E. Dro. They ftand at the door, master; bid them welcome hither.

E. Ant. There is fomething in the wind, that we cannot get in.

E. Dro. You would fay fo, mafter, if your garments were thin.

Your cake here is warm within; you ftand here in the cold:

It would make a man mad as a buck to be so bought and fold.

E. Ant. Go, fetch me fomething, I'll break ope

the gate.

S. Dro. Break any thing here, and I'll break your knave's pate.

E. Dro. A man may break a word with you, fir; and words are but wind;

Ay, and break it in your face, fo he break it not

behind.

S. Drø. It seems, thou wanteit breaking: Out upon thee, hind!

E. Dro. Here's too much, out upon thee! I pray thee, let me in.

S. Dro. Ay, when fowls have no feathers, and fish have no fin.

E. Ant. Well, I'll break in; Go borrow me a

crow.

E. Dra. A crow without feather; mafter, mean you fo?

For a fish without a fin, there's a fowl without a

feather;

If a crow help us in, firrah, we'll pluck a crow toge

ther. s

E. Ant.

s—we'll pluck a crow together, &c.] We find the fame quibble on a like occafion in one of the comedies of Plautus.

The children of quality among the Geeeks and Romans had ufually birds of different kinds given them for their amusement.

E. Ant. Go, get thee gone, fetch me an iron crow. Bal. Have patience, fir: oh, let it not be fo. Herein you war against your reputation, And draw within the compafs of fufpect The unviolated honour of your wife.

Once, this ;-Your long experience of her wisdom,
Her fober virtue, years, and modesty,

Plead on her part fome cause to you unknown;
And doubt not, fir, but she will well excufe,
Why at this time the doors are made against you.
Be rul'd by me; depart in patience,

And let us to the Tyger all to dinner :
And, about evening, come yourself alone,
To know the reason of this strange restraint.
If by strong hand you offer to break in,
Now in the ftirring paffage of the day,
A vulgar comment will be made of it;
And that supposed by the common rout, 7
Against your yet ungalled eftimation,
That may with foul intrufion enter in,
And dwell upon your grave when you are dead:

This cuftom Tyndarus in the Captives mentions, and fays, that for his part he had

-tantum upupam.

Upupa fignifies both a lapwing and a mattock or some instrument of the fame kind, employed to dig ftones from the quarries.

STEEVENS.

-the doors are made against you.] Thus the old edition. The modern editors read,

--the doors are barr'd against you.

To make the door, is the expreffion used to this day in fome coun ties of England, instead of, to bar the door. STEEVENS.

1 Suppofed by the common rout.] For Suppose I once thought it might be more commodious to fubftitute Supported; but there is no need of change: supposed is founded on fuppofition, made by conjecture. JOHNSON.

For

For flander lives upon fucceffion;
For ever hous'd, where't gets poffeffion.

E. Ant. You have prevail'd; I will depart in quiet,
And, in defpight of mirth," mean to be merry.
I know a wench of excellent difcourse,
Pretty and witty, wild, and, yet too, gentle;
There will we dine: this woman that I mean,
My wife (but, I proteft, without defert,)
Hath oftentimes upbraided me withal;
To her will we to dinner. Get you home,
And fetch the chain, by this, I know, 'tis made;
Bring it, I pray you, to the Porcupine;

For there's the houfe: that chain will I bestow, (Be it for nothing but to fpight my wife,) Upon mine hoftefs there. Good fir, make hafte: Since my own doors refufe to entertain me, I'll knock elsewhere, to fee if they'll difdain me. Ang. I'll meet you at that place, fome hour, fir, hence.

E. Ant. Do fo; This jeft fhall coft me fome ex[Exeunt.

pence.

• For flander lives upon fucceffion.] The line apparently wants two fyllables: what they were, cannot now be known. The line may be filled up according to the reader's fancy, as thus:

For lafting inder lives upon fucceffion.

JOHNSON. On confulting the folio, I found the fecond line had been lengthened out by the modern editors, who read;

For ever bous'd where it once gets poff Dion.

I have therefore restored it to its former measure. STEEVENS. 9 And, in delpight of mirth,] Mr. Theobald does not know what to make of this; and, therefore, has put wrath instead of mirth into the text, in which he is followed by the Oxford editor. But the old reading is right; and the meaning is, I will be merry, even out of fpite to mirth, which is, now, of all things, the most unpleafing to me. WARBURTON.

SCENE

SCENE II.

The house of Antipholis of Ephefus.

Enter Luciana with Antipholis of Syracufe. Luc. And may it be that you have quite forgot A husband's office? fhall, Antipholis, hate, Even in the spring of love, thy love-fprings rot? Shall love, in building, grow fo ruinate? If you did wed my fifter for her wealth,

Then for her wealth's fake ufe her with more kindnefs:

Or, if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth;

Muffle your falfe love with fome fhew of blindness: Let not my fifter read it in your eye;

Be not thy tongue thy own fhame's orator; Look fweet, fpeak fair, become disloyalty: Apparel vice, like virtue's harbinger:

Bear a fair prefence, though your heart be tainted; Teach fin the carriage of a holy faint;

• —that you have quite forgot.] In former copies,
And may it be, that you have quite forgot
An bufband's office? Sha'l Antipholis,

Ev'n in the spring of love, thy love-springs rot?
Shall love in buildings grow fo ruinate?

This paffage has hitherto labour'd under a double corruption. What conceit could our editors have of love in buildings growing ruinate? Our poet meant no more than this: Shall thy love-springs rot, even in the fpring of love? and fhall thy love grow ruinous, ev'n while 'tis but building up? The next corruption is by an accident at prefs, as I take it; this fcene for fifty-two lines fucceffively is strictly in alternate rhimes, and this measure is never broken, but in the second, and fourth lines of these two couplets. 'Tis certain, I think, a monofyllable dropt from the tail of the fecond verfe: and I have ventured to fupply it by, I hope, a probable conjecture. THEOBALD.

Be fecret false; What need fhe be acquainted?
What fimple thief brags of his own attaint?
'Tis double wrong, to truant with your bed,
And let her read it in thy looks at board:
Shame hath a baftard fame, well managed;
Ill deeds are double with an evil word.
Alas, poor women! make us but believe,'

2

* Being compact of credit, that you love us; Tho' others have the arm, fhew us the fleeve; We in your motion turn, and you may move us. Then, gentle brother, get you in again;

Comfort my fifter, chear her, call her wife: 'Tis holy sport to be a little vain,

When the sweet breath of flattery conquers ftrife. S. Ant. Sweet mistress, (what your name is elfe, I know not,

Nor by what wonder you do hit on mine :) Lefs, in your knowledge, and your grace, you show

not,

Than our earth's wonder; more than earth, divine. Teach me, dear creature, how to think and speak; Lay open to my earthy grofs conceit, Smother'd in errors, feeble, fhallow, weak,

The folded meaning of your words' deceit. Against my foul's pure truth why labour you, To make it wander in an unknown field? Are you a God? would you create me new? Transform me then, and to your power I'll yield. But if that I am I, then, well I know,

Your weeping fifter is no wife of mine;

1 Alas, poor women! make us not believe, &c.] From the whole tenour of the context it is evident, that this negative (not,) got place in the first copies instead of but. And these two monofyllables have by mistake reciprocally difpoffefs'd one another in many other paffages of our author's works. THEOBALD.

2 Being compact of credit,] means, being made altogether of credulity. STEEVENS.

• -vain,] is light of tongue, not veracions. JOHNSON.

Nor