...peasant, had found music as much an habitual part of his occupation as was eating or drinking or working. O, fellow, come, the song we had last night. Mark...maids that weave their thread with bones Do use to chant it. It is not only that song and music irradiate these plays — the very clown of one of them...

...of cheating time, of holding human experience in permanent form. Orsino says of 'Come away death', Mark it, Cesario ; it is old and plain ; The spinsters...maids that weave their thread with bones, Do use to chant it. ... (it. iv. 42-5) It has survived through time; it can entertain the simplest folk of the...

...that they are so, To die even when they to perfection grow! Enter Curio and ^Feste, the FooO ORSINO O, fellow, come, the song we had last night. — Mark...and plain; The spinsters and the knitters in the sun 50 And the free maids that weave their thread with bones Do use to chant it. It is silly sooth, And...

...end of the social scale. Longing for Olivia, the lovesick Orsino requests a song to reflect his mood: O, fellow, come, the song we had last night. Mark...maids that weave their thread with bones Do use to chant it. (2.4.42-46) This obscure moment in a familiar play offers a compelling account of much larger...

...male-dominated economy of presence. It is, after all, Feste who is called upon by Orsino to deliver the songs of "The spinsters and the knitters in the sun, / And...the free maids that weave their thread with bones," not the women themselves (77V II. iv. 44-5). : In the early modern era, the anxiety over female chastity...

...returns with Feste the Clown. DUKE O, fellow, come, the song we had last night. Mark [listen closely to] it, Cesario, it is old and plain. The spinsters and the knitters in the sun [all of the old women] and the free maids that weave their thread with bones do use to [like to] chant...