Act 3, Scene 4

OLIVIA'S garden.

[Enter OLIVIA and MARIA.]
Olivia
1361 I have sent after him. He says he'll come;
1362 How shall I feast him? what bestow on him?
1363 For youth is bought more oft than begged or borrowed.
1364 I speak too loud.—
1365 Where's Malvolio?—He is sad and civil,
1366 And suits well for a servant with my fortunes;—
1367 Where is Malvolio?
Maria
1368 He's coming, madam:
1369 But in very strange manner. He is sure possessed.
Olivia
1370 Why, what's the matter? does he rave?
Maria
1371 No, madam, he does nothing but smile: your ladyship were
1372 best to have some guard about you if he come;
1373 For, sure, the man is tainted in his wits.
Olivia
1374 Go call him hither.—I'm as mad as he,
1375 If sad and merry madness equal be.—
[Enter MALVOLIO.]
Olivia
1376 How now, Malvolio?
Malvolio
1377 Sweet lady, ho, ho.
[Smiles fantastically.]
Olivia
1378 Smil'st thou?
1379 I sent for thee upon a sad occasion.
Malvolio
1380 Sad, lady? I could be sad: this does make some
1381 obstruction in the blood, this cross-gartering. But what of that?
1382 If it please the eye of one, it is with me as the very true
1383 sonnet is: 'Please one and please all.'
Olivia
1384 Why, how dost thou, man? what is the matter with thee?
Malvolio
1385 Not black in my mind, though yellow in my legs.
1386 It did come to his hands, and commands shall be executed.
1387 I think we do know the sweet Roman hand.
Olivia
1388 Wilt thou go to bed, Malvolio?
Malvolio
1389 To bed? ay, sweetheart; and I'll come to thee.
Olivia
1390 God comfort thee! Why dost thou smile so, and kiss thy hand so
1391 oft?
Maria
1392 How do you, Malvolio?
Malvolio
1393 At your request? Yes; nightingales answer daws.
Maria
1394 Why appear you with this ridiculous boldness before my lady?
Malvolio
1395 'Be not afraid of greatness':—'twas well writ.
Olivia
1396 What meanest thou by that, Malvolio?
Malvolio
1397 'Some are born great,'—
Olivia
1398 Ha?
Malvolio
1399 'Some achieve greatness,'—
Olivia
1400 What say'st thou?
Malvolio
1401 'And some have greatness thrust upon them.'
Olivia
1402 Heaven restore thee!
Malvolio
1403 'Remember who commended thy yellow stockings;'—
Olivia
1404 Thy yellow stockings?
Malvolio
1405 'And wished to see thee cross-gartered.'
Olivia
1406 Cross-gartered?
Malvolio
1407 'Go to: thou an made, if thou desirest to be so:'—
Olivia
1408 Am I made?
Malvolio
1409 'If not, let me see thee a servant still.'
Olivia
1410 Why, this is very midsummer madness.
[Enter Servant.]
Servant
1411 Madam, the young gentleman of the Count Orsino's is
1412 returned; I could hardly entreat him back; he attends your
1413 ladyship's pleasure.
Olivia
1414 I'll come to him.
[Exit Servant.]
Olivia
1415 Good Maria, let this fellow be looked to. Where's my cousin Toby?
1416 Let some of my people have a special care of him; I would not
1417 have him miscarry for the half of my dowry.
[Exeunt OLIVIA and MARIA.]
Malvolio
1418 O, ho! do you come near me now? No worse man than Sir
1419 Toby to look to me? This concurs directly with the letter: she
1420 sends him on purpose, that I may appear stubborn to him; for she
1421 incites me to that in the letter. 'Cast thy humble slough,' says
1422 she;—'be opposite with a kinsman, surly with servants,—let thy
1423 tongue tang with arguments of state,—put thyself into the trick
1424 of singularity;—and consequently, sets down the manner how; as,
1425 a sad face, a reverend carriage, a slow tongue, in the habit of
1426 some sir of note, and so forth. I have limed her; but it is
1427 Jove's doing, and Jove make me thankful! And, when she went away
1428 now, 'Let this fellow be looked to;' Fellow! not Malvolio, nor
1429 after my degree, but fellow. Why, everything adheres together;
1430 that no dram of a scruple, no scruple of a scruple, no obstacle,
1431 no incredulous or unsafe circumstance,—What can be said?
1432 Nothing, that can be, can come between me and the full prospect
1433 of my hopes. Well, Jove, not I, is the doer of this, and he is to
1434 be thanked.
[Re-enter MARIA, with SIR TOBY BELCH and FABIAN.]
Sir Toby Belch
1435 Which way is he, in the name of sanctity? If all the
1436 devils of hell be drawn in little, and Legion himself possessed
1437 him, yet I'll speak to him.
Fabian
1438 Here he is, here he is:—How is't with you, sir? how is't with
1439 you, man?
Malvolio
1440 Go off; I discard you; let me enjoy my private; go off.
Maria
1441 Lo, how hollow the fiend speaks within him! did not I tell
1442 you?—Sir Toby, my lady prays you to have a care of him.
Malvolio
1443 Ah, ha! does she so?
Sir Toby Belch
1444 Go to, go to; peace, peace, we must deal gently with him;
1445 let me alone. How do you, Malvolio? how is't with you? What, man!
1446 defy the devil: consider, he's an enemy to mankind.
Malvolio
1447 Do you know what you say?
Maria
1448 La you, an you speak ill of the devil, how he takes it at
1449 heart! Pray God he be not bewitched.
Fabian
1450 Carry his water to the wise woman.
Maria
1451 Marry, and it shall be done to-morrow morning, if I live. My
1452 lady would not lose him for more than I'll say.
Malvolio
1453 How now, mistress!
Maria
1454 O lord!
Sir Toby Belch
1455 Pr'ythee hold thy peace; this is not the way. Do you not
1456 see you move him? let me alone with him.
Fabian
1457 No way but gentleness; gently, gently: the fiend is rough,
1458 and will not be roughly used.
Sir Toby Belch
1459 Why, how now, my bawcock? how dost thou, chuck.
Malvolio
1460 Sir?
Sir Toby Belch
1461 Ay, Biddy, come with me. What, man! 'tis not for gravity
1462 to play at cherry-pit with Satan. Hang him, foul collier!
Maria
1463 Get him to say his prayers; good Sir Toby, get him to pray.
Malvolio
1464 My prayers, minx?
Maria
1465 No, I warrant you, he will not hear of godliness.
Malvolio
1466 Go, hang yourselves all! you are idle shallow things: I
1467 am not of your element; you shall know more hereafter.
[Exit.]
Sir Toby Belch
1468 Is't possible?
Fabian
1469 If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as
1470 an improbable fiction.
Sir Toby Belch
1471 His very genius hath taken the infection of the device, man.
Maria
1472 Nay, pursue him now; lest the device take air and taint.
Fabian
1473 Why, we shall make him mad indeed.
Maria
1474 The house will be the quieter.
Sir Toby Belch
1475 Come, we'll have him in a dark room and bound. My niece
1476 is already in the belief that he's mad; we may carry it thus, for
1477 our pleasure and his penance, till our very pastime, tired out of
1478 breath, prompt us to have mercy on him: at which time we will
1479 bring the device to the bar, and crown thee for a finder of
1480 madmen. But see, but see.
[Enter SIR ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK.]
Fabian
1481 More matter for a May morning.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
1482 Here's the challenge, read it; I warrant there's vinegar and
1483 pepper in't.
Fabian
1484 Is't so saucy?
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
1485 Ay, is't, I warrant him; do but read.
Sir Toby Belch
1486 Give me.
[Reads.]
Sir Toby Belch
1487 'Youth, whatsoever thou art, thou art but a
1488 scurvy fellow.'
Fabian
1489 Good and valiant.
Sir Toby Belch
1490 'Wonder not, nor admire not in thy mind, why I do
1491 call thee so, for I will show thee no reason for't.'
Fabian
1492 A good note: that keeps you from the blow of the law.
Sir Toby Belch
1493 'Thou comest to the Lady Olivia, and in my sight
1494 she uses thee kindly: but thou liest in thy throat; that is not
1495 the matter I challenge thee for.'
Fabian
1496 Very brief, and to exceeding good senseless.
Sir Toby Belch
1497 'I will waylay thee going home; where if it be
1498 thy chance to kill me,'—
Fabian
1499 Good.
Sir Toby Belch
1500 'Thou kill'st me like a rogue and a villain.'
Fabian
1501 Still you keep o' the windy side of the law. Good.
Sir Toby Belch
1502 'Fare thee well; and God have mercy upon one of
1503 our souls! He may have mercy upon mine; but my hope is better,
1504 and so look to thyself. Thy friend, as thou usest him, and thy
1505 sworn enemy, Andrew Ague-Cheek.'
1506 If this letter move him not, his legs cannot: I'll give't him.
Maria
1507 You may have very fit occasion for't; he is now in some
1508 commerce with my lady, and will by and by depart.
Sir Toby Belch
1509 Go, Sir Andrew; scout me for him at the corner of the
1510 orchard, like a bum-bailiff; so soon as ever thou seest him,
1511 draw; and as thou drawest, swear horrible; for it comes to pass
1512 oft that a terrible oath, with a swaggering accent sharply
1513 twanged off, gives manhood more approbation than ever proof
1514 itself would have earned him. Away.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
1515 Nay, let me alone for swearing.
[Exit.]
Sir Toby Belch
1516 Now will not I deliver his letter; for the behaviour of
1517 the young gentleman gives him out to be of good capacity and
1518 breeding; his employment between his lord and my niece confirms
1519 no less; therefore this letter, being so excellently ignorant,
1520 will breed no terror in the youth: he will find it comes from a
1521 clodpole. But, sir, I will deliver his challenge by word of
1522 mouth, set upon Ague-cheek notable report of valour, and drive
1523 the gentleman,—as I know his youth will aptly receive it,—into
1524 a most hideous opinion of his rage, skill, fury, and impetuosity.
1525 This will so fright them both that they will kill one another by
1526 the look, like cockatrices.
[Enter OLIVIA and VIOLA.]
Fabian
1527 Here he comes with your niece; give them way till he take
1528 leave, and presently after him.
Sir Toby Belch
1529 I will meditate the while upon some horrid message for a
1530 challenge.
[Exeunt SIR TOBY, FABIAN, and MARIA.]
Olivia
1531 I have said too much unto a heart of stone,
1532 And laid mine honour too unchary on it:
1533 There's something in me that reproves my fault;
1534 But such a headstrong potent fault it is
1535 That it but mocks reproof.
Viola
1536 With the same 'haviour that your passion bears
1537 Goes on my master's griefs.
Olivia
1538 Here, wear this jewel for me; 'tis my picture;
1539 Refuse it not; it hath no tongue to vex you:
1540 And, I beseech you, come again to-morrow.
1541 What shall you ask of me that I'll deny,
1542 That, honour saved, may upon asking give?
Viola
1543 Nothing but this, your true love for my master.
Olivia
1544 How with mine honour may I give him that
1545 Which I have given to you?
Viola
1546 I will acquit you.
Olivia
1547 Well, come again to-morrow. Fare thee well;
1548 A fiend like thee might bear my soul to hell.
[Exit.]
[Re-enter SIR TOBY BELCH and SIR FABIAN.]
Sir Toby Belch
1549 Gentleman, God save thee.
Viola
1550 And you, sir.
Sir Toby Belch
1551 That defence thou hast, betake thee to't. Of what nature
1552 the wrongs are thou hast done him, I know not; but thy
1553 intercepter, full of despite, bloody as the hunter, attends
1554 thee at the orchard end: dismount thy tuck, be yare in thy
1555 preparation, for thy assailant is quick, skilful, and deadly.
Viola
1556 You mistake, sir; I am sure no man hath any quarrel to me;
1557 my remembrance is very free and clear from any image of offence
1558 done to any man.
Sir Toby Belch
1559 You'll find it otherwise, I assure you: therefore, if you
1560 hold your life at any price, betake you to your guard; for your
1561 opposite hath in him what youth, strength, skill, and wrath, can
1562 furnish man withal.
Viola
1563 I pray you, sir, what is he?
Sir Toby Belch
1564 He is knight, dubbed with unhacked rapier and on carpet
1565 consideration; but he is a devil in private brawl; souls and
1566 bodies hath he divorced three; and his incensement at this moment
1567 is so implacable that satisfaction can be none but by pangs of
1568 death and sepulchre: hob, nob is his word; give't or take't.
Viola
1569 I will return again into the house and desire some conduct
1570 of the lady. I am no fighter. I have heard of some kind of men
1571 that put quarrels purposely on others to taste their valour:
1572 belike this is a man of that quirk.
Sir Toby Belch
1573 Sir, no; his indignation derives itself out of a very
1574 competent injury; therefore, get you on and give him his desire.
1575 Back you shall not to the house, unless you undertake that with
1576 me which with as much safety you might answer him: therefore on,
1577 or strip your sword stark naked; for meddle you must, that's
1578 certain, or forswear to wear iron about you.
Viola
1579 This is as uncivil as strange. I beseech you, do me this
1580 courteous office as to know of the knight what my offence to him
1581 is; it is something of my negligence, nothing of my purpose.
Sir Toby Belch
1582 I Will do so. Signior Fabian, stay you by this gentleman
1583 till my return.
[Exit SIR TOBY.]
Viola
1584 Pray you, sir, do you know of this matter?
Fabian
1585 I know the knight is incensed against you, even to a mortal
1586 arbitrement; but nothing of the circumstance more.
Viola
1587 I beseech you, what manner of man is he?
Fabian
1588 Nothing of that wonderful promise, to read him by his form,
1589 as you are like to find him in the proof of his valour. He is
1590 indeed, sir, the most skilful, bloody, and fatal opposite that
1591 you could possibly have found in any part of Illyria. Will you
1592 walk towards him? I will make your peace with him if I can.
Viola
1593 I shall be much bound to you for't. I am one that would
1594 rather go with sir priest than sir knight: I care not who knows
1595 so much of my mettle.
[Exeunt.]
[Re-enter SIR TOBY With SIR ANDREW.]
Sir Toby Belch
1596 Why, man, he's a very devil; I have not seen such a
1597 virago. I had a pass with him, rapier, scabbard, and all, and he
1598 gives me the stuck-in with such a mortal motion that it is
1599 inevitable; and on the answer, he pays you as surely as your feet
1600 hit the ground they step on. They say he has been fencer to the
1601 Sophy.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
1602 Pox on't, I'll not meddle with him.
Sir Toby Belch
1603 Ay, but he will not now be pacified: Fabian can scarce
1604 hold him yonder.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
1605 Plague on't; an I thought he had been valiant, and so
1606 cunning in fence, I'd have seen him damned ere I'd have
1607 challenged him. Let him let the matter slip and I'll give him
1608 my horse, grey Capilet.
Sir Toby Belch
1609 I'll make the motion. Stand here, make a good show on't;
1610 this shall end without the perdition of souls.
[Aside.]
Sir Toby Belch
1611 Marry,
1612 I'll ride your horse as well as I ride you.
[Re-enter FABIAN and VIOLA.]
Sir Toby Belch
1613 I have his horse
[To FABIAN.]
Sir Toby Belch
1614 to take up the quarrel; I have
1615 persuaded him the youth's a devil.
Fabian
1616 He is as horribly conceited of him; and pants and looks pale, as
1617 if a bear were at his heels.
Sir Toby Belch
1618 There's no remedy, sir: he will fight with you for's oath sake:
1619 marry, he hath better bethought him of his quarrel, and he finds
1620 that now scarce to be worth talking of: therefore, draw for the
1621 supportance of his vow; he protests he will not hurt you.
[Aside]
Viola
1622 Pray God defend me! A little thing would make me
1623 tell them how much I lack of a man.
Fabian
1624 Give ground if you see him furious.
Sir Toby Belch
1625 Come, Sir Andrew, there's no remedy; the gentleman will,
1626 for his honour's sake, have one bout with you: he cannot by the
1627 duello avoid it; but he has promised me, as he is a gentleman and
1628 a soldier, he will not hurt you. Come on: to't.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
1629 Pray God he keep his oath!
[Draws.]
[Enter ANTONIO.]
Viola
1630 I do assure you 'tis against my will.
[Draws.]
Antonio
1631 Put up your sword:—if this young gentleman
1632 Have done offence, I take the fault on me;
1633 If you offend him, I for him defy you.
[Drawing.]
Sir Toby Belch
1634 You, sir! why, what are you?
Antonio
1635 One, sir, that for his love dares yet do more
1636 Than you have heard him brag to you he will.
Sir Toby Belch
1637 Nay, if you be an undertaker, I am for you.
[Draws.]
[Enter two Officers.]
Sir Toby Belch
1638 FABIAN. O good Sir Toby, hold; here come the officers.
[To ANTONIO]
Sir Toby Belch
1639 I'll be with you anon.
[To Sir Andrew.]
Viola
1640 Pray, sir, put your sword up, if you please.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
1641 Marry, will I, sir; and for that I promised you, I'll be
1642 as good as my word. He will bear you easily and reins well.
First Officer
1643 This is the man; do thy office.
Second Officer
1644 Antonio, I arrest thee at the suit
1645 Of Count Orsino.
Antonio
1646 You do mistake me, sir.
First Officer
1647 No, sir, no jot; I know your favour well,
1648 Though now you have no sea-cap on your head.—
1649 Take him away; he knows I know him well.
Antonio
1650 I Must obey.—This comes with seeking you;
1651 But there's no remedy; I shall answer it.
1652 What will you do? Now my necessity
1653 Makes me to ask you for my purse. It grieves me
1654 Much more for what I cannot do for you
1655 Than what befalls myself. You stand amazed;
1656 But be of comfort.
Second Officer
1657 Come, sir, away.
Antonio
1658 I must entreat of you some of that money.
Viola
1659 What money, sir?
1660 For the fair kindness you have showed me here,
1661 And part being prompted by your present trouble,
1662 Out of my lean and low ability
1663 I'll lend you something; my having is not much;
1664 I'll make division of my present with you:
1665 Hold, there is half my coffer.
Antonio
1666 Will you deny me now?
1667 Is't possible that my deserts to you
1668 Can lack persuasion? Do not tempt my misery,
1669 Lest that it make me so unsound a man
1670 As to upbraid you with those kindnesses
1671 That I have done for you.
Viola
1672 I know of none,
1673 Nor know I you by voice or any feature:
1674 I hate ingratitude more in a man
1675 Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,
1676 Or any taint of vice whose strong corruption
1677 Inhabits our frail blood.
Antonio
1678 O heavens themselves!
Second Officer
1679 Come, sir, I pray you go.
Antonio
1680 Let me speak a little. This youth that you see here
1681 I snatched one half out of the jaws of death,
1682 Relieved him with such sanctity of love,—
1683 And to his image, which methought did promise
1684 Most venerable worth, did I devotion.
First Officer
1685 What's that to us? The time goes by; away.
Antonio
1686 But O how vile an idol proves this god!
1687 Thou hast, Sebastian, done good feature shame.
1688 In nature there's no blemish but the mind;
1689 None can be call'd deform'd but the unkind:
1690 Virtue is beauty; but the beauteous-evil
1691 Are empty trunks, o'erflourished by the devil.
First Officer
1692 The man grows mad; away with him. Come, come, sir.
Antonio
1693 Lead me on.
[Exeunt Officers with ANTONIO.]
Viola
1694 Methinks his words do from such passion fly
1695 That he believes himself; so do not I.
1696 Prove true, imagination; O prove true,
1697 That I, dear brother, be now ta'en for you!
Sir Toby Belch
1698 Come hither, knight; come hither, Fabian; we'll whisper
1699 o'er a couplet or two of most sage saws.
Viola
1700 He named Sebastian; I my brother know
1701 Yet living in my glass; even such and so
1702 In favour was my brother; and he went
1703 Still in this fashion, colour, ornament,
1704 For him I imitate. O, if it prove,
1705 Tempests are kind, and salt waves fresh in love!
[Exit.]
Sir Toby Belch
1706 A very dishonest paltry boy, and more a coward than a
1707 hare: his dishonesty appears in leaving his friend here in
1708 necessity, and denying him; and for his cowardship, ask Fabian.
Fabian
1709 A coward, a most devout coward, religious in it.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
1710 'Slid, I'll after him again and beat him.
Sir Toby Belch
1711 Do, cuff him soundly, but never draw thy sword.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
1712 And I do not,—
[Exit.]
Fabian
1713 Come, let's see the event.
Sir Toby Belch
1714 I dare lay any money 'twill be nothing yet.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1363archaic vocab
“youth is bought more oft than begged or borrowed”
Olivia means that the affection of a young man (Cesario) is more easily won by gifts ('bought') than by pleading ('begged') or relying on favours already owed ('borrowed'). She is rehearsing how to court him — reversing the usual power relation in which a man courts a woman.
TLN 1369historical topical
“He is sure possessed”
Maria means that Malvolio is literally possessed by a devil — the Elizabethan medical and theological explanation for erratic, euphoric, or bizarre behaviour. Demonic possession was a common diagnosis, not a metaphor, and it sets up the entire plot to lock Malvolio in a dark room as a madman.
TLN 1381historical topical
“obstruction in the blood, this cross-gartering”
Cross-gartering meant binding a stocking so that the garter crossed both above and below the knee, forming an X. The fashion was old-fashioned and, on a middle-aged steward, conspicuously absurd. Malvolio is wearing it because Maria's forged letter commanded it as proof of love.
TLN 1382cultural context
“very true sonnet is: 'Please one and please all.'”
'Please one and please all' was a well-known contemporary ballad catch-phrase, roughly meaning 'if I can satisfy the one person who matters, the rest can think what they like.' Malvolio applies it to himself: if his appearance pleases Olivia, no one else's opinion counts. Here 'sonnet' means any short poem or popular song, not a formal fourteen-line sonnet.
TLN 1385historical topical
“Not black in my mind, though yellow in my legs”
Malvolio plays on two colour-codes: 'black' in the mind meant melancholy (a black humour was the melancholic one) — but he insists he is not sad. 'Yellow' in his legs is the colour he is wearing — yellow stockings — which was associated in Elizabethan fashion and folk-culture with jealousy, or with a flamboyant, unserious disposition. The line parodies medical-humoral language to declare himself cheerfully in love.
TLN 1387historical topical
“we do know the sweet Roman hand”
'Roman hand' was the Italic (humanist) script — upright, flowing, and closely modelled on ancient Roman inscriptions — that fashionable educated people used in Elizabethan England, as opposed to the angular native Secretary hand. Malvolio is claiming he recognises Olivia's personal handwriting in the letter Maria forged.
TLN 1393archaic vocab
“nightingales answer daws”
A 'daw' (jackdaw) is a small, noisy, and proverbially stupid crow; the nightingale was the supreme songbird. Malvolio is saying that a superior being like himself does not answer an inferior like Maria — nightingales don't converse with jackdaws. His contempt for the household's waiting-gentlewoman is blunt and is part of what makes his coming humiliation satisfying.
TLN 1395cultural context
“'Be not afraid of greatness'”
Malvolio is quoting directly from Maria's forged letter, which he has memorised and is now reciting aloud as if the words were scripture. Olivia, who knows nothing of the letter, hears only a steward publicly announcing that he need not fear rising above his station — which sounds like raving. The comedy depends entirely on this mismatch.
historical Twelfth Night and the Lord of Misrule
TLN 1410historical topical
“very midsummer madness”
'Midsummer madness' was a proverbial phrase: the height of summer, around the feast of St John (24 June), was held to be a time when the heat disturbed the brain, and 'midsummer' became a byword for lunacy. Olivia is calling Malvolio's behaviour the very peak of crazy nonsense.
TLN 1421archaic vocab
“'Cast thy humble slough,' says she”
A 'slough' is the dry skin a snake sheds when it moults, leaving behind the old self and emerging bright and new. The forged letter's command to 'cast thy humble slough' means shed your servile behaviour and personality — stop being deferential and act like a gentleman. Malvolio has taken the metaphor literally and dropped every trace of stewardly deference.
TLN 1426archaic vocab
“I have limed her; but it is Jove's doing”
To 'lime' a bird was to catch it using a sticky substance (birdlime, made from holly bark) smeared on a branch — when the bird lands, it cannot free its feet. Malvolio believes he has caught Olivia in love, as a fowler catches a bird. The conceit is deeply ironic: it is Malvolio himself who has been 'limed' by Maria's letter.
TLN 1430rhetorical device
“no dram of a scruple, no scruple of a scruple”
Malvolio heaps up the two smallest units of apothecary weight: a scruple (20 grains) is one-third of a dram, which is one-eighth of an ounce. By saying 'not a dram of a scruple, not a scruple of a scruple,' he means not even the tiniest possible fraction of doubt — nothing at all stands in his way. The repetition and nesting of diminishing measures is rhetorical overkill that exposes his inflation of certainty.
TLN 1435biblical allusion
“all the devils of hell be drawn in little, and Legion himself possessed him”
'Legion' is the name the possessed man in the Gospels gave when Jesus asked his name: 'My name is Legion: for we are many' (Mark 5:9). The man was inhabited by so many demons that Jesus cast them out into a herd of pigs. Sir Toby is saying that even if every devil in hell were crammed small enough to fit inside Malvolio, and 'Legion' himself were among them, he would still talk to him.
TLN 1450historical topical
“Carry his water to the wise woman”
Diagnosing illness by examining urine ('casting the water') was standard Elizabethan medicine. The 'wise woman' is a local cunning woman — a semi-official healer and fortune-teller who also handled cases thought to involve witchcraft or possession. Fabian is proposing folk magic as the cure for Malvolio's apparent madness.
TLN 1459archaic vocab
“my bawcock? how dost thou, chuck”
'Bawcock' is a term of affection, from the French 'beau coq' (fine cock, handsome fellow); 'chuck' is a clucking endearment (like a hen's call to her chick), used for children or loved ones. Sir Toby is adopting the gentle, soothing tone used with the mentally disturbed — petting Malvolio as if he were a frightened child or a sick animal.
TLN 1462archaic vocab
“play at cherry-pit with Satan. Hang him, foul collier”
'Cherry-pit' was a children's game in which players pitched cherry stones into a small hole. Sir Toby says it would be beneath a serious man's dignity to play children's games with the devil. 'Collier' means a coalman — coalmen were proverbially black with soot and associated with dishonesty, and the devil, equally black, was sometimes called a collier.
TLN 1469rhetorical device
“If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction”
Fabian steps briefly outside the plot to acknowledge — directly to the audience — that what they are watching is so far-fetched that even a theatergoer watching a play about it would find it unbelievable. This is meta-theatrical self-consciousness: a character on a stage admits he is on a stage and that his own story is the kind of thing audiences disbelieve.
TLN 1475historical topical
“have him in a dark room and bound”
Confining a person deemed mad in a dark room and restraining them with ropes or chains was standard Elizabethan treatment for lunatics. Sir Toby is describing the recognised therapeutic procedure, not inventing a torment — which makes the abuse harder to object to and easier for the conspirators to justify to Olivia.
historical Puritanism and revelry ('a kind of Puritan')
TLN 1481historical topical
“More matter for a May morning”
May morning (May Day, 1 May) was a holiday of outdoor celebration, games, and festive foolery — the archetype of pleasurable nonsense. Fabian's line means 'here comes more entertainment to add to the holiday fun' — fresh comic material. Like 'midsummer madness,' it links the action to the holiday spirit of the whole play.
historical Twelfth Night and the Lord of Misrule
TLN 1501archaic vocab
“keep o' the windy side of the law”
To keep on the 'windy side' of something means to stay on the safer side, so the wind (and the danger) is at your back rather than blowing in your face. The nautical image means staying just outside what the law prohibits: Sir Andrew's letter manages, through its own stupidity, to stay just out of legal reach.
TLN 1510archaic vocab
“like a bum-bailiff”
A 'bum-bailiff' (also 'bumble-bailiff') was a court officer who seized debtors, the name coming from his habit of creeping up behind ('at the bum of') his quarry. Sir Toby tells Sir Andrew to lurk at the orchard corner and watch for Cesario exactly as a debt-collector sneaks up on someone who owes money.
TLN 1525historical topical
“they will kill one another by the look, like cockatrices”
The cockatrice (or basilisk) was a legendary creature — half cock, half serpent — whose gaze was supposed to be instantly fatal. Sir Toby's joke is that both Sir Andrew and Cesario are so terrified that neither will need to draw a sword: if they so much as look at each other, the other will die of fright, as if struck by a cockatrice's eye.
TLN 1554archaic vocab
“dismount thy tuck, be yare in thy preparation”
'Dismount thy tuck' means draw your rapier ('tuck' is a thin thrusting sword; 'dismount' means to take it from its mount, i.e. unsheath it). 'Yare' means quick, ready, brisk. Sir Toby is commanding Cesario to draw and prepare for a duel.
TLN 1564historical topical
“dubbed with unhacked rapier and on carpet consideration”
A 'carpet knight' was someone knighted not for military service in the field but by kneeling on a carpet before the monarch — a ceremonial honour with no fighting behind it. Sir Andrew's sword is 'unhacked' because it has never been used in real combat. Sir Toby is privately mocking Sir Andrew as a fake knight even while publicly describing him to Cesario as terrifying.
TLN 1568archaic vocab
“hob, nob is his word; give't or take't”
'Hob, nob' (or 'hab, nab') is an old expression meaning 'have it or have it not' — take it or leave it, with no middle option. Sir Toby invokes it as Sir Andrew's motto: kill or be killed, all or nothing. It is the language of mock-heroic bluster.
TLN 1596archaic vocab
“he's a very devil; I have not seen such a virago”
In Shakespeare's usage 'virago' meant a fierce, warlike woman — but applied here to a man (Cesario) it works as a compliment meaning a warrior of extraordinary power, so fierce as to be superhuman. The word also carries an ironic edge for the audience: Cesario actually is a woman (Viola).
TLN 1600historical topical
“he has been fencer to the Sophy”
The 'Sophy' was the Shah of Persia (from 'Safi,' the dynastic name of the ruling Safavid family). Persia was, for Elizabethans, a remote and fabulous court of Oriental splendour and danger. Sir Toby's claim that Cesario has served as fencing-master to the Persian Shah is the climax of his absurd fabrication: an unverifiable, exotic credential meant to terrify Sir Andrew beyond all argument.
TLN 1626historical topical
“by the duello avoid it”
The 'duello' was the formal Italian code of duelling — a set of rules governing when a gentleman was obliged to fight and what excuses were and were not honourable. Sir Toby invokes it to tell Cesario that honour code leaves no escape from the duel. The word is the polite Italian term for the whole elaborate ritual of challenge, seconds, and combat.
TLN 1700cultural context
“I my brother know Yet living in my glass”
Viola means that she knows her brother Sebastian is still alive 'in her glass' — that is, reflected in the mirror when she looks at herself, since twins look identical. When she looks at her own face she is seeing his face. The image is one of the most moving in the scene: the mirror as a living proof that a twin believed drowned might still exist.
TLN 1704rhetorical device
“O, if it prove, Tempests are kind, and salt waves fresh in love!”
Viola's exclamation is an oxymoron: 'tempests' are usually destructive and 'salt waves' usually bitter, but if this hope proves true — that Sebastian lives — then even the violent sea that seemed to kill him will have been kind, and its bitter salt-water will have been sweet. She is saying that if her brother is alive, she can bless the shipwreck that brought her here.
TLN 1710archaic vocab
“'Slid, I'll after him again”
'Slid' is an abbreviated oath meaning 'by God's eyelid' ('God's lid'), a mild Elizabethan profanity contracted to a single syllable to soften its blasphemous force. The common practice of clipping and disguising oaths arose partly from the 1606 Act to Restrain Abuses of Players, which forbade swearing by God's name on stage.