Ant. For what reafon ?

S. Dro. For two, and found ones too.
Ant. Nay, not found, I pray you.

S. Dro. Sure ones then.

Ant. Nay, not fure in a thing falfing.
S. Dro. Certain ones then.

Ant. Name them.

S. Dro., The one to fave the mony that he fpends in tyring; the other, that at dinner they fhould not drop in his porridge.

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

Adr. Ay, ay, Antipholis, look ftrange and frown,
Some other mistress hath thy fweet aspects:
I am not Adriana, nor thy wife.

The time was once, when thou, unurg'd, wouldft 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 fweet-favour'd in thy tafte,
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 thyself?
Thyfelf I call it, being ftrange to me:
That, undividable, incorporate,

Ain better than thy dear felf's better part.
Ah, do not tear away thyself from me :
For know, my Love, as eafy may'st 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,
Shouldft thou but hear, I were licentious?
And that this body, confecrate to thee,
By ruffian luft should be contaminate ?
Wouldst thou not fpit at me, and fpurn at me,
And huri the name of hufband in my face,
.And tear the ftain'd fkin of my harlot-brow,
And from my falfe hand cut the wedding-ring,
And break it with a deep-divorcing vow?

I know thou can'ft; 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 poison of thy flesh,

Being ftrumpeted by thy contagion.

+ I am poffefs'd with an adul
terate blot;

Keep then fair league, and truce with thy true bed;
I live dis-stain'd, thou undifhoured 3.

9

My blood is mingled with the CRIME of luft] Both the integrity of the metaphor, and the word blst, in the preceding line, fhew that we should read; with the GRIME of luft: i. e. the ftain, fmut. So again in this play, A man may go over fhoes in the GRIME of it.

WARBURTON.

Ant. Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not: In Ephefus I am 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 use my sister 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:
Whose weakness, marry'd to thy ftronger 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 confusion.

Ant. To me the speaks; the moves me for her

theam:

What, was I marry'd to her in my dream?

6-you are from me exempt.] Exempt, feparated, parted. The fenfe is, If I am doomed to fuffer

1

the wrong of feparation, yet injure not with contempt me who am already injured.

Or

ERRORS.
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 fervant spread for dinner.
S. Dro. Oh, for my beads! I cross me for a finner.
This is the Fairy land: oh, fpight of spights!
We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish 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?

We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish Sprights;] Here Mr. Theobald calls out in the name of Nonfenfe, the first time he had formally invoked her, to tell him how Owls could fuck their breath, and pinch them black and blue. He, therefore, alters Owls to Ouphs, and dares fay, that his readers will acquiefce in the juftness of his emendation. But, for all this, we must not part with the old reading. He did not know it to be an old popular fuperftition, that the fcretchowl fucked out the breath and blood of infants in the cradle. On this account, the Italians called Witches, who were fup. pofed to be in like manner mifchievously bent against children, Strega, from Strix, the Scretch owl. This fuperftition they had derived from their Pagan anceftors, as appears from this paffage of Ovid, Sunt avide volucres; non quæ Phineïa menfis Guttura fraudabant: fed genus

氰

Dromia, thou drone, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot!
S. Dro

inde trahunt.
Grande caput: ftantes oculi:
fira apta rapina :
Canities pennis, unguibus ha-
mus ineft.

Note volant, PUBROSQUE PE

TUNT nutricis egentes ;
Et vitiant CUNIS corpora rap-
ta fuis.

Carpere dicuntur lacentia vifcera
roftris;

Et plenum poto fanguine gut-
tur babent.

Eft illis ftrigibus nomen :

Lib. 6. Feft.
WARBURTON.
8 Why prat'ft thou to thyself?
Dromio, thou Dromio, fail,

thou 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 Measure, and dismounted the
doggrel Rhyme, which I have
replac'd from the firft Folio. The
fecond Verfe is there likewise
read;

Dromio, thou Dromio, thou
Snail, thou flug, thou fot.

The

S. Dro. I am transformed, mafter, am not I?
Ant. I think, thou art in mind, and fo am I.
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.

'Tis fo, I am an ass; But I fhould know her,

S. Dro. 'Tis true; fhe rides me, and I long forgrafs. else it could never be, 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 3 Hufband, I'll dine above with you to day, And shrive you of a thousand idle pranks; Sirrah, if any ask you for you master, Say, he dines forth, and let no creature enter: Come, fifter; Dromio, play the porter well.

9

Ant. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?
Sleeping or waking, mad or well advis'd?
Known unto thefe, and to myfelf difguis'd?"
I'll fay as they say, and persevere so;
And in this mift at all adventures go.

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

[Exeunt.