Twelfth Night
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ACT II SCENE III | OLIVIA'S house. | |
[Enter SIR TOBY BELCH and SIR ANDREW] |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Approach, Sir Andrew: not to be abed after |
| midnight is to be up betimes; and 'diluculo |
| surgere,' thou know'st,-- |
SIR ANDREW | Nay, my troth, I know not: but I know, to be up |
| late is to be up late. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | A false conclusion: I hate it as an unfilled can. |
| To be up after midnight and to go to bed then, is |
| early: so that to go to bed after midnight is to go |
| to bed betimes. Does not our life consist of the |
| four elements? | 9 |
SIR ANDREW | Faith, so they say; but I think it rather consists |
| of eating and drinking. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Thou'rt a scholar; let us therefore eat and drink. |
| Marian, I say! a stoup of wine! |
[Enter Clown] |
SIR ANDREW | Here comes the fool, i' faith. |
Clown | How now, my hearts! did you never see the picture |
| of 'we three'? |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Welcome, ass. Now let's have a catch. |
SIR ANDREW | By my troth, the fool has an excellent breast. I |
| had rather than forty shillings I had such a leg, |
| and so sweet a breath to sing, as the fool has. In |
| sooth, thou wast in very gracious fooling last
|
| night, when thou spokest of Pigrogromitus, of the |
| Vapians passing the equinoctial of Queubus: 'twas |
| very good, i' faith. I sent thee sixpence for thy | 25 |
| leman: hadst it? |
Clown | I did impeticos thy gratillity; for Malvolio's nose |
| is no whipstock: my lady has a white hand, and the |
| Myrmidons are no bottle-ale houses. |
SIR ANDREW | Excellent! why, this is the best fooling, when all |
| is done. Now, a song. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Come on; there is sixpence for you: let's have a song. | 31 |
SIR ANDREW | There's a testril of me too: if one knight give a-- |
Clown | Would you have a love-song, or a song of good life? |
SIR TOBY BELCH | A love-song, a love-song. |
SIR ANDREW | Ay, ay: I care not for good life. |
Clown | [Sings] |
| O mistress mine, where are you roaming? |
| O, stay and hear; your true love's coming, |
| That can sing both high and low: |
| Trip no further, pretty sweeting; | 40 |
| Journeys end in lovers meeting, |
| Every wise man's son doth know. |
SIR ANDREW | Excellent good, i' faith. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Good, good. |
Clown | [Sings] |
| What is love? 'tis not hereafter; |
| Present mirth hath present laughter; |
| What's to come is still unsure: |
| In delay there lies no plenty; |
| Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty, |
| Youth's a stuff will not endure. | 50 |
SIR ANDREW | A mellifluous voice, as I am true knight. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | A contagious breath. |
SIR ANDREW | Very sweet and contagious, i' faith. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | To hear by the nose, it is dulcet in contagion. |
| But shall we make the welkin dance indeed? shall we |
| rouse the night-owl in a catch that will draw three |
| souls out of one weaver? shall we do that? |
SIR ANDREW | An you love me, let's do't: I am dog at a catch. |
Clown | By'r lady, sir, and some dogs will catch well. |
SIR ANDREW | Most certain. Let our catch be, 'Thou knave.' |
Clown | 'Hold thy peace, thou knave,' knight? I shall be |
| constrained in't to call thee knave, knight. | 62 |
SIR ANDREW | 'Tis not the first time I have constrained one to |
| call me knave. Begin, fool: it begins 'Hold thy peace.' |
Clown | I shall never begin if I hold my peace. |
SIR ANDREW | Good, i' faith. Come, begin. |
[Catch sung] |
[Enter MARIA] |
MARIA | What a caterwauling do you keep here! If my lady |
| have not called up her steward Malvolio and bid him |
| turn you out of doors, never trust me. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | My lady's a Cataian, we are politicians, Malvolio's |
| a Peg-a-Ramsey, and 'Three merry men be we.' Am not |
| I consanguineous? am I not of her blood? |
| Tillyvally. Lady! |
[Sings] |
| 'There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady!' | 73 |
Clown | Beshrew me, the knight's in admirable fooling. |
SIR ANDREW | Ay, he does well enough if he be disposed, and so do |
| I too: he does it with a better grace, but I do it |
| more natural. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | [Sings] 'O, the twelfth day of December,'--
|
MARIA | For the love o' God, peace! |
[Enter MALVOLIO] |
MALVOLIO | My masters, are you mad? or what are you? Have ye |
| no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like |
| tinkers at this time of night? Do ye make an |
| alehouse of my lady's house, that ye squeak out your |
| coziers' catches without any mitigation or remorse |
| of voice? Is there no respect of place, persons, nor |
| time in you? | 85 |
SIR TOBY BELCH | We did keep time, sir, in our catches. Sneck up! |
MALVOLIO | Sir Toby, I must be round with you. My lady bade me |
| tell you, that, though she harbours you as her |
| kinsman, she's nothing allied to your disorders. If |
| you can separate yourself and your misdemeanors, you |
| are welcome to the house; if not, an it would please |
| you to take leave of her, she is very willing to bid |
| you farewell. | 92 |
SIR TOBY BELCH | 'Farewell, dear heart, since I must needs be gone.' |
MARIA | Nay, good Sir Toby. |
Clown | 'His eyes do show his days are almost done.' |
MALVOLIO | Is't even so? |
SIR TOBY BELCH | 'But I will never die.' |
Clown | Sir Toby, there you lie. |
MALVOLIO | This is much credit to you. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | 'Shall I bid him go?' | 100 |
Clown | 'What an if you do?' |
SIR TOBY BELCH | 'Shall I bid him go, and spare not?' |
Clown | 'O no, no, no, no, you dare not.' |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Out o' tune, sir: ye lie. Art any more than a |
| steward? Dost thou think, because thou art |
| virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale? |
Clown | Yes, by Saint Anne, and ginger shall be hot i' the |
| mouth too. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Thou'rt i' the right. Go, sir, rub your chain with |
| crumbs. A stoup of wine, Maria! | 110 |
MALVOLIO | Mistress Mary, if you prized my lady's favour at any |
| thing more than contempt, you would not give means |
| for this uncivil rule: she shall know of it, by this hand. |
[Exit] |
MARIA | Go shake your ears. |
SIR ANDREW | 'Twere as good a deed as to drink when a man's |
| a-hungry, to challenge him the field, and then to |
| break promise with him and make a fool of him. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Do't, knight: I'll write thee a challenge: or I'll |
| deliver thy indignation to him by word of mouth. | 119 |
MARIA | Sweet Sir Toby, be patient for tonight: since the |
| youth of the count's was today with thy lady, she is |
| much out of quiet. For Monsieur Malvolio, let me |
| alone with him: if I do not gull him into a |
| nayword, and make him a common recreation, do not |
| think I have wit enough to lie straight in my bed: |
| I know I can do it. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Possess us, possess us; tell us something of him. |
MARIA | Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of puritan. |
SIR ANDREW | O, if I thought that I'ld beat him like a dog! |
SIR TOBY BELCH | What, for being a puritan? thy exquisite reason, | 134 |
| dear knight? |
SIR ANDREW | I have no exquisite reason for't, but I have reason |
| good enough. |
MARIA | The devil a puritan that he is, or any thing |
| constantly, but a time-pleaser; an affectioned ass, |
| that cons state without book and utters it by great |
| swarths: the best persuaded of himself, so |
| crammed, as he thinks, with excellencies, that it is |
| his grounds of faith that all that look on him love |
| him; and on that vice in him will my revenge find |
| notable cause to work. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | What wilt thou do? | 140 |
MARIA | I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of |
| love; wherein, by the colour of his beard, the shape |
| of his leg, the manner of his gait, the expressure |
| of his eye, forehead, and complexion, he shall find |
| himself most feelingly personated. I can write very |
| like my lady your niece: on a forgotten matter we |
| can hardly make distinction of our hands. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Excellent! I smell a device. |
SIR ANDREW | I have't in my nose too. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | He shall think, by the letters that thou wilt drop, |
| that they come from my niece, and that she's in |
| love with him. | 151 |
MARIA | My purpose is, indeed, a horse of that colour. |
SIR ANDREW | And your horse now would make him an ass. |
MARIA | Ass, I doubt not. |
SIR ANDREW | O, 'twill be admirable! |
MARIA | Sport royal, I warrant you: I know my physic will |
| work with him. I will plant you two, and let the |
| fool make a third, where he shall find the letter: |
| observe his construction of it. For this night, to |
| bed, and dream on the event. Farewell. |
[Exit] |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Good night, Penthesilea. | 161 |
SIR ANDREW | Before me, she's a good wench. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | She's a beagle, true-bred, and one that adores me: |
| what o' that? |
SIR ANDREW | I was adored once too. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Let's to bed, knight. Thou hadst need send for |
| more money. |
SIR ANDREW | If I cannot recover your niece, I am a foul way out. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Send for money, knight: if thou hast her not i' |
| the end, call me cut. | 171 |
SIR ANDREW | If I do not, never trust me, take it how you will. |
SIR TOBY BELCH | Come, come, I'll go burn some sack; 'tis too late |
| to go to bed now: come, knight; come, knight. |
[Exeunt] |
Next: Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4
_________
Explanatory Notes for Act 2, Scene 3
From Twelfth Night Or What You Will. Ed. Kenneth Deighton. London: Macmillan.
2. betimes, i.e. by times, in good time, early; "the final s is
due to the habit of adding s or es to form adverbs" (Skeat, Ety.
Dict.). diluculo surgere, sc. saluberrimum est, to rise at dawn
is most healthy; an adage which Malone says Shakespeare found
in Lilly's Latin Grammar.
6. a false conclusion, a conclusion which does not follow upon
the premisses.
9. of the four elements, cp. H. V. iii. 7. 22, "he is pure air
and fire: and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in
him"; A. C. v. 2. 292, "I am fire and air, my other elements I
give to baser life."
10, 1. I think ... drinking. Warburton considers this to be in
ridicule of the medical theory of that time, which supposed
health to consist in the just temperament of the four elements in
the human frame.
13. a stoup, a vessel or flagon, sometimes used as equivalent to
a gallon, sometimes of a smaller measure. Wright points out
that the word is still used in our college halls and butteries.
15. my hearts, my fine fellows; cp. Temp. i. 1. 6, "Heigh, my
hearts, cheerly, cheerly, my hearts!"
15, 6. the picture ... three? a common ale-house sign "in
which two wooden-heads [louts, boors,] are exhibited with this
inscription 'We three logger-heads be.' The spectator or reader
is supposed to make the third. The Clown means to insinuate
that Sir Toby and Sir Andrew had as good a title to the name of
fool as himself" (Malone).
17. a catch, a part song; so called because each singer in his
turn catches up the air and the last words of the former singer.
18. an excellent breast, a musical voice; as we say 'he has
good lungs,' i.e. has a loud, strong, voice. Sir Andrew immediately afterwards varies the phrase by "so sweet a breath to sing."
20, 1. thou wast ... fooling, you jested in your best manner;
as we say, 'in good voice' = singing well.
22, 3. Pigrogromitus ... Queubus, see note on i. 5. 32.
24. leman, sweetheart; from "A. S. leof, dear; and mann, a
man or woman" (Skeat, Ety. Dict. ).
25. I did ... gratillity, I pocketed your gratuity; impeticos
probably, as the commentators remark, for 'impeticoat,' in
reference to the long coats sometimes worn by jesters as a mark
of their profession. The rest of the Clown's speech is no doubt
mere fooling, good enough in his opinion for the two knights,
though with Olivia and Maria he attempts wit.
28, 9. when ... done, the commoner expression is, 'when all is
said and done,' i.e. taking everything into consideration, after all;
cp. Macb. iii. 4. 67, "When all's done You look but on a stool."
32. testril, "a coin the value of which in Shakespeare's day
was sixpence. ... The word was variously written, — teston, tester,
testern, testril, — it had the king's head (teste) on it" (Dyce, Gloss.):
of me, from me, see Abb. § 165.
34. a song ... life, a song of a moral turn, sententious.
40. sweeting, a term of endearment, derived from the name of
an apple of particularly sweet character.
45. 'tis not hereafter, it is a thing of the present.
46. hath, is accompanied by.
48. no plenty, nothing that is satisfying.
49. sweet and twenty, a term of endearment said to mean
twenty times sweet; Steevens quotes The Merry Devil of
Edmonton, 1631, "his little wanton wagtailes, his sweet and
twenties his pretty pinkineyed pigsnies, etc, as he himself used
commonly to call them."
50. a stuff ... endure, a stuff which will not last out; not
endure being used with reference to such kinds of cloth, linen,
etc., as wear out quickly, are not durable.
52. A contagious breath. By a misuse of 'contagious' Sir Toby ridicules Sir Andrew's "mellifluous voice," and Sir Andrew
echoes the expression as though it were an apt description.
54. To hear ... contagion. Punning on the word breath,
which he had just now used in the sense of 'voice,' and perhaps
imitating the Clown's fooling, so highly commended by Sir
Andrew, Sir Toby says, "judging of the merit of his breath (i.e.
his singing) by the nose, as we judge of scent, it is sweet in contagion, not foul as contagious breath (in its ordinary sense)
usually is."
55. make ... indeed, "drink till the sky seems [actually] to
turn round" (Johnson); Steevens quotes A. C. ii. 7. 124, 5,
"Cup us till the world go round."
56, 7. draw three ... weaver? Weavers, to whose fondness
for singing Shakespeare again refers in i. H. IV. ii. 4. 147,
"I would I were a weaver; I could sing psalms or anything."
were most of them Calvinists in Shakespeare's day and greatly
addicted to psalm singing. The power of music in drawing
the soul out of a man's body is referred to in M. A. ii. 3.
60-2, "Is it not strange that sheep's guts (i.e. musical instruments strung with cat-gut) should hale souls out of men's bodies."
Here Sir Toby speaks of a catch which shall be so entrancing
that it will hale not merely one soul, but three, out of a weaver.
Warburton and Nares see an allusion to the peripatetic philosophy which assigned to every man three souls, the vegetative, the animal, and the rational ; but this would spoil the point of the joke, and if it had been intended, we should have had 'a weaver' instead of 'one weaver.' A like fondness for singing is
ascribed, i. H. IV. iii. 1. 264, to tailors whose occupation like
that of weavers is a sedentary one.
58. I am ... catch, I am a wonderful hand at a catch; a dog at doing anything, i.e. very skilful, is still in slang use. The article
was often omitted in the phrase, e.g. Middleton's Women Beware
Women, i. 2. 115, "I'm dog at a hole."
61, 2. I shall ... knave, he by the terms of a catch being obliged
to take up the last words of the previous singer, which in the
present case are "thou knave."
63, 4. 'Tis not ... knave. Sir Andrew says this as though he
were speaking of something of which he might be proud. So, in
ii. 5. 74, when Malvolio reading the forged letter comes to the
passage "Besides, you waste the treasure of your time with a
foolish knight," Sir Andrew at once accepts the allusion as being
to him, and when his name is mentioned, says, "I knew 'twas I,
for many do call me fool."
67. a caterwauling, "caterwaul, to cry as a cat. Formed from cat, and the verb waw, with the addition of i to give the word a frequentative force" (Skeat, Ety. Dict.).
67-9. If my lady ... me, i.e. I assure you on my word that my
lady has called up, etc.
69. a Cataian, "meaning properly a native of Cataia or
Cathay, i.e. China...
70. we are politicians, i.e. wise men.
71. a Peg-a-Ramsey, according to Chappell, the name of two
old tunes, both as old as Shakespeare's time. Sir Toby means
that Malvolio was no better than the subject of a common ballad.
'Three merry ... we,' the burthen of several old songs.
72. Tillyvally, a contemptuous exclamation; said by Douce
to be a hunting call borrowed from the French.
73. 'There dwelt ... lady.' "The ballad of Susanna, from whence this line is taken, was licensed by T. Colwell in 1562,
under the title of The goodly and constanat Wyfe Susanna" ... (Warton).
74. the knight's ... fooling, the Clown returns the knight's
compliment in II. 20. 1. above.
75. disposed, "used absolutely, signifies, in the humour for
mirth. So in L. L. L. v. 2. 465: 'The trick To make a lady
laugh when she's disposed'" (Wright).
76, 7. more natural, more naturally, but with a play upon the
word in the sense of an idiot.
78. 'O, the ... December,' part of another old song now lost.
81. but to gabble, to prevent your gabbling, chattering, etc.
For but, see Abb. § 122: tinkers, Shakespeare again refers to
their love of tippling, i. H. IV. ii. 4. 20.
82, 3. make an ... house, turn my lady's house into a tavern.
83. coziers', a cozier is a botcher, whether of shoes or clothes.
84. without ... voice? without even lowering your voices;
Malvolio's affectation of fine language.
86. Sneck-up, i.e. go and be hanged; a contemptuous exclamation frequent in old writers, e.g. Chapman, May Day, ii. 4,
"That's true, Sir, but for a paltry disguise, being a magnifico,
she shall go snicke-up": so snickle, sb. and vb. = noose; cp. Marlowe, The Jew of Malta iv. 6. 22, "and he and I, snickle hand too fast, strangled a friar."
87. round, plain spoken...
88. harbours you, gives you house room; allows you to stay
in her house; 'harbour,' "a lodging, shelter, place of refuge, ...
M. E. herberwe ... from Icel. herbergi, a harbour, inn, lodging,
lit. a host-shelter ... derived from Icel. herr, an army, and bjarga,
to save, defend"... (Skeat, Ety. Dict.).
89. she's nothing allied, she is in no way connected, has
nothing in common with your disorderly ways; allied, used for
the sake of the word 'kinsman' in the previous clause.
89, 90. If you ... misdemeanours, if you can divorce yourself
from your ill doings; the metaphor of relationship is still kept
up. she is very willing, she would be very willing, etc., if it
would please you, and is willing even, etc. See Abb. § 371.
93. Farewell, dear heart. The entire song from which Sir
Toby quotes this and the following lines is to be found in Percy's
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.
99. This is ... you. Said sarcastically, and equivalent to 'Are
you not ashamed of yourself for roaring out these snatches of
song?'
104. Out of time, angrily referring to Malvolio's words, "Is there no respect ... nor time in you?" The folios read 'tune,'
which Theobald corrected. any more, anything else than; for
the ellipse of the noun, see Abb. § 401.
105, 6. Dost thou ...ale? Do you suppose, because you pretend to such austere virtue, that nobody else is to enjoy himself?
It has been fancied that this is a fling at Malvolio's Puritanism,
and that the Clown follows it up by swearing by St. Anne as a
further provocation; but Maria's charge of Puritanism, line 127,
below, can hardly be taken as serious.
107, 8. and ginger ... too. Yes, and we will not only feast
upon cakes and ale, but will continue as hitherto to enjoy hot
spices like ginger. In M. M. iv. 3. 6, 8, M. V. iii. 1. 10, Shakespeare speaks of the fondness of old women for eating ginger.
109, 10. rub your ... crumbs. Stewards in old days wore
chains as a mark of superiority over the other servants of the
household, and one method of cleaning those chains was by
rubbing them with bread crumbs. Steevens quotes Webster's
Duchess of Malfi, "Yea, and the chippings of the buttery fly
after him, to scour his gold chain."
111-3. if you prize ... rule, if you had anything like respect
for my lady's favour, anything besides contempt, you would not
abet them in this disorderly conduct of theirs; rule, probably
line of conduct, though Dyce believes it to mean 'revel, noisy sport,' and compares M. N. D, iii. 2. 5, "What night-rule now
about this haunted grove?"
113. by this hand, swearing by his hand; see note on i. 3.
31, above.
114. Go ... ears, i.e. you long-eared ass.
115. 'Twere as ... field, to challenge him to a duel and then to
break faith with him and make a fool of him would be a capital
idea, and would be reversing the order of things like a man
drinking when he is hungry; cp. i. H. IV. ii. 1. 32, 3, "An
'twere not as good deed as drink, to break the pate on thee, I am
a very villain." Some editors accept Rowe's insertion of 'to' before the field, which Dyce condemns, though he gives no
parallel to the construction here, apparently that of the cognate
accusative.
119. deliver thy indignation, convey an intimation of your
anger.
120. be patient for to-night, take no notice of Malvolio's
impertinence tonight, but go to bed quietly for my lady's sake
as she is ill at ease, troubled in mind.
122, 3. let me ... him, leave him to me to deal with.
123. if I do not ... nayword, if I do not hoax him so that he
will become a byword, a proverb for his idiocy, a laughing-stock;
nayword is elsewhere used by Shakespeare for 'watchword': gull, to deceive, from the mistaken idea that the gull was a
very stupid bird; cp. H. V. ii. 2. 121, "If that same demon that
hath gull'd thee thus."
123, 4. a common recreation, the sport of every one.
124, 5. to lie ... bed, i.e. for what any fool can do.
126. Possess us, acquaint us with, put us in possession of, your
idea; the word in this sense is frequent in Shakespeare.
127. he is ... puritan, he affects a puritanical demeanour.
129. thy exquisite reason, your subtle reason; lit. one diligently sought out.
133, 4. The devil ... time-pleaser, Maria has said that he is
'sometimes a kind of puritan'; she now adds, but he is neither
puritan nor anything else constantly , except a time-serving humbug; the devil a puritan, a colloquial expression for 'anything
but,' etc. So, in the song, "The devil fell ill, the devil a saint
would be; The devil got well, the devil a saint was he," i.e. he
was as far from being a saint as ever, was as bad as ever.
134. affectioned, full of affectation; in which sense the word
is used in L. L. L. v. 1. 4, "witty without affection."
134, 5. that cons ... swarths, learns dignity of deportment by
heart, and pours forth its rules in great sweeps; cp. H. V. iii. 6.
79. "this they con perfectly in the phrase of war," i.e. have
learnt and can describe in the proper technical terms: a 'swarth,'
or 'swath,' as it is more correctly spelled in T. C. v. 5. 25, is as
much grass as a man can mow with one sweep of the scythe.
135, 6. the best ... himself, a fellow with the firmest belief in
himself, so richly endowed, in his own opinion, with every kind
of good quality that it is an article of faith with him that, etc.;
the belief is so firmly grounded in him that, etc.
138, 9. and on ... work, and on that weakness in him my
revenge will find ample, excellent, material to employ itself.
141. obscure ... love, love-letters of enigmatical character,
letters which hint at love felt for him.
143. expressure, expression; cp. T. C. iii. 3. 204, "Than
breath or pen can give expression to."
144. most ... personated, most clearly indicated as the person
meant; feelingly, so as to be felt, so as to touch to the quick, cp.
M. M. i. 2. 36, "Do I speak feelingly now."
145, 6. on a forgotten ... hands, in the case of a matter that has
passed out of our memory we can hardly distinguish between her
writing and mine.
147. smell, figuratively.
152. a horse ... colour, something of that kind; cp. A. Y. L. iii. 2. 435, "as boys and women are for the most part cattle of
this colour."
154. Ass, I doubt not. Maria repeating Sir Andrew's last word,
indirectly calls him 'ass'; there is also a pun on "as I doubt
not."
156, 7. will work with him, will operate upon him, have its
effect upon him.
158. his construction, the construction he puts upon it.
161. Penthesilea, was Queen of the Amazons, and the term is
applied to Maria for her courage in the matter and also in jocose
allusion to her diminutive size in contrast to that of the masculine
Queen.
162. Before me, a weakened form of asseveration, as in Oth. iv.
1. 149, for before heaven, before God, and equivalent to 'by my
soul.'
163. a beagle, a small hound used in hunting hares; cp. Tim.
iv. 3. 174, "Get thee away, and take Thy beagles with thee," i.e.
the rapacious women accompanying Alcibiades.
164. what o' that? speaking as though he were accustomed to
be adored.
166. hadst need send, for the omission of 'to' before send, see
Abb. § 349.
168. If I cannot ... out. If I do not succeed in winning your
niece, I shall be terribly out of pocket; he, in courting Olivia,
having like Roderigo in his pursuit of Desdemona, "wasted"
himself "out of" his "means," Oth, iv. 2. 186, 7. To 'recover'
is frequent in Shakespeare in the sense of 'gaining,' 'reaching,'
i.e. without any idea of getting back what was lost, expended.
170. Send for money, cp. Iago's injunction to Roderigo when
hoping to win over Desdemona, Oth. i. 3. 347, 51, 2, 3, "put
money in thy purse," "put but money in thy purse," "fill thy
purse with money."
171. cut, a name frequently given to a common horse, from his
being docked, hence a term of contempt for a man; cp. i. H. IV.
ii. 4. 215, "I tell the what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my
face, call me horse."
172. If I do ... me. Be sure I will call you 'cut,' however
much you may be offended at my doing so.
173. burn some sack, warm some sack for drinking; sack, was
a Spanish wine generally of a dry character, though there were
also sweet varieties. The derivation of the word is seco or sec,
which in Spanish means dry, and in French the wine was formerly
called "vin sec," dry wine. It was frequently taken warm with
sugar in it. In i. H. IV. i. 2. 125, the Prince calls Falstaff
"Sir John Sack-and-Sugar."
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How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night Or What You Will. Ed. Kenneth Deighton. London: Macmillan, 1889. Shakespeare Online. 20 Dec. 2010. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/twn_2_3.html >
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