Luc. All this my fifter is, or else should be. S. Ant. Call thyself fifter, sweet, for I mean thee: 3 Thee will I love, and with thee lead my life; Thou haft no husband yet, nor I no wife: Give me thy hand. Luc. Oh, foft, fir, hold you ftill; I'll fetch my fifter, to get her good-will. Enter Dromio of Syracufe. [Ex. Luc. S. Ant. Why, how now, Dromio, where run'ft thou fo faft? S. Dro. Do you know me, fir? am I Dromio? am I your man? am I myself? S. Ant. Thou art Dromio, thou art my man, thou art thyself. S. Dro. I am an ass, I am a woman's man, and befides myself. S. Ant. What woman's man? and how befides thyfelf. S. Dro. Marry, fir, befides myself, I am due to a woman; one that claims me, one that haunts me, one that will have me. S. Ant. What claim lays fhe to thee? S. Dro. Marry, fir, fuch a claim as you would lay to your horse; and fhe would have me as a beast: not that, I being a beaft, fhe would have me; but that she, being a very beastly creature, lays claim to me. 3 S. Ant. What is the? reads, -for I mean thee.] Thus the modern editors. The folio He has just told her, that fhe was his fweet hope's aim. STEEVENS. S. Dro. S. Dro. A very reverend body; ay, fuch a one as a man may not fpeak of, without he fay, fir reverence: I have but lean luck in the match; and yet is the a wond'rous fat marriage. S. Ant. How doft thou mean, a fat marriage? S. Dro. Marry, fir, fhe's the kitchen-wench, and all grease and I know not what ufe to put her to, but to make a lamp of her, and run from her by her own light. I warrant, her rags, and the tallow in them, will burn a Poland winter if the lives 'till doomsday, fhe'll burn a week longer than the whole world. S. Art. What complexion is fhe of? S. Dro. Swart, like my fhoe, but her face nothing like fo clean kept: For why? fhe fweats, a man may go over fhoes in the grime of it. S. Ant. That's a fault that water will mend. S. Dro. No, fir, 'tis in grain; Noah's flood could not do it. S. Ant. What's her name? S. Dro. Nell, fir;-but her name and three quarters (that is, an ell and three quarters,) will not meafure her from hip to hip. S. Ant. Then the bears fome breadth? S. Dro. No longer from head to foot, than from hip to hip: fhe is fpherical, like a globe; I could find out countries in her. S. Ant. In what part of her body ftands Ireland? 4 S. Ant. What's her name? S. Dro. Nell, fir; but her name is three quarters; that is, an ell and three quarters, &c.] This paffage has hitherto lain as perplexed and unintelligible, as it is now eafy, and truly humourous. If a conundrum be restored, in fetting it right, who can help it? There are enough befides in our author, and Een Jonfon, to coun tenance that current vice of the times when this play appear'd. Nor is Mr. Pope, in the chaflity of his tafte, to briftle up at me for the revival of this witticifin, fince I owe the correction to the fagacity of the ingenious Dr. Thirlby. THEOBALD. N 4 S. Dro S. Dro. Marry, fir, in her buttocks; I found it out by the bogs. S. Ant. Where Scotland? S. Dro. I found it out by the barrenness, hard in the palm of her hand. S. Ant. Where France? 5 S. Ant. Where France ? S. Dro. S. Dro. In her forehead, arm'd and reverted, making war againft ber hair.] All the other countries, mentioned in this description, are in Dromio's replies fatirically characterized but here, as the editors have ordered it, no remark is made upon France; nor any reafon given, why it fhould be in her forehead: but only the kitchen-wench's high forehead is rallied, as pushing back her bair. Thus all the modern editions; but the firft folio reads-making war against her heir. And I am very apt to think, this laft is the true reading; and that an equivoqu, as the French call it, a double meaning, is defigned in the poet's allufion and therefore I have replaced it in the text. In 1589, Henry Ill. of France being stabb'd, and dying of his wound, was fucceeded by Henry IV. of Navarre, whom he appointed his fucceffor: but whofe claim the ftates of France refifted, on account of his being a proteftant. This, I take it, is what he means, by France making war against her beir. Now as, in 1591, queen Elizabeth fent over 4000 men, under the conduct of the earl of Effex, to the affiftance of this Henry of Navarre; it feems to me very probable, that during this expedition being on foot, this comedy made its appearance. And it was the finest addrefs imaginable in the poet to throw fuch an oblique fneer at France, for oppofing the fucceffion of that heir, whofe claim his royal miftrefs, the queen, had fent over a force to establish, and oblige them to ac knowledge. THEOBALD. With this correction and explication Dr. Warburton concurs, and fir T. Hanmer thinks an equivocation intended, though he retains hair in the text. Yet furely they have all loft the fenfe by looking beyond it. Our authour, in my opinion, only fports with an allufion, in which he takes too much delight, and means that his miftrefs had the French difeafe. The ideas are rather too offenfive to be dilated. By a forehead armed, he means covered with incruited eruptions: by routed, he means having the hair turning backward. An equivocal word muft have fenfes applicable to both the fubjects to which it is applied. Both forebead and France might in fome fort make war against their hair, but how did the forebead make war against its ber? The fenfe which I have given immediately occurred to me, and will, I believe, arife S. Dro. In her forehead; arm'd and reverted, making war against her hair. S. Ant. Where England? S. Dro. I look'd for the chalky cliffs, but I could find no whitenefs in them: but I guess it stood in her chin, by the falt rheum that ran between France and it. S. Ant. Where Spain? S. Dro. Faith, I faw it not; but I felt it hot in her breath. S. Ant. Where America, the Indies? S. Dra. Oh, fir, upon her nose, all o'er embellish'd with rubies, carbuncles, fapphires: declining their rich afpect to the hot breath of Spain, who fent whole armadoes of carracks to be ballafted at her nofe. S. Ant. Where ftood Belgia, the Netherlands? S. Dro. Oh, fir, I did not look fo low. To conclude, this drudge, or diviner, laid claim to me; call'd me Dromio, fwore, I was affur'd to her; told me what privy marks I had about me, as the marks of my shoulder, the mole in my neck, the great wart on my left arm, that I, amaz'd, ran from her as a witch: And, I think, if my breaft had not been made of faith, and my heart of fteel, fhe had transform'd me to a curtail-dog, and made me turn i'the wheel. S. Ant. Go, hie thee presently; post to the road: And if the wind blow any way from shore, arife to every reader who is contented with the meaning that lies before him, without fending our conjecture in fearch of refinements. JOHNSON.. And, I think, if my breast bad not been made of faith, &c.] Alluding to the fuperftition of the common people, that nothing could refift a witch's power, of transforming men into animals, but a great share of faith: however the Oxford editor thinks a breaft made of fint, better fecurity, and has therefore put it in. WARBURTON. I will not harbour in this town to-night. [Exit. Enter Angelo, with a chain. Ang. Mafter Antipholis S. Ant. Ay, that's my name. Ang. I know it well, fir: Lo, here is the chain; I thought to have ta'en you at the Porcupine ; 7 The chain, unfinish'd, made me ftay thus long. S. Ant. What is your will, that I fhall do with this? Ang. What please yourself, fir; I have made it for you. S. Ant. Made it for me, fir! I bespoke it not. Ang. Not once, nor twice, but twenty times you have: Go home with it, and please your wife withal; And then receive my money for the chain. at the Porcupine;] It is remarkable, that all over the ancient editions of Shakespeare's plays, (both in the folio and quartos) the word Porpentine is ufed inftead of Porcupine. Perhaps it was fo written at that time. STEEVENS. I S. Ant. |