Oli. See him deliver'd, Fabian; bring him hither. [Exit Fabian. My lord, so please you, these things further thought on, To think me as well a sister 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 master quits you; [To Viola.] and, for your service done him, So much against the mettlel of your sex, Your master's mistress. Oli. A sister?-you are she. Re-enter Fabian, with Malvolio. Duke. Is this the madman? How now, Malvolio? Ay, my lord, this same: Madam, you have done me wrong, Notorious wrong. Have I, Malvolio? no. Mal. Lady, you have. Pray you, peruse that letter: You must not now deny it is your hand, Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd, (1) Frame and constitution. (2) Inferior. Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest, First told me, thou wast mad; then cam'st in smiling, Of thine own cause. Fab. Good madam, hear me speak; And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come, Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts 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, sir, 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. (1) Fool. (2) Importunacy. (3) Cheated. Mal. I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you. Oli. He hath been most notoriously abus'd. SONG. Clo. When that I was and a little tiny boy, But when I came to man's estate, But when I came, alas! to wive, But when I came unto my bed, (1) Shall serve. 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. |