Page:William Hazlitt - Characters of Shakespear's Plays (1817).djvu/292

262 letter, if we were to say that his genius for comedy was less than his genius for tragedy, it would perhaps only prove that our own taste in such matters is more saturnine than mercurial.

"Enter . Sir Toby. Here comes the little villain:—How now, my nettle of India? Maria. Get ye all three into the box-tree: Malvolio's coming down this walk: he has been yonder i' the sun, practising behaviour to his own shadow this half hour: observe him, for the love of mockery; for I know this letter will make a contemplative idiot of him. Close, in the name of jesting! Lie thou there; for here come's the trout that must be caught with tickling. [They hide themselves. Maria throws down a letter, and [Exit. Enter . Malvolio. 'Tis but fortune; all is fortune. Maria once told me, she did affect me; and I have heard herself come thus near, that, should she fancy, it should be one of my complexion. Besides, she uses me with a more exalted respect than any one else that follows her. What should I think on't? Sir Toby. Here's an over-weening rogue! Fabian. O, peace! Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of him; how he jets under his advanced plumes! Sir Andrew. 'Slight, I could so beat the rogue:— Sir Toby. Peace, I say. Malvolio. To be count Malvolio;— Sir Toby. Ah, rogue! Sir Andrew. Pistol him, pistol him. Sir Toby. Peace, peace! Malvolio. There is example for't; the lady of the Strachy married the yeoman of the wardrobe.