E. Dro. Your worship's wife, my miftrefs at the
Phanix;

She, that doth faft, 'till you come home to dinner;
And prays, that you will hie you home to dinner.
Ant. What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face,
Being forbid there take you that, Sir knave.

E. Dr. What mean you, Sir? for God's fake, hold your hands ;

Nay, an you will not, Sir, I'll take my heels.

*

[Exit Dromio.. Ant. Upon my life, by fome device or other, The villain is o'er-raught of all my money. They fay, this town is full of couzenage (2); As nimble jugglers, that deceive the eye (3);

That is, over-reached.

Dark

(2) They fay, this town is full of couzenage] This was the character the ancients give of it. Hence 'Epéora áñiápμana. was proverbial amongst them. Thus Menander ufes it, and Eprova yęźupala, in the fame fenfe, WARBURTON..

(3) As nimble Jugglers, that deceive the eye; Dark working Sorcerers, that change the mind;

Soul killing Wickes, that deform the Body;] Thofe, who atten tively confider these three Lines, muft confider, that the Poet intended, the Epithet given to each of thefe mifcreants, should declare the power by which they perform their feats, and which would therefore be a juf. Characteristick of each of them.

Tricks by Sleight of Hand: and by Soul-killing Witches, we are informed, the mischief they do is by the affiftance of the Devil, to whom they have given their Souls: But then, by dark working Sorce rers, we are not inftructed in the means by which they perform their Ends. Befides, this Epithet agrees as well to Witches, as. to them; and therefore, certainly, our Authour could not defign This in their Characteristick. We fhould read;

by nimble Jugglers, we are taught that they perform the Thus,

Drug-working Sorcerers, that change the mind;

And we know by the Hiftory of ancient and modern Superstition, that thefe kind of Jugglers always pretended to work Changes of the Mind by these Applications. WARBURTON.

The learned commentator has endeavoured with much earneftnefs to recommend his altération; but, if I may judge of other mens apprehenfions by may own, without great fuccefs. This interpretation of ful-kiling, is forced and harsh. Sir T. Harmer reads, Soul felling, agreeably enough to the common opinion, but without fuch improvement as may juftify the change. Perhaps the epithets have been only misplaced, and the lines fhould be read. thus,.

Soul

Dark working forcerers, that change the mind;;
Soul-killing witches, that deform the body;
Difguifed cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many fuch like liberties of fin (4):
If it prove fo, I will be gone the fooner.
Ell to the Centaur, to go feek this flave
I greatly fear, my money is not fafe.

N'

ACT II.

SCENE I

The Houfe of Antipholis of Ephefus.,

Enter Adriana and Luciana..

ADRIANA.

[Exit.

EITHER my hufband, nor the flave 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 fomewhere 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,
They'll go or come; If fo, be patient, fifter.

Adr. Why fhould their liberty than ours be more?
Luc. Becaufe their business ftill lies out a-door.
Adr. Look, when I ferve him fo, he takes it ill.
Luc. Oh know, he is the bridle of your will..
Adr. There's none but affes, will be bridled fo.
Luc. Why, head-ftrong liberty is lafht with woe..
There's nothing fituate under heaven's eye,
But hath its bound in earth, in fea, in fky:

Soul-killing forcerers, that change the mind;
Dark-working witches, that deform the body:
This change feems to remove all difficulties."

By foul-killing I understand deftroying the rational faculties by fuch means as make men fancy themselves beafts.

(4)

liberties of fin:] Sir T Hanmer reads, Li bertines, which, as the author has been enumerating not acts but perfons, feems right..

The beafts, the fishes, and the winged fowls,"
Are their males' fubjects, and at their controuls
Man, more divine, the mafter of all these,
Lord of the wide world, and wide wat'ry feas,
Indu'd with intellectual sense and soul,

Of more preheminence than fifh and fowl,
Are mafters to their females, and their lords:
Then let your will attend on their accords.

Adr. This fervitude makes you to keep unwed.
Luc. Not this, but troubles of the marriage bed.
Adr. But were you wedded, you would bear fome
fway.

Luc. Ere I learn love, I'll practife to obey.

Adr. How if your husband ftart fome other where (5)?
Luc. 'Till he come home again, I would forbear.
Adr. Patience unmoved!
no marvel tho' fhe

paufe (6);

They can be meek, that have no other cause :
A wretched foul, bruis'd with adverfity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;

But were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we fhould ourselves complain.
So thou, that haft no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience wouldft relieve me
But if thou live to fee like right bereft,
This fool-begg'd (7) patience in thee will be left.
Luc. Well, I will marry one day but to try:
Here comes your Man, now is
your hufband nigh.

SCENE II.

Enter Dromio of Ephefus.

Adr. Say, is your tardy mafter now at hand?

(5)

- fart fome other where?] I cannot but think that our author wrote,

fart fome other hare.

So in Much ado about nothing, Cupid is faid to be a good bare-finder. (6) To pause is to reft, to be in quiet.

(7) -fool-begg'd] She feems to mean by fool-begg'd patience, that patience which is fo near to idictical fimplicity, that your next relation would take advantage from it to reprefent you as a fool and beg the guardianship of your fortune.

E. Dro.

E. Dro. Nay, he's at two hands with me,, and that my two ears can witness.

Adr. Say, did't thou fpeak 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 feel his blows; and withal fo doubtfully, that I could fcarce understand them.

Adr. But fay, I pr'ythee, is he coming home?

It feems he hath great care to please his wife.

E. Dro. Why, miftrefs, fure, my mafter is horn-mad. Adr. Horn-mad, thou villain?

E. Dro. I mean not, cuckold-mad; but, fure, he's ftark mad:

When I defired him to come home to dinner,
He afk'd me for a thousand marks in gold:
"Tis dinner-time, quoth I; my gold, quoth he
Your meat doth burn, quoth I; my gold, quoth be:
Will you come home, quoth I? my gold, quoth her:
Where
here is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain ?
The pig, quoth I, is burn'd, my gold, quoth he.
My miftrefs, Sir, quoth I; hang up thy miftrefs
I know not thy miftrefs; out on thy mistrefs!
Luc. Quoth who?

E. Dro. Quoth my mafter

I know, quoth he, no houfe, no wife, no miftrefs
So that my errand, due unto my tongue,

I thank him, I bare home upon my fhoulders:

For in conclufion, he did beat me there.

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 meffenger.

Adr. Back, flave, or I will break thy pate acrofs.
E. Dro. And he will blefs that crofs with other beat-
ing:

Between you I fhall have a holy head.

Adr.. Hence, prating peafant, fetch thy mafter home.

E. Dro. Am I fo round with you as you with me (8),. 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.

SCENE III.

[Exit.

Luc. Fy, how impatience lowreth in your face! Adr. His company muft do his minions grace, Whilft I at home ftarve for a merry look : Hath homely age th' alluring beauty took From my poor cheek? then, he hath wafted it.. Are my difcourfes dull? barren my wit? If voluble and fharp difcourfe be mar'd, Unkindness blunts it, more than marble hard. Do their gay vestments his affections bait? That's not my fault: he's master of 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 ftale (9). Luc. Self-harming jealoufy! fy, bear it hence. Adr. Unfeeling fools can with fuch wrongs difpenfe:

my

I know, his eye doth homage other-where;
Or else what lets it, but he would be here?
Sifter you know he promis'd me a chain;
Would that alone, alone, he would detain,

(8) Am I fo round with you as you with me,] He plays upon the word round, which fignifieth fpberical applied to himself, and unreftrained or free in fpeech or action, spoken of his miftrefs. So the king in Hamlet bids the queen be round with her fon.

The ambiguity of deer and dear is borrowed, poor as it is, by, Waller in his poem on the Ladies Girdle.

This was my beav'n's extremeft fphere;

The pale that beld my lovely deer.

(9) poor I am but bis ftale.] The word ftale, in our authour, ufed as a Subftantive, means, not fomething offered to allure or attract, but fomething vitiated with ufe, fomething of which the best part has been enjoyed and confumed.

So