They say, poor gentleman, he 's much distract.
A most extracting frenzy of mine own
From my remembrance clearly banished his.-
Re-enter Clown, with a letter, and FABIAN.

How does he, sirrah?

Clo. Truly, madam, he holds Beelzebub at the stave's end as well as a man in his case may do: 'has here writ a letter to you: I should have given 't you to-day morning, but as a madman's epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much when they are delivered.

Oli. Open it, and read it

Clo. Look then to be well edified, when the fool delivers the madman. [Reads.] By the Lord, madam,

Oli. How now! art thou mad?

Clo. No, madam, I do but read madness: an your ladyship will have it as it ought to be, you must allow vox.

Oli. Prithee, read i' thy right wits.

Clo. So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits, is to read thus: therefore perpend, my princess, and give ear.

Oli. [To FABIAN.] Read it you, sirrah.

Fab. [Reads.] By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world shall know it: thouah vow baw

put me into darkness, and given your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that induced me to the semblance I put on; with the which I doubt not but to do myself much right, or you much shame. Think of me as you please. 1 leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of my injury.

The madly-used MALVOLIO.

Oli. Did he write this?

Clo. Ay, madamı.

Duke. This savours not much of distraction.

Oli. See him delivered, Fabian: bring him hither.

[Exit FABIAN. My lord, so please you, these things further thought

on,

To think me as well a sister as a wife,

One day shall crown the alliance on 't, so please you, Here at my house, and at my proper cost.

Duke. Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer.

[TO VIOLA.] Your master quits you; and, for your service done him,

So much against the mettle of your sex,

227) 100x aalt cre) tanlar branding

Here is my hand: you shall from this time be
Your master's mistress.

Oli

A sister!-you are she.

Re-enter FABIAN, with MALVOLIO.

Duke. Is this the madman?

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, 't is 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,
Bade me come smiling and cross-gartered 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 suffered me to be imprisoned,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious cock

That e'er invention played on? tell me why.

Oli. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character:
But, out of question, 't is Maria's hand.
And now I do bethink me, it was she

First told me thou wast mad; thou cam'st in smiling,
And in such forms which here were presupposed
Upon thee in the letter. Prithee, be content :
This practice hath most shrewdly passed upon thee;
But when we know the grounds and authors of it,
Thou shalt be both the plaintiff 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,

In hope it shall not,
Most freely I confess, myself and Toby
Set this device against Malvolio here,
Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts
We had conceived against him. Maria writ
The letter at Sir Toby's great importance:
In recompense whereof, he hath married her.
How with a sportful malice it was followed
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge,

Which I have wondered at.

Oli. Alas, poor fool, how have they baffled thee!

6

Clo. Why, some are born great, some achieve 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 gagged: '-and thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.

Mal. I'll be revenged on the whole pack of

you.

[Exit.

Oli. He hath been most notoriously abused. 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.

Meantime, sweet sister,

We will not part from hence.-Cesario, 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 all, except Clown.

CLOWN sings.

When that I was and a little tiny boy,

With hey, ho, the wind and 11