SCENE VII.
Enter Malvolio.
Duke.
Is this the mad man?
Oli.
Ay, my lord, this same: how now Malvolio?
Mal.
Madam, you have done me wrong,
Notorious wrong.
Oli.
Have I, Malvolio? no.
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,
Bad 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 or gull
-- 547 --
That e'er invention plaid on? tell me why?
Oli.
Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Tho', 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; then 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 past upon thee;
But when we know the grounds and authors of it,
Thou shalt be both the plantiff and the judge
Of thine own cause.
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 wondred at. In hope it shall not,
Most freely I confess my self 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,
In recompence 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 past.
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 whirl-gigg of time brings in his revenges.
Mal.
I'll be reveng'd on the whole pack of you.
[Exit.
-- 548 --
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. Mean time, sweet sister,
We will not part from hence. Cæsario 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.
[Exeunt.
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.
But when I came to man's estate,
With hey, ho, &c.
'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain, &c.
But when I came at last to wive,
With hey, ho, &c.
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain, &c.
But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, &c.
With toss-pots still had drunken heads,
For the rain, &c.
A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, &c.
But that's all one, our play is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day.
[Exit.
