Who, every word by all my wit being scann'd,
Wants wit in all one word to understand.

Luc. Fy, brother! how the world is chang'd with

you;

When were you wont to use my fifter thus ?

She fent for you by Dromio home to dinner.
Ant. By Dromio?

S. Dro. By me?

Adr. By thee; and thus thou didft return from him, That he did buffet thee; and in his blows

Deny'd my house for his, me for his wife.

Ant. Did you converfe, Sir, with this gentlewoman? What is the courfe and drift of your compact?

S. Dro. I, Sir? I never faw her 'till this time. Ant. Villain, thou lieft; for even her very words Didft thou deliver to me on the mart.

S. Dro. I never fpoke with her in all my life.
Ant. How can fhe thus then call us by our names,
Unless it be by inspiration?

Adr. How ill agrees it with your gravity,
To counterfeit thus grofly with your slave,
Abetting him to thwart me in my mood?
Be it my wrong, you are from me exempt,
But wrong not that wrong with a more contempt.
Come, I will faften on this fleeve of thine;
Thou art an elm, my hufband, I a vine:
Whose weakness, marry'd to thy ftronger ftate,
Makes me with thy ftrength to communicate;
If aught poffefs thee from me, it is dross,
Ufurping ivy, brier, or idle mofs;

Who, all for want of pruning, with intrufion

Infect thy fap, and live on thy confusion.

Ant. To me the fpeaks; fhe moves me for her

theam :

What, was I marry'd to her in my dream?

6

-you are from me exempt.] Exent, feparated, parted. The fenfe is, If I am docmed to fuffer

the wrong of feparation, yet injure not with contempt me who am already injured.

Or

Or fleep I now, and think I hear all this?
What error drives our eyes and ears amifs?
Until I know this fure uncertainty,

I'll entertain the favour'd fallacy.

Luc. Dromio, go bid the fervants fpread for dinner. S. Dro. Oh, for my beads! I cross me for a finner, This is the Fairy land: oh, fpight of spights! We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish sprights; 7 If we obey them not, this will enfue,

They'll fuck our breath, and pinch us black and blue, Luc. Why prat'ft thou to thyfelf, and answer'it not? 8

Dromio, thou drone, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot! S. Dro.

7 We talk with goblins, owls,

and elvifh fprights;] Here Mr. Theobald calls out in the name of Nonfene, the first time he had formally invoked her, to tell him how Owis could fuck their breath, and pinch them black and blue. He, therefore, alters Owls to Ouphs, and dares fay, that his readers will acquiefe in the jullness of bis emendation. But, for all this, we must not part with the old reading. He did not know it to be an old popular fuperftition, that the fcretchowl fucked out the breath and blood of infants in the cradle, On this account, the Italian called Witches, who were fuppofed to be in like manner mifchievously bent against children, Strega, from Strix, the Scretch

owl.

ans

This fuperftition they had derived from their Pagan anceftors, as appears from this paffage of Ovid, Sunt avide volucres; non quæ Phintia menfis Guttura fraudarant : fed genus

inde trahunt.

Grande aput: ftantes oculi: ro-
fira apta rapine :
Canities pennis, unguibus ha-
mus ineft.

Nocte volant, PUERO QUE PE-
TUNT nutricis egentes;

Et vitiant CUNIS corpora rap

ta fuis. Carpere dicuntur lactantia vifcera roftris ;

Et plenum poto fanguine guttur habent.

Eft illis ftrigibus nomen :

Lib. 6. Feft. WARBURTON, 8 Why prat'ft thou to thyself? Dromio, thou Dromio, jail,

thou flug, thou fot!] In the first of thefe Lines, Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pipe have both, for what Reafon I cannot tell, curtail'd the Meafure, and difmounted the doggrel Rhyme, which I have replac'd from the first Folio. The fecond Verfe is there likewife read;

Dromio, thou Dromio,thoufnai', thou fug, thou ja.

The

S. Dro. I am transformed, mafter, am not I?
Ant. I think, thou art in mind, and fo am I.
S. Dro. Nay, mafter, both in mind and in my shape.
Ant. Thou haft thine own form.

S. Dro. No; I am an ape.

Luc. If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an ass. S. Dro. 'Tis true; fhe rides me, and I long for grafs. 'Tis fo, I am an afs; else it could never be,

But I fhould know her, as well as fhe knows me.

Adr. Come, come, no longer will I be a fool, To put the finger in the Eye and weep,

Whilft man and mafter laugh my woes to fcorn.
Come, Sir, to dinner; Dromio, keep the gate;
Husband, I'll dine above with you to day,
And fhrive you of a thousand idle pranks;
Sirrah, if any afk you for your master,
Say, he dines forth, and let no creature enter:
Come, fifter; Dromio, play the porter well.

Ant. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?
Sleeping or waking, mad or well advis'd?
Known unto thefe, and to myfelf disguis'd?
I'll fay as they fay, and perfever fo;

And in this mift at all adventures go.

}

S. Dro. Mafter, fhall I be porter at the gate ?
Adr. Ay, let none enter, left I break your pate.
Luc. Come, come, Antipholis, we dine too late.
[Exeunt.

The Verfe is thus half a Foot too long; my Correction cures that Fault: befides Drone correponds with the other Appella

tions of Reproach. THEOBALD.

9 And Jhrive you-] That is, I will call you to conf ffion, and make you tell your tricks.

ACT

ACT III.

SCENE I.

The Street before Antipholis's House.

Enter Antipholis of Ephefus, Dromio of Ephefus, Angelo, and Balthazar.

G

E. ANTIPHOLIS.

OOD Signior Angelo, you must excufe us;
My wife is fhrewifh, when I keep not hours;

Say, that I linger'd with you at your shop
To fee the making of her carkanet;

I

And that to-morrow you will bring it home.
But here's a villain, that would face me down
He met me on the mart, and that I beat him;
And charg'd him with a thousand marks in gold;
And that I did deny my wife and house:

Thou drunkard, thou, what didst thou mean by this?
E. Dro. Say, what you will, Sir; but I know what
I know;

That you beat me at the mart, I have your hand to

show;

If the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink,

Your own hand-writing would tell you what I think. E. Ant. I think, thou art an afs

2

E. Dro. Marry, fo it doth appear
By the wrongs I fuffer, and the blows I bear;

• Carkanet seems to have been a necklace or rather chain, perhaps hanging down double from the neck. So Lovelace in his poem, The Emprefs fpreads her carcanets. 2 Marry, fo it doth appear By the wrongs I fuffer, and the

Blows I bear ;] Thus all the printed Copies; but, cer

I fhould

tainly, This is Crofs-purposes in Reafoning. It appears, Dromio is an Afs by his making no Refiftance: becaufe an Afs, being kick'd, kicks again. Our Author never argues at this wild Rate, where his Text is genuine.

THEOBALD. I do not think this emenda

I should kick, being kickt; and, being at that pass, You would keep from my heels, and beware of an ass. E. Ant. Y'are fad, Signior Balthazar. Pray God,

our cheer

May answer my good will, and your good welcome here. Bal. I hold your dainties cheap, Sir, and your welcome dear.

E. Ant. Ah, Signior Balthazar, either at flesh or fish, A table-full of welcome makes scarce one dainty dish. Bal. Good meat, Sir, is common; that every churl affords.

E. Ant. And welcome more common; for that's nothing but words.

Bal. Small cheer, and great welcome, makes a merry feast.

E. Ant. Ay, to a niggardly host, and more sparing guest:

But tho' my cates be mean, take them in good part; Better cheer may you have, but not with better heart. But, foft; my door is lockt; go bid them let us in.

E. Dro. Maud, Bridget, Marian, Cicely, Gillian,

Ginn!

S. Dro. (within) Mome, malt-horse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch!

Either get thee from the door, or fit down at the hatch: Doft thou conjure for wenches, that thou call'ft for fuch store,

When one is one too many? go, get thee from the door.

E. Dro. What patch is made our porter? my master ftays in the street.

S. Dro. Let him walk from whence he came, left he catch cold on's feet.

tion neceffary. He firft fays, that his ur ngs and blows prove him an as; but immediately, with a correction of his former fentiment, fuch as may be hour

ly obferved in conversation, he obferves that, if he had been an afs, he fhould, when he was kicked, have kicked again.

E. Ant.