Malvolio following.
Mal.
Were not you even now with the countess
Olivia?
-- 381 --
Vio.
Even now, sir; on a moderate pace I have
since arrived but hither.
Mal.
She returns this ring to you, sir; you
might have saved me my pains, to have taken it
away yourself. She adds moreover, that you should
put your lord into a desperate assurance she will
none of him: And one thing more; that you be
never so hardy to come again in his affairs, unless it
be to report your lord's taking of this. Receive
it so8 note
.
Vio.
She took the ring of me!—I'll none of it9 note
.
Mal.
Come, sir, you peevishly threw it to her;
-- 382 --
and her will is, it should be so returned: if it be
worth stooping for, there it lies in your eye; if not,
be it his that finds it.
[Exit.
Vio.
I left no ring with her: What means this lady?
Fortune forbid, my outside have not charm'd her!
She made good view of me; indeed, so much,
That, sure1 note, methought, her eyes had lost her tongue2 note
,
For she did speak in starts distractedly.
She loves me, sure; the cunning of her passion
Invites me in this churlish messenger.
None of my lord's ring! why, he sent her none.
I am the man;—If it be so, (as 'tis,)
Poor lady, she were better love a dream.
Disguise, I see, thou art a wickedness,
Wherein the pregnant enemy3 note
does much.
How easy is it, for the proper-false
In women's waxen hearts to set their forms4 note
!
-- 383 --
Alas, our frailty5 note
is the cause, not we;
For, such as we are made of, such we be6 note
.
-- 384 --
How will this fadge7 note
? My master loves her dearly;
And I, poor monster, fond as much on him;
And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me:
What will become of this! As I am man,
My state is desperate for my master's love;
As I am woman, now alas the day!
What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe?
-- 385 --
O time, thou must untangle this, not I;
It is too hard a knot for me to untie.
[Exit.
James Boswell [1821], The plays and poems of William Shakspeare, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators: comprehending A Life of the Poet, and an enlarged history of the stage, by the late Edmond Malone. With a new glossarial index (J. Deighton and Sons, Cambridge) [word count] [S10201].
