Fy on thee, wretch! 'tis pity, that thou liv’st
To walk where any honeft men refort.

S. Ant. Thou art a villain, to impeach me thus.
I'll prove mine honour and my honefty
Against thee prefently, if thou dar'ft ftand.
Mer. I dare, and do defy thee for a villain.

[They draw.

Enter Adriana, Luciana, Courtezan, and others.
Adr. Hold, hurt him not, for God's fake; he is
mad ;-

Some get within him, take his fword away:
Bind Dromio too, and bear them to my houfe.

S. Dro. Run, mafter, run; for God's fake, take
a house.

This is fome priory ;-In, or we are spoil'd.

[Exeunt to the priory.

Enter Lady Abbess.

Abb. Be quiet, people; wherefore throng you hither?
Adr. To fetch my poor distracted hufband hence:
Let us come in, that we may bind him fast,
And bear him home for his recovery.

Ang. I knew, he was not in his perfect wits.
Mer. I am forry now, that I did draw on him?
Abb. How long hath this poffeffion held the man?
Adr. This week he hath been heavy, fower, fad,
And much, much different from the man he was;
But, till this afternoon, his paffion

Ne'er brake into extremity of rage.

Abb. Hath he not loft much wealth by wreck at fea?
Bury'd fome dear friend? Hath not elle his eye
Stray'd his affection in unlawful love?

A fin, prevailing much in youthful men,
Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing.
Which of thefe forrows is he fubject to?

Adr. To none of thefe, except it be the last;

Namely,

Namely, fome love, that drew him oft from home. Abb. You fhould for that have reprehended him. Adr. Why, fo I did.

Abb. Ay, but not rough enough.

Adr. As roughly, as my modelty would let me.
Abb. Haply, in private.

Adr. And in affemblies too.
Abb. Ay, but not enough.

Adr. It was the copy of our conference.
In bed, he slept not for my urging it;
At board, he fed not for my urging it;
Alone, it was the fubject of my theme;
In company, I often glanc'd at it;
Still did I tell him, it was vile and bad.

Abb. And therefore came it that the man was mad.
The venom clamours of a jealous woman
Poifon more deadly than a mad dog's tooth.

It feems, his fleeps were hinder'd by thy railing:
And therefore comes it, that his head is light.
Thou fay'ft, his meat was fauc'd with thy upbraidings:
Unquiet meals make ill digeftions,

Therefore the raging fire of fever bred;

And what's a fever but a fit of madness?
Thou fay'ft his fports were hinder'd by thy brawls:
Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth enfue,
But moody and dull melancholy,

+ Kinfman to grim and comfortleís defpair?

4 Kinfman to grim and comfortless despair?] Shakespeare could never make melancholy a male in this line, and a female in the next. This was the foolish infertion of the firft editors. I have therefore put it into hooks, as fpurious. WARBURTON.

The defective metre of the fecond line, is a plain proof that fome diflyllable word hath been dropped there. I think it therefore probable our poet may have written,

Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth enfue,
But moodie [moping] and dull melancholy,
Kinfman to grim and comfortless despair?
And at their heels a buge infectious troop.

REVISAL.
And

And at her heels a huge infectious troop
Of pale diftemperatures, and foes to life.
In food, in fport, and life-preferving rest,
To be disturb'd, would mad or man, or beast:
The confequence is then, thy jealous fits
Have scar'd thy husband from the use of wits.

209

Luc. She never reprehended him but mildly,
When he demean'd himself rough, rude and wildly.
-Why bear you these rebukes, and answer not?
Adr. She did betray me to my own reproof.
-Good people, enter, and lay hold on him.
Abb. No, not a creature enter in my house.
Adr. Then, let your fervants bring my husband
forth.

Abb. Neither; he took this place for fanctuary,
And it fhall privilege him from your hands,
'Till I have brought him to his wits again,
Or lofe my labour in affaying it.

Adr. I will attend my husband, be his nurse,
Diet his fickness, for it is my office;
And will have no attorney but myself;
And therefore let me have him home with me.
Abb. Be patient; for I will not let him stir,
'Till I have us'd the approved means I have,
With wholfome fyrups, drugs, and holy prayers
To make of him a formal man again; 5

It is a branch and parcel of mine oath,
A charitable duty of my order

;

Therefore depart, and leave him here with me.
Adr. I will not hence, and leave my husband here;
And ill it doth beseem your holiness

To separate the husband and the wife.

Abb. Be quiet, and depart, thou shalt not have him.

a formal man again ;] i. c. to bring him back to his fenfes, and the forms of fober behaviour. So in Measure for Measure: -informal women for juft the contrary.

STEEVENS.

Luc.

Luc. Complain unto the Duke of this indignity. [Exit Abbefs. Adr. Come, go; I will fall proftrate at his feet, And never rife, until my tears and prayers Have won his grace to come in person hither, And take perforce my husband from the Abbefs. Mer. By this, I think, the dial points at five: Anon, I am fure, the Duke himself in perfon Comes this way to the melancholy vale; The place of death and forry execution, Behind the ditches of the abbey here. Ang. Upon what cause?

Mer. To fee a reverend Syracufan merchant,
Who put unluckily into this bay

Against the laws and ftatutes of this town,
Beheaded publickly for his offence.

Ang. See, where they come; we will behold his
death.

Luc. Kneel to the Duke, before he pass the abbey. Enter the Duke, and Egeon bare headed; with the headsman and other officers.

Duke. Yet once again proclaim it publickly,
If any friend will pay the fum for him,
He.fhall not die, fo much we tender him.

Adr. Juftice, moft facred Duke, against the Abbess!
Duke. She is a virtuous and a reverend lady;

It cannot be, that fhe hath done thee wrong.
Adr. May it please your grace, Antipholis my
husband,

(Whom I made lord of me and all I had,
At your important letters,) this ill day

6 (Whom I made lord of m: and all I had,
At your important letters,)]

Shakespeare, who gives to all nations the cuftoms of his own, feems from this paffage to allude to a court of wards in Ephesus.

Important feems to be for importunate. JOHNSON.

STEEVENS.

A moft

A most outrageous fit of madness took him;
That defperately he hurry'd through the street,
(With him his bondman all as mad as he)
Doing difpleasure to the citizens,

By rufhing in their houfes; bearing thence
Rings, jewels, any thing his rage did like.
Once did I get him bound, and fent him home,
Whilft to take order for the wrongs I went,
That here and there his fury had committed.
Anon, I wot not by what ftrong escape,
He broke from thofe that had the guard of him:
And, with his mad attendant and himself,
Each one with ireful paffion, with drawn fwords,
Met us again, and, madly bent on us,
Chas'd us away; 'till, raifing of more aid,
We came again to bind them: then they fled
Into this abbey, whither we purfu'd them;
And here the Abbefs fhuts the gates on us,
And will not fuffer us to fetch him out,

Nor fend him forth, that we may bear him hence. Therefore, moft gracious Duke, with thy command, Let him be brought forth, and borne hence for help. Duke. Long fince thy husband ferv'd me in my

wars;

And I to thee engag'd a prince's word,

(When thou didst make him mafter of thy bed)
Po do him all the grace and good I could.-
Go, fome of you, knock at the abbey-gate;
And bid the lady Abbefs come to me;

I will determine this, before I ftir.

7 And, with his mad attendant AND himself,] We should read,

MAD bimflf.

We might read,

WARBURTON.

And here his mad attendant and himself, STEEVENS.