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

Will lofe his beauty; and the gold 'bides still,
That others touch; yet often touching will
Wear gold and fo 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!
[Exeunt.
Stale means, I believe, in this place, the fame as the French
word chaperon. Poor I am but the cover for his infidelity. STEEVENS.
7 Ifee, the jewel, beft enamelled,

Will lofe his beauty, yet the gold "bides ftill,
That others touch, and often touching will:
Where gold and no man, that hath a name,
By falfhood and corruption doth it shame.]

In this miferable condition is this paffage given us.
read thus,

I fee, the jewel, beft enamelled,

Will lofe his beauty; and the gold 'bides ftill,
That others touch; yet often touching will
Wear gold: and so no man, that bath a nam',
But falfhood, and corruption, doth it shame.

It fhould be

The fenfe is this, "Gold, indeed, will long bear the handling; “however, often touching will wear even gold; juft fo the greatest "character, tho' as pure as gold itfelf, may, in time, be injured, by the repeated attacks of falfhood and corruption. WARBUR. The Revifal reads thus,

66

-yet the gold 'bides ftill,

That others touch, tho' often touching will
Wear gold, and fo a man that hath a name,
By falfhood and corruption doth it fhame.

I would read,

-and though gold 'bides flill, &c. and the reft, with Dr. Warburton. STEEVENS.

SCENE

SCENE II.

Changes to the Street.

Enter Antipholis of Syracufe.

Ant. The gold, I gave to Dromio, is laid up
Safe at the Centaur; and the heedful flave
Is wander'd forth, in care to feek me out.
By computation, and mine hoft's report,
I could not speak with Dromio, fince at first
1 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 strokes, fo jeft with me again.
You know no Centaur? you receiv'd no gold?
Your mistress fent to have me home to dinner?
My house was at the Phoenix? Wast thou mad,
That thus fo madly thou didst answer me?

S. Dro. What anfwer, fir? when spake I fuch a word?

Ant. Even now, even here, not half an hour fince. S. Dre. I did not fee you fince you fent me hence Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me. Ant. Villain, thou didst deny the gold's receipt; And told'ft me of a mistress, and a dinner; For which, I hope, thou felt'ft I was displeas'd.

S. Dro. I am glad to fee you in this merry vein: What means this jeft? I pray you, master, tell me? Ant. Yea, doft thou jeer and flout me in the teeth? Think'ft thou, I jeft? Hold, take thou that, and [Beats Dro. S. Dro. Hold, fir, for God's fake: now your jest

that.

is earnest :

Upon what bargain do you give it me?

M 2

Ant

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

S. Dro. Sconce, call you it? fo you would leave battering, I had rather have it a head: an you use thefe blows long, I must get a fconce for my head, and infconce it too, or elfe I fhall feek my wit in my fhoulders. But, I pray, fir, why am I beaten? Ant. Doft thou not know?

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

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

Ant. Why, firft, for flouting me; and then, wherefore,

For urging it the fecond time to me.

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

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

Well, fir, I thank you.

Ant. Thank me, fir? for what?

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

Ant. I'll make you amends next, to give you no thing for fomething. But fay, fir, is it dinner-time?

• And make a common of my ferious bours.] i. e. intrude on them when you pleafe. The allufion is to thefe tracts of ground destined to the general use, which are thence called commons.

STEEVENS,

S. Dro

S. Dre. No, fir; I think, the meat wants that I

have.

Ant. In good time, fir, what's that?

S. Dro. Bafting.

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

S. Dro. If it be, fir, pray you eat none of it.
Ant. Your reafon ?

S. Dro. Left it make you cholerick, and purchase me another dry-basting.

Ant. Well, fir, learn to jeft in good time. There's a time for all things.

S. Dro. I durft have deny'd that, before you were fo cholerick.

Ant. By what rule, fir?

S. Dro, Marry, fir, by a rule as plain as the plain bald pate of father Time himself.

Ant. Let's hear it.

S. Dro. There's no time for a man to recover his hair, that grows bald by nature,

Ant. May he not do it by fine and recovery?

S. Dro. Yes, to pay a fine for a peruke, and recover the loft hair of another man.

Ant. Why is Time fuch a niggard of hair, being, as it is, fo plentiful an excrement?

S. Dro. Because it is a bleffing that he bestows on beasts: and what he hath scanted men in hair, he hath given them in wit.

2 Ant. Why is time, &c.] In former editions:

Ant. Why is Time fuch a niggard of hair, being, as it is, fɔ plentiful an excrement?

S. Dro. Because it is a blessing that he bestows on beafts, and what he bath feanted them in hair, be bath given them in wit.

Surely, this is mock-reasoning, and a contradiction in fenfe, Can hair be supposed a bleffing, which Time beftows on beafts peculiarly; and yet that he hath Scanted them of it too? Men and Ïkem, I obferve, are very frequently mistaken vice verfa for each other, in the old impreffions of our author.

M 3

THEOBALD.

Ant.

Ant. Why, but there's many a man hath more hair

than wit.

S. Dro. Not a man of those, but he hath the wit to lofe his hair. 3

Ant. Why, thou didst conclude hairy men plain dealers without wit.

S. Dro. The plainer dealer, the fooner loft: Yet he lofeth it in a kind of jollity.

Ant. For what reafon ?

S. Dro. For two; and found ones too.
Ant. Nay, not found, I pray you.
S. Dro. Sure ones then.

Ant. Nay, not fure, in a thing falfing.
SDro. Certain ones then.

Ant. Name them.

S. Dro. The one, to fave the money that he spends in tyring; the other, that at dinner they should not drop in his porridge.

Ant. You would all this time have prov'd, there is no time for all things.

S. Dro. Marry, and did, fir; namely, no time to recover hair loft by nature.

Ant. But your reason was not fubftantial, why there is no time to recover,

S. Dro. Thus I mend it: Time himfelf is bald, and therefore to the world's end, will have bald followers. Ant. I knew, 'twould be a bald conclufion: But, foft! who wafts us yonder?

Enter Adriana and Luciana.

Adr. Ay, ay, Antipholis, look ftrange and frown; Some other miftreis hath thy fweet afpecs,

Not a man of theft, but he hath the wit to lofe his hair.] That is, Those who have more bair thin auit, are eafily entrapped by loose women, and fuffer the confequences of lewdnefs, one of which, in the first appearance of the difeafe in Europe, was the lofs of hair. JOHNSON.

I am