There left me and my man, both bound together;
Till, gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder,
I gain'd my freedom, and immediately
Ran hither to your grace, whom I beseech
To give me ample satisfaction

For these deep shames, and great indignities.
Ang. My lord, in truth, thus far I witness with
him,

That he din'd not at home, but was lock'd out.

Duke. But had he such a chain of thee, or no? Ang. He had, my lord; and when he ran in here, These people saw the chain about his neck.

Mer. Besides, I will be sworn, these ears of mine Heard you confess you had the chain of him, After you first forswore it on the mart, And, thereupon, I drew my sword on you; And then you fled into this abbey here, From whence, I think, you are come by miracle.

Ant. E. I never came within these abbey walls, Nor ever did'st thou draw thy sword on me. I never saw the chain, so help me heaven! And this is false you burden me withal.

Duke. Why, what an intricate impeach is this! I think, you all have drunk of Circe's cup. If here you hous'd him, here he would have been; If he were mad, he would not plead so coldly You say, he dined at home; the goldsmith here Denies that saying.-Sirrah, what say you?

Dro. E. Sir, he dined with her, there, at the Porcupine.

Cour. He did, and from my finger snatch'd that ring.

Ant. E. 'Tis true, my hege; this ring I had of her.

Duke. Saw'st thou him enter at the abbey here? Cour. As sure, my liege, as I do see your grace. Duke. Why, this is strange.-Go call the abbess hither.

I think you are all mated, or stark mad.

[Exit an Attendant.

Ege. Most mighty duke, vouchsafe me speak a word.

Haply, I see a friend will save my life,
And pay the sum that may deliver me.

Duke. Speak freely, Syracusian, what thou wilt. Ege. Is not your name, sir, call'd Antipholus, And is not that your bondman Dromio?

Dro. E. Within this hour I was his bondman, sir?

But he, I thank him, gnaw'd in two my cords:
Now am I Dromio, and his man, unbound.

Ege. I am sure you both of you remember me.
Dro. E. Ourselves we do remember, sir, by you;
For lately we were bound, as you are now.
You are not Pinch's patient, are you, sir?

Ege. Why look you strange on me? you know me well.

Ant. E. I never saw you in my life, till now. Ege. O! grief hath chang'd me, since you saw me last;

And careful hours, with time's deformed hand,
Have written strange defeatures in my face:
But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?
Ant. E. Neither.

Ege. Dromio, nor thou?

Dro. E. No, trust me, sir, nor I.
Ege. I am sure thou dost.

Dro. E. Ay, sir; but I am sure I do not; and whatsoever a man denies, you are now bound to believe him.

Ege. Not know my voice? O, time's extremity!

Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue
In seven short years, that here my only son
Knows not my feeble key of untun'd cares?
Though now this grained face of mine be hid
In sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow,
And all the conduits of my blood froze up,
Yet hath my night of life some memory,
My wasting lamps some fading glimmer left,
My dull, deaf ears a little use to hear:
All these old witnesses (I cannot err)
Tell me thou art my son Antipholus.

Ant. E. I never saw my father in my life.
Ege. But seven years since, in Syracusa, boy,
Thou know'st we parted. But, perhaps, my son,
Thou sham'st to acknowledge me in misery.

Ant. E. The duke, and all that know me in the

city,

Can witness with me that it is not so.

I ne'er saw Syracusa in my life.

Duke. I tell thee, Syracusian, twenty years
Have I been patron to Antipholus,
During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa.
I see, thy age and dangers make thee dote.
Enter Abbess, with ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse, and
DROMIO of Syracuse.

Abb. Most mighty duke, behold a man much
wrong'd.
[All gather to see them.
Adr. I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive
me!

Duke. One of these men is Genius to the other;
And so of these: which is the natural man,
And which the spirit? Who deciphers them?
Dro. S. I, sir, am Dromio: command him away.
Dro. E. I, sir, am Dromio: pray let me stay.
Ant. S. Egeon, art thou not? or else his ghost?
Dro. S. O, my old master! who hath bound him
here?

Abb. Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds, And gain a husband by his liberty.Speak, old Ægeon, if thou be'st the man That hadst a wife once called Emilia, That bore thee at a burden two fair sons. O! if thou be'st the same Ægeon, speak, And speak unto the same Æmilia!

Ege. If I dream not, thou art Æmilia.
If thou art she, tell me, where is that son
That floated with thee on the fatal raft?

Abb. By men of Epidamnum, he, and I,
And the twin Dromio, all were taken up;
But, by and by, rude fishermen of Corinth
By force took Dromio and my son from them,
And me they left with those of Epidamnum
What then became of them, I cannot tell;
I, to this fortune that you see me in.

Duke. Why, here begins his morning story right.
These two Antipholus', these two so like,
And these two Dromios, one in semblance,-
Besides her urging of her wreck at sea;-
These are the parents to these children,
Which accidentally are met together.
Antipholus, thou cam'st from Corinth first.
Ant. S. No, sir, not I: I came from Syracuse.
Duke. Stay, stand apart: I know not which is
which.

Ant. E. I came from Corinth, my most gracious lord.

Dro. E. And I with him.

Ant. E. Brought to this town by that most famous warrior,

Duke Menaphon, your most renowned uncle.

Adr. Which of you two did dine with me to-day?
Ant. S. I, gentle mistress.

Adr. And are not you my husband?
Ant. E. No; I say nay to that.

Ant. S. And so do I, yet did she call me so;
And this fair gentlewoman, her sister here,
Did call me brother.-What I told you then,
I hope, I shall have leisure to make good,
If this be not a dream I see, and hear.

Ang. That is the chain, sir, which you had of me.
Ant. S. I think it be, sir: I deny it not.
Ant. E. And you, sir, for this chain arrested me.
Ang. I think I did, sir: I deny it not.
Adr. I sent you money, sir, to be your bail,
By Dromio; but I think, he brought it not.
Dro. E. No, none by me.

Ant. S. This purse of ducats I received from you. And Dromio, my man, did bring them me. I see, we still did meet each other's man, And I was ta'en for him, and he for me, And thereupon these errors are arose.

Ant. E. These ducats pawn I for my father here. Duke. It shall not need: thy father hath his life. Cour. Sir, I must have that diamond from you. Ant. E. There, take it; and much thanks for my good cheer.

Abb. Renowned duke, vouchsafe to take the pains To go with us into the abbey here,

And hear at large discoursed all our fortunes;
And all that are assembled in this place,
That by this sympathized one day's error
Have suffered wrong, go, keep us company,
And we shall make full satisfaction.
Twenty-five years have I but gone in travail
Of you, my sons; and 'till this present hour

My heavy burden undelivered.-
The duke, my husband, and my children both,
And you the calendars of their nativity,
Go to a gossip's feast, and go with me:
After so long grief such nativity!

Duke. With all my heart: I'll gossip at this feast. [Exeunt Duke, Abbess, ÆGEON, Courtesan, Merchant, ANGELO, and Attendants. Dro. S. Master, shall I fetch your stuff from ship-board?

Ant. E. Dromio, what stuff of mine hast thou embark'd?

Dro. S. Your goods, that lay at host, sir, in the Centaur.

Ant. S. He speaks to me.—I am your master,

Dromio:

Come, go with us; we'll look to that anon.
Embrace thy brother there; rejoice with him.

[Exeunt all, except the two DROMIO brothers. Dro. S. There is a fat friend at your master's house,

That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner:
She now shall be my sister, not my wife.

Dro. E. Methinks, you are my glass, and not my brother:

I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth.
Will you walk in to see their gossiping?

Dro. S. Not I, sir; you are my elder.

Dro. E. That's a question: how shall we try it? Dro. S. We'll draw cuts for the senior: till then, lead thou first.

ACT I.-SCENE I.

"It hath in solemn synods been decreed,

Both by the Syracusians and ourselves, To admit no traffic to our adverse towns," etc. "The offence which Egeon had committed, and the penalty which he had incurred, are pointed out with a minuteness by which the Poet doubtless intended to convey his sense of the gross injustice of such enactments. In the TAMING OF THE SHREW, written most probably about the same period as the COMEDY OF ERRORS, the jealousies of commercial states, exhibiting themselves in violent decrees and impracticable regulations, are also depicted by the same powerful hand."KNIGHT.

"Was wrought by nature"-Not by any criminal intention.

"Unwilling I agreed. Alas, too soon we came aboard!" With Collier we adhere to the reading of the folios. Almost all the other editors print, on their own authority, thus:

-I agreed; alas, too soon. We came aboard ;

The obvious meaning is, that they came "aboard too soon," as a storm immediately followed.

"So his case was like"-"So" is the reading of the first folio-not for, as in many editions: his case was so like that of Antipholus.

"To seek thy HELP by beneficial HELP"-Pope and other editors would substitute life for "help," where it first occurs. Stevens recommends means for "help," at the end of the line. Collier suggests

To seek thy hope by beneficial help,

That is, to seek what you hope by beneficial help to acquire-money for your ransom. This is consistent with Egeon's exclamation just afterwards,-" Hopeless and helpless doth Egeon wend," etc. The folios have it as it stands in the text.

SCENE II.

"SOON AT five o'clock"-i. e. About five o'clock. In act iii. scene 2, we have "soon at supper-time." "Soon at night" is a common expression.

"CONFOUNDS himself "-Is explained by what Antipholus afterwards says,

So I, to find a mother and a brother, In quest of them, unhappy, lose my self;as a drop is lost in the sea, and confounded with the mass of waters.

"Here comes the ALMANACK of my true date"-i. e. Because he and Dromio were born at the same hour. He mistakes Dromio of Ephesus for his own man.

"Are PENITENT for your default to-day"-In the sense of doing penance.

"some other WHERE"-i. e. Somewhere else, as we now familiarly express it. Johnson suggests that we should read "start some other hare," and Stevens is for taking "where" as a noun; but no alteration is required. Adriana says afterwards, "I know his eye doth homage other where."

"This FOOL-BEGG'D patience"-" She seems," says Johnson, "to mean by fool-begg'd patience,' that patience which is so near to idiotical simplicity, that your next relation would take advantage from it to represent you as a fool, and beg the guardianship of your fortune."

This would seem a far-fetched interpretation, were it not evident from other dramatic writers, even as late as Congreve, that this abuse of that regal prerogative was a familiar source of sarcastic allusion.

6

"Am I So ROUND with you, as you with me"-"To be round with any one is to be plain spoken; as in HAMLET; Let her be round with him.' Dromio uses the word in a double sense, when he alludes to the football."-KNIGHT.

"Whilst I at home STARVE for a merry look"-In Shakespeare's Forty-seventh Sonnet, there is a similar phrase:

When that mine eye was famished for a look.
Also, in the Seventy-fifth:-

Sometimes all full with feeding on his s ght,
And, by and by, clean starved for a look.

"My decayed FAIR"-"Fair" is used for fairness, in the sense of beauty, by the writers of Shakespeare's time, and by himself in his Sonnets.

I see the lewell best enamaled

Will loose his beautie: yet the gold bides still
That others touch, and often touching will,
Where gold and no man that hath a name,
By falshood and corruption doth it shame.

The passage is evidently so grossly misprinted that it is impossible to ascertain precisely the true reading. All the editors, Pope, Warburton, Stevens, etc., have tried their hands at it. We have followed Collier, not as certainly right, but being probably as near as any. The meaning will then be-I see that the jewel best enamelled will lose his beauty: yet though gold that others touch remains gold, an often touching will wear gold; no man with a name willingly shames it by falsehood and corruption.

the annotators of our great epic Poet naturally give us the parallel passages in Catullus, in Ovid, in Virgil, in Horace. Shakespeare unquestionably had the image from the same sources. Farmer does not notice this passage; but had he done so he would, of course, have shown that there were translations of the 'Georgics' and the Metamorphoses' when this play was written. It appears to us that this line of Shakespeare's is neither a translation, nor an imitation, of any of the well-known classical passages; but a transfusion of the spirit of the ancient poets by one who was familiar with them.”—

KNIGHT.

“This is the fairy land”—“ In the first act we have a description of the unlawful arts of Ephesus. It was observed by Capell that the character given of Ephesus in this place is the very same that it had with the ancients, which may pass for some note of the Poet's learning.' It was scarcely necessary, however, for Shakespeare to search for this ancient character of Ephesus in more recondite sources than the interesting narrative of St. Paul's visit to that city, given in the 19th chapter of the 'Acts.' In the 13th verse we find mention of certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists;' and in the 19th verse we are told that many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men.' The ancient proverbial term, Ephesian Letters, was used to express every kind of charm or spell."-KNIGHT.

"We talk with goblins, owLs, and elvish sprites”— Theobald changed "owls" to ouphes, upon the plea that owls could not suck breath and pinch. Warburton maintains that the owl here is the strix of the ancientsthe destroyer of the cradled infant

Nocte volant, puerosque petunt nutricis egentes,

Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis.-Ovid. Fasti, lib. vi. "And SHRIVE you"-i. e. Take confession from you. Shrift is confession.

ACT III.-SCENE I.

"the making of her CARKANET"-i. e. Necklace: in this instance it means a chain to be worn round the neck.

"the doors are MADE against you"-Several editions have altered this, which is the original text, to "the doors are barred." supposing "made" to be a misprint; but "make the door" is still a provincial phrase, signifying to "bar the door.”

"ONCE this"—" 'This expression puzzled Malone and Stevens, who did not perceive that it was elliptical, and meant, For once let me tell you this.'"-COLLIER.

"And, in despite of MIRTH, mean to be merry”—The meaning is, says Warburton, "I will be merry even out of spite to mirth, which is now of all things the most unpleasing to me."

SCENE II.

"Not mad, but MATED"-Those words which follow "mated"-"how, I do not know"-support the notion of Monck Mason, that a play was intended on the double meaning of "mated," as confounded and bewildered, or, matched with a wife.

"Gaze WHERE you when for "where."

should"-The old copies read

"without he say, SIR-REVERENCE"-A very old corruption of save-reverence, or Salve reverentiá! and used as a form of apology when any thing gross or offensive was said.

“—that is, AN ELL"-"Or a Nell. This reply has been strangely misprinted and misunderstood by all the commentators: they altered 'is' to 'and,' because they were puzzled by the old punctuation, and because they did not know that 'an ell' Flemish is three quarters of a yard. Dromio merely says, that 'an ell,' or three quarters of a yard, will not measure her from hip to hip.'"-COLLIER.

"-arm'd and reverted, making war against her HEIR"-Theobald thought, and Malone concurred with him, that Shakespeare, in this passage about France, intended a covert reference to the state of that country after the assassination of Henry III. in 1589, when the people were "making war against the heir" to the throne, Heury IV. In 1591, Elizabeth sent over the Earl of Essex to Henry's assistance, and the conjecture is that the COMEDY OF ERRORS was produced soon afterwards. In this opinion Johnson does not concur, and sees in the passage nothing more than an equivocation respecting the corona veneris, a disorder which he supposes Dromio to impute to the kitchen-wench. There can be little doubt that Theobald is right; for if no allusion to the heir of France had been meant, hair would, probably, not have been spelt heire, as it stands in the oldest copy, though the second folio converts it into haire. The words "arm'd and reverted" also would hardly have been employed by Shakespeare, had he not intended more than Johnson saw in the passage.

"Where America, the Indies"-" This is certainly one of the boldest anachronisms of Shakespeare; for, although the period of the action of the COMEDY OF ERRORS may include a range of four or five centuries, it must certainly be placed before the occupation of the city by the Mohammedans, and therefore some centuries before the discovery of America."-KNIGHT.

"—and made me turn i'the wheel"-i. e. The wheel turning the spit, she being the kitchen-maid. This was the old mode, by a cur-dog, as now in this country they are made to churn. "Steel" and "wheel" seem intended to rhyme, and the elision "i' the," making in the one syllable, looks like intended doggerel, as Knight has printed it.

ACT IV.-SCENE I.

"IS GROWING to me"-i. e. Accruing to me.

"Enter DROMIO of Syracuse"- From the Bay," the old copies add, whither his master had not long before sent him, to ascertain whether any vessel was about to sail.

46

SCENE II.

Of his heart's METEORS tilting in his face"-This is an allusion to those meteors which, in superstitious times, were thought to resemble armies meeting in the shock of battle. The same thought occurs in HENRY IV., Part I., speaking of civil wars:—

Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
All of one nature, of one substance bred,
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery.

Milton also finely employs similar imagery in the second book of "Paradise Lost:"

As when, to warn proud cities, war appears
Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush
To battle in the clouds, before each van

Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears,
Till thickest legions close. With feats of arms
From either end of heaven the welkin rings.

"―he denied you had in him so right"—The modern construction would be, "He denied you had in him a right;" but this was Shakespeare's phraseology, and that of his time.

"STIGMATICAL in making"-That is, marked or stigmatized with deformity.

"Far from her nest the lapwing cries away"—Shakespeare has employed this simile in MEASURE FOR MEASURE, act i. scene 5:

With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,

Tongue far from heart.

It was used by many writers, from Chaucer downwards, and became proverbial. Rowley, in his "Search for Money," 1609, has, "This sir dealt like a lapwing with us, and cried furthest off the nest." This quality of the lapwing to cry far from its nest, to lead people away, is well understood.

"A devil in an EVERLASTING garment hath him”— "Sergeants, such as the one who had arrested Antipholus, were clad in buff, (Dromio just afterwards calls him a fellow all in buff,') and, on account of its durability, that dress is here termed an everlasting garment.'"COLLIER.

"A hound that RUNS COUNTER"-i. e. "The contrary, or wrong way in a chase. The sergeant is said to run 'counter,' from his carrying debtors to the prison so called."-COLLIER.

"and yet DRAWS DRY-FOOT well". -"To draw dryfoot' is technical, and means to hunt by the scent of the animal's foot."-COLLIER.

"One that, before the judgment, carries poor souls to hell"-i. e. "Carries them to prison (for which hell was the cant term) before judgment had been given against them; or, as Malone truly explains it, upon mesne process."-COLLIER.

"was he arrested on a BAND"-"Band" is the ancient mode of writing bond, and synonymous with it. Ben Jonson uses it in this sense.

SCENE III.

What HAVE YOU GOT the picture of old Adam new apparell'd"-Theobald, and some others, have interpo lated this interrogatory by inserting the words rid of after "What have you got?" They were not aware that "What have you got?" is still a vulgar phrase for "What have you done with?" or " What is become of!" and they puzzled themselves, and altered the language which Shakespeare thought fit to put into Dromio's mouth. The words, "picture of old Adam new apparell'd," allude to the suit of buff in which sergeants dressed officially; referring to the skins which Adam used for attire-a joke very popular among the old dramatists.

"he that SETS UP HIS REST"-" This expression became proverbial, and was applied to a person who took up any fixed position. It was generally used in the card-game of Primero, but here it has immediate reference to the rest of the morris-pike, and to the arrest by a sergeant."-COLLIER.

“—than a MORRIS-PIKE"-i. e. A Moorish pike, a well-known instrument of war.

SCENE IV.

"by my LONG EARS"-Meaning, says Stevens, that his master had lengthened his ears by often pulling them.

"welcomed home with it, when I return"-The writers who maintain Shakespeare's acquaintance with classical literature, against Dr. Farmer and others, insist that this passage alludes to the oft-quoted eulogy of Cicero upon his favourite studies:-"Hæc studia adolescentiam agunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solatium præbent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur."

"—and bind ANTIPHOLUS and DROMIO"-" And offer to bind him; he strives," is the direction of the old copies; but it is clear, from what follows, that they succeed in binding both. The stage-direction in our text follows Collier, and differs a little from many other editions.