There is a purfe of ducats, let her fend it:

Tell her, I am arrefted in the street,

And that fhall bail me; hie thee, flave; be gone :
On, officer, to prifon 'till it come.

[Exeunt.
S. Dro. To Adriana! that is where we din'd,
Where Dowfabel did claim me for her husband ;
She is too big, I hope, for me to compafs.
Thither I mult, altho' against my will,

For fervants muft their mafter's minds fulfil.

Changes to E. Antipholis's Houfe.
Enter Adriana and Luciana.

Adr. A. Luciana, did he tempt they in

[Exit.

Might'st thou perceive aufterely in his eye

That he did plead in earnest, yea or no?
Look'd he or red or pale, or fad or merrily?
What obfervation mad'ft thou in this cafe,
Of his heart's meteors tilting in his face?

2

2

Luc. First he deny'd.-You had in him no right. Adr. He meant, he did me none, the more my fpight,

Luc. Then fwore he, that he was a stranger here. Adr. And true he fwore, though yet forfworn he

were.

Luc. Then pleaded I for you.
Adr. And what faid he?

Luc. That love I begg'd for you, he begg'd of me.
Adr. With what perfuafion did he tempt thy love?
Luc. With words, that in an honeft fuit might move.

meteors tilting in his face?] Alluding to thofe meteors in the sky which have the appearance of lines of armies meeting in the fhock. To this appearance he compares civil wars in another place.

Which, like the meteors of a

troubled heav'n,

All of one nature of one substance
bred,

Did lately meet in the inteftine
Shock

And furious clofe of civil butchery.

WARBURTON.

First,

First, he did praise my beauty, then my speech.
Adr. Did'it fpeak him fair?

Luc. Have patience, I beseech.

Adr. I cannot, nor I will not, hold me ftill; My tongue, though not my heart, fhall have its will. He is deformed, crooked, old and * fere, Ill-fac'd, worfe-body'd, fhapeless every where ; Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind, +Stigmatical in making, worfe in mind.

Luc. Who would be jealous then of such a one? No evil loft is wail'd, when it is gone.

Adr. Ah! but I think him better than I fay,
And yet, would herein others' eyes were worse:

For from her neft the lapwing cries away;

My heart prays for him, tho' my tongue do curse.

Enter Dromio of Syracufe.

S. Dro. Here, go; the defk, the purfe; fweet now make hafte.

Luc. How haft thou loft thy breath?

S. Dro. By running faft.

Adr. Where is thy mafter, Dromio? is he well?

S. Dro. No, he's in Tartar Limbo, worfe than hell; A devil in an everlasting garment hath him,

One, whofe hard heart is button'd up with steel:
A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough, 3
A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff;

Sere, that is, dry, withered. + Stigmatical in making] That is, marked or figmatized by nature with deformity, as a token of his vicious difpofition.

3 A Fend, a Fairy, pitiless and rough] Domio here bringing word in hafte that his Master is arrested, defcribes the Bailiff by Names proper to raise Horror and Deteftation of fuch

a Creature, fuch as, a Devil, a
Fiend, a Wolf, &c. But how
does Fairy come up to these ter-
rible Ideas? We fhould read-
a Fiend, a Fury, &c. THEOв.

Mr. Theobald seems to have forgotten that there were fairies like bobgoblins, pitilefs and rough, and defcribed as malevolent and mifchievous. His emendation is, however, plaufible.

Α

A back-friend, a fhoulder clapper, one that commands
The paffages of allies, creeks, and narrow lands;
A hound that * runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot
well;

One, that, before the judgment, carries poor fouls to hell.
Adr. Why, man, what is the matter?

S. Dro. I do not know the matter; he is 'rested on the cafe.

Adr. What, is he arrested? tell me, at whofe fuit. S. Dro. I know not at whofe fuit he is arrested, well; but he's in a fuit of buff, which 'refted him, that I can tell. Will you fend him, mistress, redemption, the mony in his defk?

Adr. Go fetch it, fifter. This I wonder at,

[Exit Luciana. That he, unknown to me, fhould be in debt! Tell me, was he arrefted on a bond?

S. Dro. Not on a bond, but on a stronger thing, A chain, a chain; do you not hear it ring?

Adr. What, the chain?

S. Dro. No, no; the bell; 'tis time that I were gone. It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes one. Adr. The hours come back! that I did never hear. S. Dro. O yes, if any hour meet a ferjeant, a' turns

back for very

fear.

Adr. As if time were in debt! how fondly doft thou reafon ?

S. Dro. Time is a very bankrout, and owes more than he's worth, to season.

Nay, he's a thief too; have you not heard men say, That Time comes ftealing on by night and day?

A bound that runs counter, and yet draws dry foot well;] To run counter is to run backward, by miftaking the courfe of the animal perfued; to draw dry foot is, I believe, to perfue by the trak or prick of the foot; to run counter and draw dry foot well are, therefore, inconfiftent.

The jeft confifts in the ambiguity of the word counter, which means the wrong way in the chafe, and a prison in London. The officer that arrested him was a ferjeant of the counter. For the congruity of this jeft with the Scene of action, let our authour anfwer.

If

If Time be in debt and theft, and a ferjeant in the way, Hath he not reason to turn back an hour in the day?

Enter Luciana.

Adr. Go, Dromio; there's the mony, bear it ftrait, And bring thy mafter home immediately. Come, fifter, I am preft down with conceit; Conceit, my comfort and my injury. [Exeunt.

S. Ant.

SCENE V.

Changes to the Street.

Enter Antipholis of Syracufe.

HERE's not a man I meet, but doth falute me,

THE

As if I were their well-acquainted friend;
And every one doth call me by my name.
Some tender mony to me, fome invite me ;
Some other give me thanks for kindnesses;
Some offer me commodities to buy.
Ev'n now a taylor call'd me in his shop,
And fhow'd me filks that he had bought for me,
And therewithal took measure of my body.
Sure, these are but imaginary wiles,
And Lapland forcerers inhabit here.

Enter Dromio of Syracufe.

S. Dro. Mafter, here's the gold you fent me for; ✦ what, have you got the picture of old Adam new apparell❜d? S. Ant.

4 What, have you got the Picture of old Adam new apparell'd?] A fhort Word or two must have flipt out here, by fome Accident in copying, or at Prefs; other wife I have no Conception of the Meaning of the Paffage. The Cafe is this. Dromio's Mafter had been arrefted, and fent his VOL. III.

Servant home for Mony to redeem him: He running back with the Mony meets the Twin Antipholis, whom he mistakes for his Mafter, and feeing him clear of the Officer before the Mony was come, he cries in a Surprize;

L

What,

S. Ant. What gold is this? what Adam doft thou

mean?

S. Dro. Not that Adam, that kept the paradife; but that Adam, that keeps the prifon; he that goes in the calves-fkin, that was kill'd for the prodigal; he that came behind you, Sir, like an evil angel, and bid you forfake your liberty.

S. Ant. I underfland thee not.

S. Dro. No? why, 'tis a plain cafe. He that went like a bafe-viol in a cafe of leather; the man, Sir, that, when gentlemen are tired, gives them a fob, and 'refts them; he, Sir, that takes pity on decay'd men, and gives 'em fuits of durance; he, that fets up his reft

What, have you got rid of the Picture of old Adam new appa

reli'd?

For fo I have ventur'd to fupply, by Conjecture. But why is the Officer call'd old Alam new apparell'd? The Allufion is to Adam in his State of Innocence going naked; and immediately after the Fall, being cloath'd in a Frock of Skins. Thus he was new apparell'd: and, in like manner, the Sergeants of the Counter were formerly clad in B or C lve-in, as the Author humoroufly a little lower calls it. THEOBALD.

The explanation is very good, but the text does not require to be amended.

5 be, that fets up his reft to do more exploits with his mace, than MORRIS-pike.] Sets up h's Reft, is a phrafe taken from military exercile. When gunpowder was first invented, its force was very weak compared to that in prefent ufe. This neceffarily required fire-arms to be of an ex

5

traordinary length. As the artills improved the strength of their powder, the foldiers proportionably fhortned their arms and artillery; fo that the cannon which Froart tells us was once fifty foot long, was contracted to less than ten. This proportion likewife held in their mufkets; fo that, till the middle of the last century, the musketeers always fupported their pieces when they gave fire, with a Ret fuck before them into the ground, which they called Jetting up their Ret, and is here alluded to. There is another quibbling allufion too to the ferjeant's office of arrefting. But what most wants animadverfion is the marris-pike, which is without meaning, impertinent to the fenfe, and falie in the allufion; no pike being used amongst the dancers so called, or at least not fam'd for much exccution. In a word, Shakespeare wrote,

a MAURICE-Pike, i. e. a Pikeman of Prince Masrice's