Luc. Quoth who?

E. Dro. Quoth my master:

know, quoth he, no house, no wife, no mistress;
So that my errand, due unto my tongue,
I thank him, I bare home upon my fhoulders:
For, in conclufion, he did beat me there.

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. E. Dro. And he will blefs that crofs with other beating:

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 3, That like a foot-ball you do fpurn me thus ? You fpurn me hence, and he will fpurn me hither: If I last in this service, you must cafe me in leather.

[Exit.

SCENE

III.
Luc. Fy, how impatience lowreth in your face!
Ard. His company must do his minions grace,
Whilft I at home ftarve for a merry look:
Hath homely age th' alluring beauty took
From my poor cheek? then, he hath wafted it.
Are my difcourfes dull? barren my wit?
If voluble and sharp discourse be mar'd,
Unkindness blunts it, more than marble hard.
Do their gay vestments his affections bait?
That's not my fault: he's master of my state.
What ruins are in me, that can be found
By him not ruin'd? then, is he the ground

8 Am I so 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
A funny look of his would foon repair.
But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale,
And feeds from home; poor I am but his ftale 9.
Luc. Self-harming jealoufy!-fy, bear it hence.
Adr. Unféeling fools' can with fuch wrongs difpenfe:
I know, his eye doth homage other-where;
Or elfe what lets it, but he would be here?
Sifter you know he promis'd me a chain;
Would that alone, alone, he would detain,
So he would keep fair quarter with his bed.
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 hath a namie,
But falfhood, and corruption, doth it shame.
Since that my beauty cannot please his eye,
I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die.
Luc. How many fond fools ferve mad jealoufy!
[Exeunt.
By falfood 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 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
Sphere,

9

The pale that held my lovely deer, 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

I fee, the jewel, best ena-
melled,

Will lofe bis beauty; YET the
gold bides ftill.

That others touch, AND often
touching will:
WHERE gold and no man, that
bath a name,

The fenfe is this, Gold, in "deed, will long bear the hand"ling; however, often touching, will wear even gold; just fo "the greateft character, tho' as pure as gold itself, may, in "time, be injured, by the repeated attacks of falfhood and WARBURTON. "corruption."

"C

SCENE

66

SCE NE VI.

Changes to the Street.

Enter Antipholis of Syracuse.

Ant. The gold I gave to Dromio is laid up
Safe at the Centaur; and the heedful flave
Is wander'd forth in care to feek me out.
By computation, and mine hoft's report,
I could not speak with Dromio, fince at firft
I fent him from the mart. See, here he comes.

Enter Dromio of Syracuse.

How now, Sir? is your merry humour alter'd?
As you love strokes, fo jeft with me again.
You know no Centaur? you receiv'd no gold?
Your mistress fent to have me home to dinner?
My house was at the Phenix? waft thou mad,
That thus fo madly thou didst answer me?

S. Dro. What answer, Sir? when spake I fuch a word?

Ant: Even now, even here, not half an hour fince. S. Dro. I did not fee you fince you fent me hence Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me.

Ant. Villain, thou didft 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? Ant. Because that I familiarly fometimes

Do ufe you for my fool, and chat with you,
Your fawcinefs will jeft upon my love,
And make a common of my ferious hours,
When the fun fhines, let foolish gnats make fport;
But creep in crannies, when he hides his beams:
If you will jeft with me, know my aspect,
And fashion your demeanor to my looks;
Or I will beat this method in your fconce.

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.
Ant. Shall I tell you why?

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 feafon,

When, in the why, and wherefore, is neither rhime nor reafon?

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 no-
thing 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.
Ant. Your reafon ?

S. Dro. Left it make you cholerick, and purchase me another dry-basting.

Ant.

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.·

A

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.

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.

2

S. Dro. The plainer dealer, the fooner loft; yet he lofeth it in a kind of jollity.

2 In former Editions: Ant. Why is Time fuch a Niggard of Hair, being, as it is, fo plentiful an Excrement?

A

S. Dro. Because it is a Blessing that he leftows on Beafts, and what he hath fcanted them in hair, be hath given them in Wit.] Surely, this is Mock-reafoning, and a Contradiction in Senfe. Can Hair be fuppos'd a Bieffing, which Time beftows on Beafts peculiarly; and yet that he hath fcanted them of it too? Men and

I 4

Them, I oblerve, are very frequently mistaken vice verfa for each other, in the old Impreffions of our Author. THEOBALD.

3 Not a man of those, but he bath the wit to lofe his hair.] That is, Those who have more hair than wit, are easily entrapped by loose women, and fuffer the confequences of lewdness, one of which, in the first appearance of the difeafe in Europe, was the loss of hair.

Ant.