A. You would all this time have prov'd, there is no time for all things.

S. Dro. Marry, and did, Sir; namely, no time to recover hair loft by nature.

Ant. But your reason was not substantial, why there is no time to recover..

S. Dro. Thus I mend it: Time himself is bald, and therefore to the world's end will have bald fol·lowers.

Ant. I knew, 'twould be a bald conclufion; but, foft! who wafts us yonder ?

Enter Adriana, and Luciana.

Adr. Ay, ay, Antipholis, look ftrange and frown, Some other miftrefs hath thy fweet afpects:

I am not Adriana, nor thy wife.

The time was once, when thou, unurg'd, would'ft vow,
That never words were mufick to thine ear,

That never object pleafing in thine eye,
That never touch well welcome to thy hand,
That never meat sweet-favour'd in thy taste,
Unless I fpake, or look'd, or touch'd, or carv'd.

How comes it now, my husband, oh, how comes it,
That thou art thus eftranged from thyfelf?
Thyfelf I call it, being ftrange to me:
That, undividable, incorporate,

Am better than thy dear felf's better part.
Ah, do not tear away thyfelf from me:
For know, my love, as eafie may'ft thou fall
A drop of water in the breaking gulph,
And take unmingled thence that drop again,
Without addition or diminishing,

As take from me thyfelf; and not me too.
How dearly would it touch thee to the quick,
Should'ft thou but hear, I were licentious?
And that this body, confecrate to thee,
By ruffian luft fhould be contaminate?
Would'st thou not spit at me, and spurn at me,
And hurl the name of husband in my face,
And tear the ftain'd skin of my harlot-brow,

I 2

And

And from my false hand cut the wedding ring,
And break it with a deep-divorcing vow?

I know thou canft; and therefore, fee, thou do it.
I am poffefs'd with an adulterate blot;

My blood is mingled with the crime of luft:
For if we two be one, and thou play false,
I do digeft the poifon of thy flesh,

Being ftrumpeted by thy contagion.

Keep then fair league, and truce with thy true bed';
I live dif-ftain'd, thou undishonoured. (5)

Ant. Plead you to me, fair dame, I know you not: In Ephesus I am but two hours old,

As ftrange unto your town as to your

talk.

Who, every word by all my wit being fcann'd,
Wants wit in all one word to understand.

Luc. Fie, brother! how the world is chang'd with you; When were you wont to use my fifter thus?

She fent for you by Dromio home to dinner.

Ant. By Dromio?

S. Dro. By me?

Adr. By thee; and thus thou didst return from him, That he did buffet thee; and in his blows

Deny'd my houfe for his, me for his wife.

Ant. Did you converse, Sir, with this gentlewoman? What is the course and drift of your compact?

S. Dro. I, Sir? I never faw her 'till this time.
Ant. Villain, thou lieft; for even her very words
Didft thou deliver to me on the mart.

S. Dro. I never fpoke with her in all my life.
Ant. How can the thus then call us by our names,
Unless it be by infpiration?

Adr. How ill agrees it with your gravity,
To counterfeit thus grofly with your flave,

(5) I live diftain'd, thou undishonour'd.] To diftaine (from the French Word, deftaindre) fignifies, to fain, defile, pollute. But the Context requires a fenfe quite oppofite. We must either read, unflain'd; or, by adding an Hypben, and giving the Prepofition a privative Force, tead dif-fain'd ; and then it will mean, unflain'd, "undefiled,

Abet

Abetting him to thwart me in my mood?
Be it my wrong, you are from me exempt,
But wrong not that wrong with a more contempt,
Come, I will faften on this fleeve of thine;
Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine:
Whofe weakness, marry'd to thy ftronger ftate,
Makes me with thy ftrength to communicate;
If aught poffefs thee from me, it is drofs,
Ufurping ivy, brier, or idle mofs;

Who, all for want of pruning, with intrufion
Infect thy fap, and live on thy confufion.

Ant. To me the fpeaks; the moves me for her theam What, was I marry'd to her in my dream?

Or fleep I now, and think I hear all this?
What error drives our eyes and ears amif?
Until I know this fure uncertainty,
I'll entertain the favour'd fallacy.

Luc. Dromio, go bid the fervants fpread for dinner.
S. Dro. Oh, for my beads! I cross me for a finner.
This is the Fairy land: oh, fpight of fpights!
We talk with goblins, ouphs, and elvish sprights; (6)
If we obey them not, this will enfue,

They'll fuck our breath, and pinch us black and blue. Luc. Why prat'ft thou to thyfelf, and anfwer'it not? (7)

Dromio, thou drone, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot!
S. Dro. I am transformed, mafter, am not I!
Ant. I think, thou art in mind, and fo am I.

S. Dro

(6) We talk with Goblins, Owls, and elvish Sprights ;] They might fancy, they talk'd with Goblins and Sprights; but why with Owls, in the Name of Nonfenfe? Or could Owls fuck their Breath, and pinch them black and blue? I dare fay, my Readers will acquiefce in the Juftnefs of my Emendation here: The Word is common with our Author in other

Paffages.

(7) Why prat'f thou to thyself?

Dromio, thou Dromio, frail, thon flug, thou fot.] In the firft of thefe Lines, Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope have Both, for what Reafon I cannot tell, curtail'd the Meafure, and dif

mounted

S. Dro. Nay, mafter, both in mind and in my fhape. Ant. Thou haft thine own form.

S. Dro. No; I am an ape.

Luc. If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an afs.
S. Dro. 'Tis true; fhe rides me, and I long for grafs.
'Tis fo, I am an afs; elfe it could never be,
But I fhould know her, as well as fhe knows me.
Adr. Come, come, no longer will I be a fool,
To put the finger in the Eye and weep,
Whilft man and mafter laugh my woes to fcorn.
Come, Sir, to dinner; Dromio, keep the gate;
Husband, I'll dine above with you to day,
And thrive you of a thousand idle pranks;
Sirrah, if any ask you for your master,
Say, he dines forth, and let no creature enter:
Come, fifter; Dromio, play the porter well.

Ant. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?
Sleeping or waking, mad or well advis'd ?
Known unto thefe, and to myself disguis'd?
I'll fay as they fay, and perfever fo;
And in this mift at all adventures go.

S. Dro. Mafter, fhall I be porter at the gate?
Adr. Ay, let none enter, left I break your pate.
Luc. Come, come, Antipholis, we dine too late.

[Exeunt.

mounted the doggrel Rhyme, which I have replac'd from the firft Folio. The second Verse is there likewife read;

Dromio, thou Dromio, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot. The Verfe is thus half a Foot too long; my Correction cures that Fault: befides Drone correfponds with the other Appellations of Reproach.

ACT

A C T III.
CT

SCENE, the Street before Antipholis's Houfe.

Enter Antipholis of Ephefus, Dromio of Ephesus, Angelo, and Balthazar.

G

E. ANTIPHOLIS.

OOD Signior Angelo, you must excufe us;
My wife is fhrewith, when I keep not hours;
Say that I linger'd with you at your fhop

To fee the making of her carkanet;

And that to morrow you will bring it home.
But here's a villain, that would face me down
He met me on the mart, and that I beat him;
And charg'd him with a thousand marks in gold;
And that I did deny my wife and house:

Thou, drunkard, thou, what didst thou mean by this?
E. Dro. Say, what you will, Sir; but I know what
I know;

That you beat me at the márt, I have your hand to fhow;

If the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink,

Your own hand-writing would tell you what I think. E. Ant. I think, thou art an afs.

E. Dro. Marry, fo it don't appear (8)

By the wrongs I fuffer, and the blows I bear;

(8) Marry, fo it doth appear,

By the Wrongs I fuffer, and the Blows I bear.] Thus all the printed Copies. But, certainly, This is Crofs-purposes in Reafoning. It appears, Dremio is an Afs by his making no Refiftance: because an Afs, being kick'd, kicks again. Our Author never argues at this wild Rate, where his Text is genuine.