For if we two be one, and thou play false,
I do digeft the poison of thy flesli,

Being frumpeted by thy contagion.

Keep then fair league and truce with thy true bed; I live dif-stain'd, thou undishonoured †.

Ant. Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you

not:

In Ephesus I am but but two hours old,
As ftrange unto your town, as to your talk.
Who, every word by all my wit being scann'd,
Wants wit in all, one word to understand.

Luc. Fy, brother! how the world is chang'd with you:

When were you wont to ute 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 house for his, me for his wife.

Ant. Did you converfe, Sir, with this gentlewoman?

What is the courfe 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 spoke with her in all my life. Ant. How can fhe thus then call us by our names, Unless it be by inspiration?

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

+ Ilive diftain'd, thou difhonour'd. Revifal.

*

Exempt, feparated, parted. The fenfe is, If I am doomed to fuffer the wrong of feparation, yet injure not with contempt me, who am already injured. Johnion.

Whose weakness, marry'd to thy stronger state,
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 fhe speaks; fhe moves me for her

theme.

What, was I married to her in my dream?
Or fleep I now, and think I hear all this?
What error drives our eyes and ears amifs?
Until I know this fure uncertainty,

I'll entertain the favour'd fallacy.

Luc. Dromio, go bid the fervants spread for dinner

S. Dro. Oh, for my beads! I crofs me for a finner.

This is the Fairy land: oh, fpight of fpights! We talk with goblins, owls, and elvifh fprights; 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 thyself, and answer'st not?

Dromio, thou drone, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot!
S. Dro. I am transformed, master, am not I?
Ant. I think thou art in mind, and fo am I.
S. Dro. Nay, master, 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 he 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 ga e. Hufband, I'll dine above with you to-day, And fhrive you of a thousand idle pranks.

Sirrah, if any afk 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 myfelf 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.

ACT III. SCENE I.

The Street before Antipholis's House.

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

OOD Signior Angelo, you must excufe us;
JMy wife is fhrewifh when I keep not hours.
Say that I linger'd with you at your shop,
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 didft thou mean by this? E. Dro. Say what you will, Sir; but I know what I know;

That you beat me at the mart, 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.

* Carkanet feems to have been a necklace, or rather chain perhaps, hanging down double from the neck. Johnfen.

E. Ant. I think thou art an ass.

E. Dro. Marry, fo it doth appear.

By the wrongs I fuffer, and the blows I bear:
I fhould kick, being kick'd; and, being at that pafs,
You would keep from my heels, and beware of an
afs

E. Ant. Y'are fad, Signior Balthazar. Pray God our chear

May antwer my good will, and your good welcome here.

Bal. I hold your dainties cheap, Sir, and your welcome dear.

E. Ant. Ah, Signior Balthazar, either at flesh or fish,

A table-full of welcome makes fcarce one dainty

difh.

Bal. Good meat, Sir, is common; that every churl affords.

E. Ant. And welcome more common; for that's nothing but words.

Bal. Small chear, and great welcome, makes a merry feast.

E. Ant. Ay, to a niggardly host, and more sparing guest:

But tho' my cates be mean, take them in good part; Better chear may you have, but not with better heart.

But, foft; my door is lock'd; go bid them let us in. E. Dro. Maud, Bridget, Marian, Gicily, Gillian,

Ginn!

S. Dro. within.] Mome, malt-horse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch!

Either get thee from the door, or fit down at the -hatch:

Doft thou conjure for wenches, that thou call'ft for fuch ftore,

When one is one too many? go, get thee from the door.

E. Dro. What patch is made our porter? my
mafter stays in the street.

S. Dro. Let him walk from whence he came, left
he catch cold on's feet.
Ꮓ

VOL. III.