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As all the metal in your shop will answer.
Ang. Sir, sir, I shall have law in Ephesus,
To your notorious shame, I doubt it not.

Enter DROMIO OF SYRACUSE.

Dro. S. Master, there is a bark of Epidamnum, That stays but till her owner comes aboard, And then, sir, she bears away: our fraughtage,1 sir,

I have convey'd aboard; and I have bought

The oil, the balsamum, and aqua vitæ.

The ship is in her trim; the merry wind

Blows fair from land: they stay for naught at all,
But for their owner, master, and yourself.
Ant. E. How now! a madman! Why,

2 peevish sheep,

What ship of Epidamnum stays for me?

thou

Dro. S. A ship you sent me to, to hire waftage.3 Ant. E. Thou drunken slave, I sent thee for a

rope,

And told thee to what purpose and what end.

Dro. S. You sent me for a rope's end as soon : You sent me to the bay, sir, for a bark.

Ant. E. I will debate this matter at more leisure, And teach your ears to list me with more heed.

To Adriana, villain, hie thee straight:

Give her this key, and tell her, in the desk
That's cover'd o'er with Turkish tapestry,
There is a purse of ducats: let her send it.

2 Silly.

3 Carriage.

1 Lading, cargo.

Tell her, I am arrested in the street,

And that shall bail me: hie thee, slave; be gone. On, officer, to prison till it come.

[Exeunt Merchant, Angelo, Officer, and Ant. E. Dro. S. To Adriana! that is where we dined, Where Dowsabel did claim me for her husband: She is too big, I hope, for me to compass. Thither I must, although against my will; For servants must their masters' minds fulfil. [Exit.

SCENE II.

The same.

Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA.

Adr. Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so? Mightst thou perceive austerely in his eye That he did plead in earnest, yea or no?

Look'd he or red, or pale; or sad, or merrily? What observation madest thou in this case, Of his heart's meteors tilting in his face ? 1

Luc. First, he denied you had in him no right. Adr. He meant, he did me none; the more my

spite.

Luc. Then swore he, that he was a stranger here. Adr. And true he swore, though yet forsworn he

were.

Luc. Then pleaded I for you.

In allusion to the northern lights, which have the appearance of armies meeting in the shock.

Adr.

And what said he?

Luc. That love I begg'd for you, he begg'd of me. Adr. With what persuasion did he tempt thy love?

Luc. With words, that in an honest suit might

move.

First, he did praise my beauty; then, my speech.
Adr. Didst speak him fair?

Luc.

Have patience, I beseech.

Adr. I cannot, nor I will not, hold me still:

My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his

will.

He is deformed, crooked, old, and sere,1

Ill-faced, worse bodied, shapeless every where ;
Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind;

2

Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.

Luc. Who would be jealous then of such a one? No evil lost is wail'd when it is gone.

Adr. Ah! but I think him better than I say,

And yet would herein others' eyes were worse:

Far from her nest the lapwing cries away : 3

My heart prays for him, though my tongue do

curse.

Enter DROMIO OF SYRACUSE.

Dro. S. Here, go; the desk, the purse; sweet make haste.

now,

Dry, withered.

2 Stigmatised by nature with deformity. 3 The-lapwings fly, with seeming fright, far from their nests, to deceive those who seek their young.

Luc. How hast thou lost thy breath?

Dro. S.

By running fast. Adr. Where is thy master, Dromio? is he well? Dro. S. No, he's in Tartar limbo, worse than hell:

A devil in an everlasting garment 1 hath him, One, whose hard heart is button'd up with steel; A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough;

A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff;

A back-friend, a shoulder-clapper, one that countermands

The passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands;
A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot 3

well:

3

One that, before the judgment, carries poor souls to hell.4

Adr. Why, man, what is the matter?

Dro. S. I do not know the matter; he is 'rested

on the case.5

Adr. What, is he arrested? tell me, at whose suit. Dro. S. I know not at whose suit he is arrested,

well;

But is in a suit of buff, which 'rested him; that I can tell.

1 Officers of justice were formerly clad in buff, which is also a cant term for a man's skin.

2 Quibble on the word 'counter,' which means the wrong way in the chase, and a well-known prison in London.

3 Follows men by the scent. 4 A cant term for a prison. 5 A general action for the redress of a wrong not especially provided for by law.

SHAK.

II.

U

Will you send him, mistress, redemption, the money

in his desk?

Adr. Go fetch it, sister.—This I wonder at;

[Exit Luciana.

That he, unknown to me, should be in debt.—

Tell me, was he arrested on a band? 1

Dro. S. Not on a band, but on a stronger thing; A chain, a chain; do you not hear it ring?

Adr. What, the chain?

Dro. S. No, no, the bell: 'tis time, that I were

gone.

It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes

one.

Adr. The hours come back! that did I never hear. Dro. S. O yes, if any hour meet a serjeant, aʼ turns back for very fear.

Adr. As if time were in debt! how fondly dost thou reason!

Dro. S. Time is a very bankrout, and owes more than he's worth to season.

Nay, he's a thief too. Have you not heard men say,
That time comes stealing on by night and day?
If he be in debt, and theft, and a serjeant in the

way,

Hath he not reason to turn back an hour in a day?

Enter LUCIANA.

Adr. Go, Dromio; there's the money: bear it

straight,

And bring thy master home immediately.

' Bond.

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