He afk'd me for a thousand marks in gold':
'Tis dinner-time, quoth I: My gold, quoth he:
Your meat doth burn, quoth I; My gold, quoth he:
Will you come home, quoth I2? My gold, quoth he:
Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?
The pig, quoth Í, is burn'd; My gold, quoth he:
My mifirefs, fir, quoth I; Hang up thy mistress;
I know not thy miftrefs; out on thy mistress!
Luc. Quoth who?

Dro. E. Quoth my mafter:

I know, quoth he, no boufe, no wife, no mistress ;--
So that my errand, due unto my tongue,

I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders;

For, in conclufion, he did beat me there.

Adr. Go back again, thou flave, and fetch him home. Dro. E. 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 across. Dro. E. And he will blefs that cross with other beating: Between you I fhall have a holy head.

Adr. Hence, prating peafant; fetch thy mafter home. Dro. E. Am I fo round with you, as you with me 3, That like a foot-ball you do fpurn me thus ? You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither: If I laft in this fervice, you must case me in leather *.

[Exit. Luc. Fye, how impatience lowreth in your face Adr. His company must do his minions grace, Whilft I at home ftarve for a merry look. Hath homely age the alluring beauty took

Ia thousand marks in geld:] The old copy reads-a bundred marks. The correction was made in the fecond folio. MALONE.

2 - will you come home, quoth I?] The word bome, which the metre requires, but is not in the authentick copy of this play, was fuggefted by Mr. Capell. MALONE.

3 Am I fo round with you, as you with me,] He plays upon the word round, which fignified fpberical applied to himself, and unrestrained, or free in fpeech or action, ipoken of his miftrefs. So the king, in Hamlet, bids the queen be round with her fon. JOHNSON.

4-cafe me in leather.] Still alluding to a football, the bladder of which is always covered with leather. STEEVENS.

From my poor cheek? then he hath wasted it:
Are my difcourfes dull? barren my wit?
If voluble and fharp difcourfe be marr'd,
Unkindness blunts it, more than marble hard.
Do their gay veftments his affections bait?
That's not my fault, he's mafter of my state:
What ruins are in me, that can be found
By him not ruin'd? then is he the ground
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 stale *.

Luc.

5 Of my defeatures:] By defeatures is here meant alteration of features. At the end of this play the fame word is ufed with a fomewhat different fignification. STEEVENS.

6

My decayed fair] Shakspeare ufes the adjective gilt, as a fubftantive, for what is gilt, and in this inftance fair for fairness. To we akov, is a fimilar expreffion. In the Midsummer Night's Dream, the old quartos read:

"Demetrius loves your fair."

Again, in Shakspeare's 68th Sonnet:

"Before these bastard figns of fair were born."

Again, in the 83d Sonnet:

"And therefore to your fair no painting fet." STEEVENS. Fair is frequently ufed fubftantively by the writers of Shakspeare's time. So Marston, in one of his fatires:

"As the greene meads, whofe native outward faire

"Breathes fweet perfumes into the neighbour air." FARMER. 7 But, too unruly deer,] The ambiguity of deer and dear is borrowed, poor as it is, by Waller, in his poem on a lady's Girdle:

"This was my heaven's extremeft sphere,

"The pale that held my lovely deer." JOHNSON. Shakspeare has played upon this word in the fame manner in his Venus and Adonis :

"Fondling, faith fhe, fince I have hemm'd thee here,
"Within the circuit of this ivory pale,

"I'll be thy park, and thou shalt be my deer;

"Feed where thou wilt, on mountain or on dale." The lines of Waller feem to have been immediately copied from thefe. MALONE. 8-poor I am but bis ftale.] "Stale to catch thefe thieves;" in the Tempeft, undoubtedly means a fraudulent bait. Here it seems to imply the fame as falking-borse, pretence. I am, fays Adriana, but his pretended

Luc. Self-harming jealoufy!-fye, beat it hence.
Adr. Unfeeling fools can with fuch wrongs difpenfe.
I know his eye doth homage otherwhere;
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 9,
So he would keep fair quarter with his bed!
I fee, the jewel, beft enamelled,

Will lofe his beauty; and though gold 'bides ftill,
That others touch, yet often touching will
Wear gold and no man, that hath a name,
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 jealousy!

tended wife, the mafk under which he covers his amours.
Misfortunes of Arthur, 1587:

"Was I then chofe and wedded for his ftale,
"To looke and gape for his retireless fayles

"Puft back and flittering spread to every winde?"

[Exeunt.

So, in the

Again, in the old tranflation of the Menæchmi of Plautus, 1595, from whence Shakspeare borrowed the expreffion: "He makes me a ftale and a laughing-stock." STEEVENS.

Perhaps ftale may here have the fame meaning as the French word chaperon. Poor I am but the cover for bis infidelity. COLLINS. 9 Would that alone alone be would detain,] The firft copy reads: Would that alone a love &c.

The correction was made in the fecond folio. MALONE.
I fee, the jewel, beft enamelled,

Will life bis beauty; and though gold 'bides ftill,

That others touch, yet often touching will

Wear gold: and no man, ibat barb a name,

But falfhood and corruption doth it shame.] This paffage in the original copy is very corrupt. It reads

yet the gold 'bides ftill

That others touch; and often touching will
Where gold; and no man, that hath a name

By falfhood &c.

The word though was fuggefted by Mr. Steevens; all the ather emendations by Mr. Pope and Dr. Warburton. Wear is ufed as a diffyllable. The commentator laft mentioned, net perceiving this, reads and fo no man &c. which has been followed, I think improperly, by the fubfequent editors. MALONE.

SCENE II.
The fame.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracufe.

Ant. S. The gold, I gave to Dromio, is laid up
Safe at the Centaur; and the heedful flave
Is wander'd forth, in care to feck me out,
By computation, and mine hoft's report.
I could not speak with Dromio, fince at first
I fent him from the mart: See, here he comes.
Enter DROMIO of Syracufe.
How now, fir? is your merry humour alter'd?
As you
love ftrokes, fo jeft with me again.
You know no Centaur? You receiv'd no gold?
Your mistress fent to have me home to dinner?
My houfe was at the Phoenix? Waft thou mad,
That thus fo madly thou didst answer me?

Dro. S. What answer, fir? when spake I fuch a word?
Ant. S. Even now, even here, not half an hour fince.
Dro. S. I did not fee
you fince you fent me hence,
Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me.
Ant. S. 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.
Dro. S. I am glad to see you in this merry vein :
What means this jeft? I pray you, mafter, tell me.
Ant. S. Yea, doft thou jeer, and flout me in the teeth?
Think'ft thou, I jeft? Hold, take thou that, and that.
[beating him.
Dro. S. Hold, fir, for God's fake: now your jeft is

earnest:

Upon what bargain do you give it me?

Ant. S. Becaufe 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.

2 And make a common of my ferious bours.] i. e. intrude on them when you please. The allufion is to thofe tracts of ground deftined to common ufe, which are thence called commons. STEEVINS.

When

When the fun fhines, let foolish gnats make sport,
But keep in crannies, when he hides his beams.
If you will jeft with me, know my afpéct,
And fashion your demeanour to my looks,
Or I will beat this method in your fconce.

Dro. S. Sconce, call you it? fo you would leave battering, I had rather have it a head: an you use these blows long, I must get a fconce for my head, and infconce it too; or elfe I fhall feek my wit in my shoulders. But, I pray, fir, why am I beaten ?

Ant. S. Doft thou not know?

Dro. S. Nothing, fir; but that I am beaten.
Ant. S. Shall I tell you why?

Dro. S. Ay, fir, and wherefore; for, they fay, every why hath a wherefore.

Ant. S. Why, firft,-for flouting me; and then, wherefore,-For urging it the second time to me.

Dro. S. Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season ?

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

Well, fir, I thank you.

Ant. S. Thank me, fir? for what?

Dro. S. Marry, fir, for this fomething that you gave me for nothing.

Ant. S. I'll make you amends next, to give you nothing for fomething. But fay, fir, is it dinner-time?

Dro. S. No, fir; I think, the meat wants that I have. Ant. S. In good time, fir, what's that?

Dro. S. Bafting.

Ant. S. Well, fir, then 'twill be dry.

Dro. S. If it be, fir, pray you eat none of it.

Ant. S. Your reafon ?

Dro. S. Left it make you cholerick, and purchase me

3.- and infconce it] A fconce was a petty fortification. STEEVENS. 4-next,] Our author probably wrote-next time. MALONE. 5 Left it make you cholerick, &c.] So, in the Taming of the Shrew: I tell thee Kate, 'twas burnt and dry'd away,

"And I exprefsly am forbid to touch it,

"For it engenders chuler, planteth anger, &c." STEEVENS.