Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not, Oli. Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee? Clo. Why, some are born great, some atchieve 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. Mal. I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you. Oli. He hath been most notoriously abus'd. [Exit. Duke. Pursue him, and entreat him to a peace : He hath not told us of the captain yet; When that is known, and golden time convents, A solemn combination shall be made Of our dear souls-Mean time, sweet sister, But, when in other habits you are seen, 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, [Exeunt. With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, But when I came, alas! to wive, But when I came unto my bed, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, With toss-pots still had drunken head, For the rain it raineth every day. A great while ago the world begun, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, But that's all one, our play is done. And we'll strive to please you every day. [Exit. ANNOTATIONS UPON TWELFTH-NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL. 1 E'er since pursue me.] THIS image evidently alludes to the 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 in 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. 2 Her sweet perfections.] The 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. 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. * I'll serve this duke;] Viola is an excellent schemer, never at a loss; if she can't serve the lady, she will serve the duke. JOHNSON. 5 He's as tall a man] Tall signified formerly, sometimes stout of body, and sometimes stout of heart or mind. That it had another meaning besides high, is evident in The Merry Wives of Windsor, where Slender is said to be a tall man of his inches. 6 -a coystril,] was a sort of lackey, attending to bear the arms of a knight, without being permitted, like a squire, to use them. Holinshed calls Coisterels 'unwarlike attendants on an army. tion of England, vol. iii. page 272. applied to a dunghill-cock. See his DescripCoystril was also It is 7 Castiliano vulgo;] I meet with the word Castilian and Castilians in several of the old comedies. difficult to assign any peculiar propriety to it, as it appears to have been used as a cant term. The host, in the M. W. of Windsor, calls Caius a Castilian-king Urinal; and in the Merry Devil of Edmonton, one of the characters says, Ha! my Castilian dialogues! In an old comedy call'd Look about you, 1600, it is joined with another toper's exclamation very frequent in Shakspeare: "And Rivo will he cry, and Castile too." So again in Heywood's Jew of Malta, 1633: Hey, Rivo Castiliano, man's a man. STEEVENS. It's dry, sir.] What is the jest of dry hand, I know not any better than Sir Andrew. It may possibly mean, a hand with no money in it; or, according to the rules of physiognomy, she may intend to insinuate that it is not a lover's hand, a moist hand being vulgarly accounted a sign of an amorous constitution. JOHNSON. That a dry hand is not a lover's hand, I should consider as the only meaning of Shakspeare. 9 —like mistress Mall's picture?] Mr. Steevens supposes Shakspeare to mean, by mistress Mall, Mary Frith. As it is impossible to contradict Mr. Steevens, and say our author did not, so it is also bare conjecture that he did intend her. Shakspeare certainly has here no allusion to the decency or the delicacy of the age; nor to Moll Cutpurse's being an hermaphrodite. He speaks of a picture that required a curtain to prevent its being spoiled by the dust; but we know of 110 such valuable picture that was ever taken of the Roaring Girl. VOL. II. |