act of K. Rich. II :

"I am difgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffled here." STEEVENS. but do you remember, madam, -] As the Clown is fpeaking to Malvolio, and not to Olivia, I think this passage should be regulated thusbut do you remember? Madam, why laugh you, &c. TYR WHITT.

-convents,] Perhaps we should read-confents. To convent, however, is to affemble; and therefore, the count may mean, when the happy hour calls us again together. STEEVENS.

• When that I was and a little tiny boy,]

Here again we have an old fong, fcarcely worth correction. 'Gainft knaves and thieves muft evidently be, against knave and thief. When I was a boy, my folly and mischievous actions were little regarded: