Difguifed cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many fuch like liberties of fin: +
If it prove fo, I will be gone the fooner.
I'll to the Centaur, to go seek this slave;
I greatly fear, my mony is not fafe.

ACT II.

SCENE I.

The Houfe of Antipholis of Ephefus.

NE

Enter Adriana and Luciana.

ADRIANA,

[Exit.

JEITHER my husband, nor the slave return'd, That in fuch hafte I fent to seek his master! 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 master; and when they fee time,
They'll go or come; If fo,

work Changes of the Mind by
thefe Applications.

WARBURTON.

be patient, fifter.

fhould be read thus,
Soul-killing forcerers,that change
the mind;
Dark-working witches, that de-
form 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 themfelves beasts.

4

liberties of fin:] Sir T. Hanmer reads, Libertines, which, as the author has been enumerating nct acts but perfons, feems right.

Adr.

Adr. Why should their liberty than ours be more?
Luc. Because their business still lies out a-door.

Adr. Look, when I serve him fo, he takes it ill.
Luc. Oh, know, he is the bridle of your will.
Adr. There's none, but asses, will be bridled fo.
Luc. Why, head-strong liberty is lasht with woe.
There's nothing fituate under heaven's eye,
But hath its bound in earth, in sea, in sky:
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 foul,
Of more preheminence than fish 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 start some other where?
Luc. 'Till he come home again, I would forbear.
Adr. Patience unmov'd,-no marvel tho' fhe pause,
They can be meek, that have no other cause :
A wretched foul, bruis'd with adversity,
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 patience in thee will be left. 7

Luc.

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's at two hands with me, and that my two ears can witness.

Adr. Say, did't 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 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, mistress, sure, 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,
He ask'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 he :
Will you come home, quoth I? my gold, quoth he:
Where is the thoufand marks I gave thee, villain?
The pig, quoth I, is burn'd; my gold, quoth he.
My mistress, Sir, quoth I; hang up thy mistress;
I know not thy miftrefs; out on thy mistress!

that patience which is fo near to id:otical fimplicity, that your next relation would take advantage

from it to reprefent you as a fi, and leg the guardianship of your fortune.

Luc.

Luc. Quoth who?

E. Dro. Quoth my master:

I know, quoth he, no house, no wife, no mistress;
So that my errand, due unto my tongue,

I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders :
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 across. E. Dro. And he will blefs that crofs with other beat

ing:

Between you I shall have a holy head.

Adr. Hence, prating peasant, fetch thy master home. E. Dro. Am I fo round with you as you with me, That like a foot-ball you do fpurn me thus ? You spurn 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!
Ard. 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 discourses dull? barren my wit?
If voluble and sharp difcourfe 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

8 Am I fo round with you as you with me,] He plays upon the word round, which fignified spherical applied to him

felf, and unrestrained, or free in Speech or action, spoken of his miftrefs. So the king in Hamlet bids the queen be round with her fon.

Of my defeatures.
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. Self-harming jealoufy!-fy, beat it hence.
Adr. Unfeeling fools can with fuch wrongs dispense:
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,
So he would keep fair quarter with his bed.
I fee, the jewel, best enamelled,
Will lofe his beauty; and the gold 'bides ftill,
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 fond fools ferve mad jealoufy!

many

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

This was my heav'n's extremeft
Sphere,

9

The pale that held my lovely deer. -poor I am but his fiale ] The word fale, in our authour, ufed as a fubftantive, means, not fomething offered to allure or attract, but fomething vitiated with afe, fomething of which the best part has been enjoyed and confumed.

1 fee, the jewel, best ena-
melled,

Will life his beauty; YET the

gold bides fill, That others tonch, AND oftentouching will: WHERE gold and no man, that bath a yame

1

}

[Exeunt.

By falfhood and corruption doth

it fhame.] In this miferable condition is this paffage given us. It should be read thus,

I fee, the jeavel, best enamelled,
Will lefe his beauty; and the
gold bides fill,
That others touch; yet cften touch-
ing will

Wear gold: and fo no man, that
bath a name,

But falfhood, and corruption, detb

it Jhame. The fenfe is this, "Gold, in"deed, will long bear the hand"ling; however, often touching, "will wear even gold; just so "the greatest character, tho' as

pure as gold itself, may, in "time, be injured, by the repeated attacks of falihood and corruption." WARBURTON.

SCENE