And many fuch like liberties of fin: " If it prove fo, I will be gone the fooner. [Exit. ACT II. SCENE I. N The House of Antipholis of Ephefus. Enter Adriana and Luciana. ADRIAN A. EITHER my husband, nor the slave return'd, That in fuch hafte I fent to feek his mafter ! Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock. Luc. Perhaps, fome merchant hath invited him, And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner. Good fifter, let us dine, and never fret: A man is master of his liberty; Time is their mafter; and, when they fee time, Adr. Why fhould their liberty than ours be more? -liberties of fin:] Sir T. Hanmer reads, libertines, which, as the author has been enumerating not acts but perfons, feems right. JOHNSON. 7 Adr. There is none but affes will be bridled fo. Luc. Why head-strong liberty is lafh'd with woe.] Should it not rather be leaf'd, i. e. coupled like a head strong hound? The There's nothing fituate under heaven's eye, Adr. This fervitude makes you to keep unwed. Luc. Ere I'learn love, I'll practife to obey. Adr: The high opinion I must neceffarily entertain of the learned Lady's judgment, who furnished this obfervation, has taught me to be diffident of my own, which I am now to offer. The meaning of this paffage may be, that those who refuse the bridle must bear the lab, and that woe is the punishment of headftrong liberty. It may be obferved, however, that the feamen ftill ufe lab in the fame fenfe with leafb. Lace was the old English word for a cord, from which verbs have been derived differently modelled by the chances of pronunciation. When the mariner lafhes his guns, the fportfman kafbes his dogs, the female laces her clothes, they all perform the fame act of fallening with a lace or cord. Of the fame original is the word windlass, or more properly windlace, an engine, by which a lace or cord is wound upon a barrel. STEEVENS. 8 -ftart fome other where ?] I cannot but think, that our authour wrote, -fart fome other hare? So in Much ado about Nothing, Cupid is faid to be a good bare finder. JOHNSON. So in Lear, I fufpect that where has here the power of a noun. "Thou lofeft here, a better where to find." The fenfe is, Haw, if your husband fly out in pursuit of fome other woman? The expreffion is ufed again, fcene 3. "-his Adr. Patience unmov'd, pause;" no marvel tho' fhe They can be meek, that have no other caufe. But were we burden'd with like weight of pain, I Luc. Well, I will marry one day, but to try ;Here comes your man, now is your husband nigh. Enter Dromio of Ephefus. Adr. Say, is your tardy mafter now at hand? E. Dro. Nay, he is at two hands with me, and that my two ears can witness. Adr. Say, didft thou speak with him? know'st thou his mind? E. Dro. Ay, ay, he told his mind upon mine ear: Befhrew his hand, I fcarce could understand it. Luc. Spake he fo doubtfully, thou couldst not feel His meaning? E. Dro. Nay, he ftruck fo plainly, I could too well his eye doth homage other where." And in Romeo and Juliet, a&t i. yet more appofitely, "This is not Romeo, he's fome other where." STEEVENS. -tho' fhe paufe ;] To pause is to reft, to be in quiet. JOHNSON. 1-fool-begg'd-] She feems to mean, by fool-begg'd patience, that patience which is fo near to idiotical fimplicity, that your next relation would take advantage from it to reprefent you as a fool, and beg the guardianship of your fortune. JOHNSON. feel feel his blows; and withal fo doubtfully, that I could fcarce understand them." Adr. But fay, I pr'ythee, is he coming home? It seems, he hath great care to please his wife. E. Dro. Why, miftrefs, fure, my mafter is hornmad. Adr. Horn-mad, thou villain? E. Dro. I mean not cuckold-mad; but, fure, he's ftark mad: When I defir'd him to come home to dinner, E. Dro. Quoth my mafter: I know, quoth he, no boufe, no wife, no miftrefs;- I thank him, I bear home upon my shoulders; 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 messenger. Adr. Back, flave, or I will break thy pate across. beating: Between you I fhall have a holy head. 2 that I could fearce underftand them.] i. e. that I could fcarce ftand under them. This quibble, poor as it is, feems to have been the favourite of Shakespeare. It has been already introduced in the Two Gentlemen of Verona. my staff understands me." STEEVENS. Adr. 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 spurn me hither: If I laft in this fervice, you must cafe me in leather. [Exit. Luc. Fy, 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 From my poor cheek? then he hath wafted it! Are my difcourfes dull? barren my wit? If voluble and fharp discourse be marr'd, Unkindness blunts it more, than marble hard. Do their gay vestments 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 Am 1 fo round with you, as you with me,] He plays upon the word round, which fignified spherical applied to himself, and unrefrained, or free in speech or action, spoken of his mistress. So the king, in Hamlet, bids the queen be round with her fon. JoHNSON. -My decayed fair] Shakespeare uses the adjective gilt, as a fubftantive, for what is gilt, and very probably fair for fairness. To u nalov, is a fimilar expreffion. In the Midfummer-Night's Dream, the old quarto's read, "Demetrius loves your fair." STEEVENS. 5too unruly der,] The ambiguity of deer and dear is borrowed, poor as it is, by Waller, in his poem on the Ladies Girdi.. "This was my heav'n's extremest sphere, "The pale that held my lovely deer." JOHNSON. poor I am but his ftale.] The word ftale, in our authout, ufed as a fubftantive, means, not fomething offered to allure or attraf, but fomething vitiated with use, something of which the best part has been enjoyed and confumed. JOHNSON. VOL. II. M Stale |