Egeon. Moft mighty Duke, vouchfafe me speak Haply, I fee a friend, will fave my life; Duke. Speak freely, Syracufan, what thou wilt. Egeon. Is not your name, fir, call'd Antipholis? And is not that your bondman Dromio ? E. Dro. Within this hour I was his bond-man, fir, But he, I thank him, gnaw'd in two my cords; Now am I Dromio, and his man, unbound. Egeon. I am fure, you both of you remember me, E. Dro. Ourfelves we do remember, fir, by you; For lately we were bound, as you are now. You are not Pinch's patient, are you, fir? Egeon. Why look you strange on me? you know me well. E. Ant. I never faw you in my life, 'till now. Egeon, Oh! grief hath chang'd me, fince you faw me laft; 2 And careful hours, with time's deformed hand Egeon. Dromio, nor thou? E. Dro. No, truft me, fir, nor I. E. Dro. Ay, fir? but I am fure, I do not; and whatfoever a man denies, you are now bound to be lieve him. Egeon. Not know my voice! Oh, time's extre mity! Haft thou fo crack'd and fplitted my poor tongue, In seven short years, that here my only fon Knows not my feeble key of untun'd cares? 2 Strange defeatures.] Defeature is the privative of feature, The meaning is, time hath cancelled my features. JOHNSON. Tho' Tho' now this grained face of mine be hid E. Ant. I never faw my father in my life. Egeon. But feven years fince, in Syracufa, boy, Thou knoweft, we parted: but, perhaps, my fon, Thou fham'ft to acknowledge me in mifery. E. Ant. The Duke, and all that know me in the city, Can witnefs with me that it is not fo: I ne'er faw Syracufa in my life. Duke. I tell thee, Syracufan, twenty years During which time he ne'er faw Syracufa : Enter the Abbefs, with Antipholis Syracufan and Dromio wrong'd. Abb. Molt mighty Duke, behold a man much [All gather to fee him. Adr. I fee two hufbands, or mine eyes deceive me, Duke. One of thefe men is genius to the other; And fo of thefe: Which is the natural man, And which the fpirit? who deciphers them? 3 All thofe OLD witnesses, I cannot err,] I believe fhould read, All thefe HOLD witnesses I cannot err, i. e. all these continue to teftify that I cannot err, and tell me, &c. WARBURTON. The old reading is the true one, as well as the most poetical. The words I cannot err fhould be thrown into a parenthefis. By old witneffes I believe he means experienced, accufiom'd ones, which are therefore lets likely to err. STEEVENS. S. Dro. S. Dro. I, fir, am Dromio; command him away. Abb. Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds, And gain a husband by his liberty: Speak, old Ægeon, if thou be'ft the man, That bore thee at a burden two fair fons ? Duke. Why, here begins his morning story right: Ægeon. If I dream not, thou art Æmilia; Abb. By men of Epidamnum, he and I, Duke. Antipholis, thou cam'ft from Corinth first. E. Dro. And I with him. E. Ant. Brought to this town by that most famous warrior, Duke Menaphon, your most renowned uncle. Adr. Adr. Which of you two did dine with me to-day? S. Ant. I, my gentle mistress. Adr. And are you not my husband? E. Ant. No, I fay, nay to that. S. Ant. And fo do I, yet she did call me so: Ang. That is the chain, fir, which you had of me. E. Ant. And you, fir, for this chain arrefted me. Ang. I think, I did, fir; I deny it not. Adr. I fent you money, fir, to be your bail, By Dromio; but, I think, he brought it not. E. Dro. No, none by me. S. Ant. This purfe of ducats I receiv'd from you, E. Ant. These ducats pawn I for my father here. Abb. Renowned duke, vouchsafe to take the pains To go with us into the abbey here, And hear at large difcourfed all our fortunes: And all that are affǝmbled in this place, 5 Twenty-five years have I but have I but gone in travel 5 Twenty-five years ] In former editions, Of 'Tis impoffible the poet could be fo forgetful, as to design this num ber Of you, my fons; nor, till this prefent hour, The Duke, my hufband, and my children both, Duke. With all my heart, I'll goffip at this feat. board? E. Ant. Dromio, what stuff of mine haft thou im bark'd? ber here and therefore I have ventured to alter it to twenty-five, upon a proof, that, I think, amounts to demonftration. The number, I perfume, was at first wrote in figures, and, perhaps, blindly; and thence the mistake might arife. Egeon, in the first fcene of the firft act, is precife as to the time his fon left him, in quest of his brother: My youngest boy, and yet my eldeft care, At eighteen years became inquifitive And how long it was from the fon's thus parting from his father, to their meeting again at Ephefus, where Ageon, mistakenly, recognizes the twin-brother, for him, we as precifely learn from another paffage in the fifth act. Age. But leven years fince, in Syracusa-bay, So that these two numbers, put together, fettle the date of their birth beyond difpute. THEOBALD, -and go with me:] We fhould read, and GAUDE with me: i. e. rejoice, from the French, gaudir. WARBURTON.' The fenfe is clear enough without the alteration. The Revifal offers to read, more plausibly, I think, 7 After fo long grief, fuch nativity.] We should furely read, After fo long grief, fuch feftivity. Nativity lying fo near, and the termination being the fame of both words, the miftake was easy. JOHNSON. S. Dro. |