Luc. Quoth who? E. Dro. Quoth my master: know, quoth he, no houfe, no wife, no mistress: So that my errand, due unto my tongue, I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders: Adr. Go back again thou flave, and fetch him home. E. Dro. Go back again, and be new beaten home? For God's fake, fend fome other meffenger. Adr. Back, flave, or I will break thy pate acrofs. ing: Between you I fhall have a holy head. Adr. Hence, prating peafant, fetch thy mafter home. E. Dro. Am I fo round with you as you with me, That like a foot-ball you do fpurn me thus? You fpurn me hence, and he will fpurn me hither: If I laft in this fervice, you must cafe me in leather. [Exit. Luc. Fy, how impatience lowreth in your face! 3 Am I fo round with you as you with me,] He plays upon the word round, which fig nifieth fpherical applied to him felf, and unrestrained, or free in Speech or action, fpoken of his miftrefs. So the king in Hamlet bids the queen be round with her fon. Of my defeatures. My decayed fair And feeds from home; poor I am but his ftale. Will lofe his beauty; and the gold 'bides ftill, The ambiguity of deer and dear is borrowed, poor as it is, by Waller in his poem on the Ladies Girdle. This was my heav'n's extoemest The pale that held my lovely deer, 9 poor I am but his ftale.] The word ftale, in our authour. ufed as a Subftantive, means, not fomething offered to allure or attract, but fomething vitiated with ufe, fomething of which the best part has been enjoyed and confumed. * I fee, the jewel, beft enamelled, Will lofe his beauty; YET the gold bides ftill. That others touch, AND often touching will: WHERE gold and no man, that bath a name, } [Exeunt. By falfhood and corruption doth it fhame.] In this miferable condition is this paffage given us. It should be read thus, I fee, the jewel, beft enamelled. Will lofe his beauty; and the gold bides ftill, That others touch; yet often touching will Wear gold: and fo no man, that bath a name, But falfhood, and corruption, doth it fhame.. The fenfe is this, "Gold, in deed, will long bear the handling; however, often touching,. "will wear even gold; just fo the greatest character, tho' as 66 pure as gold itfelf, may, in "time, be injured, by the re"peated attacks of falfhood and "corruption. WARBURTÖN. SCENE SCENE VI. Changes to the Street. Enter Antipholis of Syracufe. Ant. The gold I gave to Dromio is laid up Enter Dromio of Syracufe. How now, Sir? is your merry humour alter'd? S. Dro. What answer, Sir? when spake I such a word? Ant: Even now, even here, not half an hour fince. S. Dro. I did not fee you fince you sent me hence Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me. Ant. Villain, thou didst deny the gold's receipt ;And told'st me of a mistress, and a dinner; For which, I hope, thou felt'ft I was difpleas'd. S. Dro. I'm glad to fee you in this merry vein : What means this jeft, I pray you, mafter, tell me? Ant. Yea, doft thou jeer and flout me in the teeth? Think'ft thou, I jeft? hold, take thou that, and that. [Beats Dro. S. Dro. Hold, Sir, for God's fake, now your jeft is earnest; Upon what bargain do you give it me? Do ufe you for my fool, and chat with you, And make a common of my ferious hours, S. Dro. Sconce, call you it? fo you would leave battering, I had rather have it a head; an you fe thefe blows long, I must get a fconce for my head, and infconce it too, or elfe I fhall feek my wit in my fhoulders but, I pray, Sir, why am I beaten? Ant. Doft thou not know? S. Dro. Nothing, Sir, but that I am beaten. S. Dro. Ay, Sir, and wherefore; for, they fay, every why hath a wherefore. Ant. Why, firft, for flouting me; and then wherefore, for urging it the fecond time to me. S. Dro. Was there ever any man thus beaten out of feason, When, in the why, and wherefore, is neither rhime nor reason? Well, Sir, I thank you. Ant. Thank me, Sir, for what? S. Dro. Marry, Sir, for this fomething that you gave me for nothing. Ant. I'll make you amends next, to give you nothing for fomething. But fay, Sir, is it dinner-time? S. Dro. No, Sir, I think, the meat wants that I have. Ant. In good time, Sir; what's that? S. Dro. Bafting. Ant. Well, Sir, then 'twill be dry. S. Dro. If it be, Sir, I pray you eat none of it. Ś. Dro. Left it make you cholerick, and purchase me another dry-bafting. Aut. Ant. Well, Sir, learn to jeft in good time; there's a time for all things. S. Dro. I durft have deny'd that, before you were fo cholerick. Ant. By what rule, Sir? S. Dro. Marry, Sir, by a rule as plain as the plain bald pate of father Time himself. · Ant. Let's hear it. S. Dro. There's no time for a man to recover his hair, that grows bald by nature. Ant. May he not do it by fine and recovery? S. Dro. Yes, to pay a fine for a peruke, and recover the loft hair of another man. 2 Ant. Why is Time fuch a niggard of hair, being, as it is, fo plentiful an excrement? S. Dro. Because it is a bleffing that he bestows on beafts; and what he hath fcanted men in hair, he hath given them in wit. Ant. Why, but there's many a man hath more hair than wit. S. Dro. Not a man of those, but he hath the wit to lofe his hair. Ant. Why, thou didft conclude hairy men plain dealers without wit. S. Dro. The plainer dealer, the fooner loft; yet he lofeth it in a kind of jollity. |