O R,

WHAT YOU WILL.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

An apartment in the Duke's palace.

Enter DUKE, CURIO, Lords; Musicians attending.

DUKE. If mufick be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that, furfeiting,* The appetite may ficken, and fo die.That strain again;-it had a dying fall: 3

3

Give me excels of it; that, furfeiting, &c.] So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"And now excess of it will make me furfeit." STEEVENS. 3 That ftrain again; it had a dying fall:

O, it came d'er my ear like the fweet fouth,

That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing, and giving odour.] Milton, in his Paradise Loft, B. IV. has very fuccefsfully introduced the fame image:

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now gentle gales,

Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense

"Native perfumes, and whifper whence they fole
"Those balmy spoils." STEEVENS.

That ftrain again;-it had a dying fall:] Hence Pope, in his Ode on Saint Cecilia's Day:

"The Arains decay,

"And melt away,

"In a dying, dying fall."

Again, Thomfon, in his Spring, v. 722; speaking of the nightingale:

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Still at every dying fall

"Takes up the lamentable strain." HOLT WHITE.

O, it camne o'er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,'
Stealing, and giving odour.-Enough; no more;
Tis not fo fweet now, as it was before.
Ofpirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou!
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the fea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch foever,"
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute! fo full of fhapes is fancy,
That it alone is high-fantastical.7

CUR. Will you go hunt, my lord?
DUKE.

What, Curio?

4the freet fouth,] The old copy readsfweet found, which Mr. Rowe changed into wind, and Mr. Pope into Jouth. The thought might have been borrowed from Sidney's Arcadia, Lib. I: " more weet than a gentle South-weft wind, which comes creeping over flowery fields," &c. This work was published in 1590. STEEVENS.

I fee no reason for disturbing the text of the old copy, which reads Sound. The wind, from whatever quarter, would produce a found in breathing on the violets, or clfe the fimile is falfe. Befides, found is a better relative to the antecedent, ftrain.

DOUCE.

That breathes upon a bank of violets,] Here Shak fpeare makes the fouth fteal odour from the violet. In his 99th Sonnet, the violet is made the thief:

"The forward violet thus did I chide:

"Sweet thief, whence didft thou fteal thy fweet that smells, "If not from my love's breath?" MALONE.

Of what validity and pitch foever,] Validity is here used for value. MALONE.

So, in King Lear:

"No lefs in fpace, validity, and pleasure."

STEEVENS.

"That it alone is high-fantastical.] High-fantastical, means fantastical to the height.

So, in All's Well that Ends Well:

"My high-repented blames

"Dear fovereign, pardon me." STEEVENS.

CUR.

The hart.

DUKE. Why, fo I do, the nobleft that I have: O, when mine eyes did fee Olivia first, Methought, the purg'd the air of peftilence; That inftant was I turn'd into a hart;

And my defires, like fell and cruel hounds, E'er fince purfue me.-How now? what news from her?

That inftant was I turn'd into a bart;

And my defires, like fell and cruel bounds,

E'er fince purfue me.] This image evidently alludes to the ftory of Acteon, by which Shakspeare feems to think men cautioned against too great familiarity with forbidden beauty. Acteon, who faw Diana naked, and was torn to pieces by his hounds, reprefents a man, who indulging his eyes, or his imagination, with the view of a woman that he cannot gain, has his heart torn with inceffant longing. An_interpretation far more elegant and natural than that of Sir Francis Bacon, who, in his Wisdom of the Ancients, fuppofes this ftory to warn us againft enquiring into the fecrets of princes, by fhewing, that thofe who know that which for reafons of ftate is to be concealed, will be detected and deftroyed by their own fervants. JOHNSON.

This thought, (as I learn from an anonymous writer in the Gentleman's Magazine,) is borrowed from the 5th fonnet of

Daniel:

"Whilft youth and error led my wand'ring mind,
"And fette my thoughts in heedles waies to range,

"All unawares, a goddeffe chafte I finde,

"(Diana like) to worke my fuddaine change,

"For her no fooner had mine eye bewraid,
"But with difdaine to fee mee in that place,
"With faireft hand the sweet unkindest maid
"Cafts water-cold difdaine upon my face:
"Which turn'd my fport into a hart's defpaire,
"Which still is chac'd, while I have any breath,
"By mine own thoughts, fette on me by my faire;
"My thoughts, like bounds, purfue me to my death.
"Thofe that I fofter'd of mine own accord,
"Are made by her to murder thus theyr lord."

See Daniel's Delia

Rofamond, augmented, 1594. STEEVENS,

Enter VALENTINE.

VAL. So please my lord, I might not be admitted,

But from her hand-maid do return this answer:
The element itself, till feven years heat,
Shall not behold her face at ample view;
But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk,
And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine: all this, to season
A brother's dead love, which fhe would keep fresh,
And lafting, in her fad remembrance.

DUKE. O, fhe, that hath a heart of that fine frame,

To pay this debt of love but to a brother,
How will the love, when the rich golden fhaft,
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections * elfe
That live in her! 3 when liver, brain, and heart,

The element itself, till feven years heat,] Heat for heated. The air, till it shall have been warmed by feven revolutions of the fun, fhall not, &c. So, in King John:

"The iron of itself, though heat red hot-."

Again, in Macbeth:

And this report

"Hath fo exasperate the king-." MALONE.

2 the flock of all affections] So, in Sidney's Arcadia: -has the flock of unfpeakable virtues." STEEVENS.

30, fhe, that hath a heart of that fine frame,

To pay this debt of love but to a brother,

How will the love, when the rich golden fhaft,
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections elfe

That live in her!] Dr. Hurd obferves, that Simo, in the Andrian of Terence, reafons on his fon's concern for Chryfis in the fame manner:

Nonnunquam conlacrumabat: placuit tum id mihi.
"Sic cogitabam: hic parvæ confuetudinis

"Causâ mortem hujus tam fert familiariter:
Quid fi ipfe amâffet? quid mihi hic faciet patri?"

STEEVENS.

These sovereign thrones, are all supply'd, and fill'd,

(Her fweet perfections,) with one self king!—" Away before me to fweet beds of flowers;

Love-thoughts lie rich, when canopy'd with bowers.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Sea-coaft.

7

Enter VIOLA, Captain, and Sailors.

V10. What country, friends, is this?
CAP.

Illyria, lady.

4 Thefe fovereign thrones,] We fhould read-three fovereign thrones. This is exactly in the manner of Shakspeare. So, afterwards, in this play, Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and Spirit, do give thee fivefold blazon. WARBURTON.

5 Her fweet perfections,] Liver, brain, and heart, are admitted in poetry as the refidence of passions, judgment, and sentiments. These are what Shakspeare calls, her fweet perfections, though he has not very clearly expreffed what he might defign to have faid.

STEEVENS.

6 with one self king!] Thus the original copy. The editor of the fecond folio, who in many inftances appears to have been equally ignorant of our author's language and metre, readsfelf-fame king; a reading, which all the fubfequent editors have adopted. The verfe is not defective. Perfections is here used as a quadrifyllable. So, in a fubfequent scene:

Methinks I feel this youth's perfections." Self-king means felf-fame king; one and the fame king. So, in King Richard II:

that self-mould that fashion'd thee,

"Made him a man." MALONE.

Enter Viola,] Viola is the name of a lady in the fifth book of Gower de Confeffione Amantis. STEEVENS.

8 Illyria, lady.] The old copy reads-" This is Illyria, lady.” But I have omitted the two firft words, which violate the metre, without improvement of the fenfe. STEEVENS.