A most extracting 12 frenzy of mine own
From my remembrance clearly banish'd his.

Re-enter Clown, with a letter.

How does he, sirrah?

Clo. Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the stave's end, as well as a man in his case may do. He has here writ a letter to you: I should have given it you to-day morning; but as a madinan's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much when they are deliver'd.

Oli. Open it, and read it.

13

Clo. Look then to be well edified, when the fool delivers the madman: [Reads.] "By the Lord, madam,"

Oli. How now! art thou mad?

Clo. No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you must allow vox.14

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

15

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

Oli. [To FABIAN.] Read it you, sirrah.

Fab. [Reads.] By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know it: though you have put me into darkness, and given your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced me to the semblance I put on; with the which I doubt not but to do

12 That is, a frenzy that drew me away from every thing but its object.

13 A common expression in the Poet's time, meaning, -it signifies not mu

H.

De explained: "If you would have the letter read

not

14 This m

ya madman."

in character, you must allow me to assume the voice or frantic tone

15 Consider.

myself much right, or you much shame. Think of me as you please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of my injury. The madly-us'd

Oli. Did he write this?

Clo. Ay, madam.

MALVOLIO.

Duke. This savours not much of distraction.

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 t'embrace your offer.

To VIO.] Your master quits you; and, for your service done him,

So much against the mettle of your sex,
So far beneath your soft and tender breeding,
And since you call'd me master for so long,
Here is my hand: you shall from this time be
Your master's mistress.

Oli.

A sister:

- you are she.

Re-enter FABIAN, with MALVOLIO.

Duke. Is this the madman ?

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 phrase,
Or say 'tis not your seal, nor your invention;
You can say none of this: Well, grant it then,
And tell me, in the modesty of honour,
Why you have given me such clear lights of favour,
Bade me come smiling, and cross-garter'd to you,
To put on yellow stockings, and to frown
Upon Sir Toby, and the lighter people:
And, acting this in an obedient hope,
Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck, and gull,
That e'er invention play'd on? tell me why.

16

Oli. Alas! Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character:
But, out of question, 'tis Maria's hand.
And now I do bethink me, it was she

First told me thou wast mad: thou cam'st in smiling,
And in such forms which here were presuppos'd
Upon thee in the letter. Pr'ythee, be content:
This practice hath most shrewdly pass'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 case.

Fab.

Good madam, hear me speak ; And let no quarrel, nor no brawl to come,

Taint the condition of this present hour,

Which I have wonder'd at. In hope it shall not,
Most freely I confess, myself, and Toby,
Set this device against Malvolio here,
Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts
We had conceiv'd against him: Maria writ
The letter at Sir Toby's great importance;

17

16 From the Saxon geac, a cuckoo, and here meaning a fool. H. 17 The Poet sometimes uses important and importunate indis criminately.

B.

In recompense whereof he hath married her.
How with a sportful malice it was follow'd,
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge;
If that the injuries be justly weigh'd,

That have on both sides pass'd.

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:

66

And thus the

whirligig of time brings in his revenges.

Mal. I'll be reveng'd on the whole pack of you.

[Erit.

Oli. He hath been most notoriously abus'd.
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. Meantime, sweet sister,
We will not part from hence. · Cesario, come,
For so you shall be, while you are a man;
But, when in other habits you are seen,
Orsino's mistress, and his fancy's queen.

Clown sings.

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

A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.

[Exeunt

"That is, shall serve, agree, make convenient.

But when I came to man's estate,

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, 'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate, For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came, alas! to wive,

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, By swaggering could I never thrive, For the rain it raineth every day.

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.

[Exi