Page:Twelfth Night (1922) Yale.djvu/110

I. ii. 40–42. And might not be deliver'd to the world . . . What my estate is. Might not have my real identity divulged till I had made it opportune to do so.

I. ii. 60. eunuch . . . mute. Well-known functionaries in oriental courts. Viola, however, changes her mind and assumes the character of a page.

I. iii. 28. viol-de-gamboys. Sir Toby's perversion of viol da gamba, an instrument like a violoncello.

I. iii. 31. natural. A play on the meanings 'by nature' and 'like a born fool.'

I. iii. 45. parish-top. 'A large top was formerly kept in every village, to be whipped in frosty weather, that the peasants might be kept warm by exercise, and out of mischief, while they could not work. (Steevens.)

I. iii. 46. Castiliano vulgo. Probably Spanish of Sir Toby's own coinage, meaning possibly, put on a distinguished manner.

I. iii. 75, 76. bring your hand to the buttery-bar and let it drink. Ale was dispensed from the buttery as food from the pantry. Kenrick asserts that the first six words were 'a proverbial phrase among forward Abigails, to ask at once for a kiss and a present.' A dry hand (line 79) was a sign of age or infirmity. Desdemona has a moist hand because 'It yet has felt no age nor known no sorrow' (Othello, III. iv. 38).

I. iii. 102, 103. Then hadst thou had an excellent head of hair. Probably a pun on 'tongues' (line 99) and 'tongs' (curling tongs).

I. iii. 115. The count. Orsino, who is called duke and count indifferently in the play. Possibly the inconsistency is due to contamination of two different versions of the comedy in the Folio text.