Page 551 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

Marry sir, sometimes he is a kind of Puritan.

SIR ANDREW
O, if I thought that, I’d beat him like a dog.

SIR TOBY
What, for being a Puritan? Thy exquisite reason, dear knight? [140]

SIR ANDREW
I have no exquisite reason for’t, but I have reason good enough.

MARIA
The devil a Puritan that he is, or anything constantly, but a time-pleaser, an
affectioned ass, that cons state without book, and utters it by great swarths:

the [145] best persuaded of himself, so crammed (as he thinks) with
excellencies, that it is his grounds of faith that all that look on him love him:
and on that vice in him will my revenge find notable cause to work.

SIR TOBY
What wilt thou do? [150]

MARIA
I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love, wherein by the colour of

his beard, the shape of his leg, the manner of his gait, the expressure of his
eye, forehead, and complexion, he shall find himself most feelingly
personated. I can write very like my [155] lady your niece; on a forgotten
matter we can hardly make distinction of our hands.

SIR TOBY
Excellent, I smell a device.

SIR ANDREW
I have’t in my nose too.

SIR TOBY
He shall think by the letters that thou wilt [160] drop that they come from my
niece, and that she’s in love with him.