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Twelfth NightPlease see the bottom of the page for full explanatory notes and helpful resources.
Next: Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 3 _________ Explanatory Notes for Act 3, Scene 2 From Twelfth Night Or What You Will. Ed. Kenneth Deighton. London: Macmillan. 1. a Jot, a tittle; here, the shortest possible time. "Englished from Lat. iota." (Skeat, Ety. Dict). 2. dear venom, my dear angry fellow. 4. do more favours, show more kindnesses, more signs of love. 7. the while, at the time she was showing him more favours; see Abb. § 137. 9. argument, proof, indication; cp. M. A. ii. 3. 243, "it is no addition to her wit, nor no great argument of her folly." 11. 'Slight, see note on ii. 5. 29. 12, 3. I will ... legitimate, I will show that my argument is logical, is a legitimate inference from the premisses: upon ... reason, as established by the asseverations of, etc. 14. grand-jurymen, the office of the grand-jury is to decide whether the evidence in charges brought up at an assize is prima facie such as should justify their coming before a judge and the petty-jury. 17. your dormouse valour, your valour which is so often asleep, inactive; dormouse, "lit. 'dozing-mouse.' The prefix is from a prov. E. dor, to sleep, appearing in dorrer, a sleeper, lazy person (Halliwell), and probably closely related to E. doze" (Skeat, Ety. Dict.). 18. liver, as being the supposed seat of passion, especially the passion of love; cp. M. A. iv. 1. 233, "if ever love had interest in his liver." 19. accosted, attacked, addressed; see note on i. 3. 45. 19, 20. fire-new ... mint, freshly-coined, brand-new; cp. R. III. i. 3. 256, "your fire-new stamp of honour"; L. L. L. i. 1. 179, "a man of fire-new words." 20. banged, beaten; figuratively. 21, 2. This was ... hand, this was expected of you by her: and this was balked, and she was disappointed of this; lit., this was barred, hindered; 'balk,' a beam, bar. 22, the double ... opportunity, this doubly-favourable opportunity; articles of plate were often gilt, washed with gold, sometimes singly, sometmies doubly. 23, 4. into the ... opinion, into the coldest quarter, i.e. her feelings towards you are now icily cold; cp. R. III. iv. 4. 484, "Stan. No, my good lord, my friends are in the north. K. Rich. Cold friends to Richard." 25, 6. unless you ... policy, unless by some praiseworthy act of courage, or stroke of policy, you redeem the bad opinion you have given her of yourself. 27. An't ... way, if it is to be done in any way. 28. a Brownist, the Brownists were so called from Robert Browne, a noted separatist, or dissenter, from the Church of England in Elizabeth's reign: a politician, Wright points out that Shakespeare generally uses this word in an unfavourable sense, as denoting a political intriguer or conspirator, and quotes i. H. IV. 1.3. 246, Haml. v. 1. 86, etc. Cp. also The Duchess of Malfi iii. 2, "A politician is the devil's quilted anvil; He fashions all sins on him, and the blows Are never heard." 29. build me, let me see you establish your fortunes, etc.; for me in the dative case, see Abb. § 220. 30. Challenge me, let me see you challenge: to fight, with the purpose of fighting with him. 31. shall take note, will be obliged to notice; for shall, used with the first, second, and third person, see Abb. § 315. 32. no love-broker, nothing which serves to bring man and woman together in the matter of love so efficiently; a 'broker' is a middle-man in transactions of trade; cp. T. C. iii. 2. 211, "brokers-between." 33. in man's commendation, in commending a man to a woman's good opinion. 37. a martial hand, a handwriting that shall look like that of a soldier, a large, bold, handwriting, such as would be in keeping with the "martial stalk" (Haml. i. 1. 6), of a soldier: curst, surly in your style. 38, 9. it is no ... invention, it will not matter how full of witty jests you make it, provided its language is forcible and original. In no matter ... witty, Sir Toby is of course laughing at Sir Andrew's want of wit, there being no fear of his being too witty. 39. taunt ... ink, taunt him with all the freedom that ink will give you scope to do. 39, 40. if thou ... amiss, if you address him as 'thou' some two or three times, it will be as well: thou "towards strangers who were not inferiors was an insult," Abb. § 233. Theobald believed there was an allusion here to the insulting language used by Attorney-General Coke towards Sir W. Raleigh in his trial, "All that he did was by thy instigation, thou viper, for I thou thee, thou traitor!" but the play is known to have been acted in 1601-2, while the trial did not take place till November, 1603. 40, 1. and as ... paper, and do you give him the lie as often as you have room to do so in your sheet of paper. 42. bed of Ware, "This celebrated bed, made of oak richly carved, is still preserved: it measures seven feet six inches in height, ten feet nine inches in length, and ten feet nine inches in width. At what inn in Ware it was kept during Shakespeare's days is uncertain: but, after being for many years at the Saracen's Head, it was sold there by auction in September, 1864, and knocked down at a hundred guineas" (Dyce, Gloss.). 43. go, about it, go, set about it: gall, vegetable gall was one of the main ingredients of ink in Shakespeare's time; cp. Cymb, i. l. 101. Here = bitterness. 43, 4. though thou ... matter, if there be plenty of bitterness in your letter, it will not matter even though you write with a goose-quill; with an allusion to the supposed stupidity of geese. 46. at the cubiculo, at your apartment; cubiculo, ablative case of Latin cubiculum, a bedroom. 47. This is ... you, this is a precious little fellow for you. 48. dear to him, playing upon the word in the sense of 'costly'; I have cost him some two thousand pounds; strong, to the extent, strength, amount, of two, etc.; commonly used in regard to the numbers of an army. Cp. what Sir Andrew says above, ii. 3. 168, 9. 50. We shall ... him, he is sure to produce a wonderful specimen of a letter. 52. Never ... then, never trust me again if I do not, i.e. assuredly I will. 53, 4. I think ... together, I don't believe any force in the world would bring them together in a duel, induce them to fight. Boswell quotes The Loyal Subject of Beaumont and Fletcher, "A coach and four horses cannot draw me from it": wain, waggon; see note on ii. 5. 58. 54. For Andrew, as for Andrew: opened, i.e. his body after death. 54, 5. and you find, and you were to find; find, subjunctive: liver, here as the seat of courage: clog, impede: anatomy, body; used contemptuously. 57. his opposite, his adversary, antagonist. 58. great ... cruelty, great indication of a fierce disposition. 59. youngest wren of nine, a reference to Maria's diminutive size. The wren lays a large number of eggs; and Steevens says, though I do not know upon what authority, that "the last hatched of all birds are usually the smallest and weakest of the whole brood." 60. If you ... spleen, if you wish to have your spleen enlarged by overlaughing yourself; the spleen, though supposed to have to do with passion of various kinds, was especially connected in the belief of former times with the impulse of laughter; cp. M. M. ii. 2. 122, "Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens Would all themselves laugh mortal"; L. L. L. iii. 1. 77, "By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly thought my spleen. 61. Yond gull, see note on ii. 5. 108. 62. a very renegado, a thorough apostate from the faith in which he was brought up; from Low Lat. renegare, to deny again. 62-4. for there ... grossness, I say heathen and renegade, for he must be so, since not a Christian in the whole world, who expects salvation from holding the true faith, can ever believe such grossly impossible doctrines as Malvolio has embraced in putting faith in the directions of my letter, passages seems to be used in the sense of passages from Scripture laying down principles of conduct, and such ... grossness, to be put for passages of such gross impossibility. For impossible, cp. M. A. ii. 1. 252, "huddling jest upon jest with such impossible conveyance upon me that," etc., where Dyce remarks, "Shakespeare, like other early writers, employs the word impossible with great license; so before in this play [ii. 1. 143], we have impossible slanders"; in M. W. iii. 5 [115], "I will examine impossible places"; T. N. iii. 2. [76], "impossible passages of grossness"; T. C. iii. l. [325], "strive with things impossible." 66. Most villanously, in a most extravagant, outlandish, manner. 66, 7. a school i' the church. "It was not unfrequently the custom for schools to be kept in the parvis or room over the church porch" ..(Wright). Halliwell states that the grammar school at Stratford was at intervals during Shakespeare's time kept in the adjacent Chapel of the Guild. like his murderer, like a man who persistently dogs the steps of one whom he intends to murder. 68. that I ... him, in order to beguile him into the folly he is now displaying. 69. does smile ... lines, by smiling contorts his face into more lines. 70. new map ... Indies, Steevens, who has been generally followed by the commentators, supposed this map to be one engraved for Linschoten's Voyages, but Mr. Coote, in a paper published in the New Shakespeare Society argues that Shakespeare here refers to the map found in some copies of the complete edition of Hakluyt's Voyages (1599-1600), in which the East Indies are given in greater detail than in any previous map. 72. will strike him, will be so angry with him that she will box his ears. 73. take't ... favour, be highly flattered by it as being a mark of familiarity. 74. bring us, conduct us. ________ How to cite the explanatory notes:________ |
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