Duke. I would, thou hadst done so by Claudio.- Ang. I am sorry, that such sorrow I procure : Re-enter Provost, BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO, and JULIET. Prov. This, my lord. Duke. There was a friar told me of this man :- That apprehends no further than this world, That should have died when Claudio lost his head; [Unmuffles CLAUDIO Duke. If he be like your brother, for his sake [To ISAB Is he pardon'd; And, for your lovely sake, Give me your hand, and say you will be mine, Look, that you love your wife; her worth, worth yours.— And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon ; You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a coward, [To Luc One all of luxury, an ass, a madman ; Wherein have I so deserved of you, That you extol me thus ? Lucio. 'Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the trick if you will hang me for it, you may; but I had rather it would please you I might be whipp'd. : Duke. Whipp'd first, sir, and hang'd after.- Lucio. I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore! Your highness said even now, I made you a duke; good my lord, do not recompense me, in making me a cuckold. Duke. Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her. Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal Remit thy other forfeits :-Take him to prison : And see our pleasure herein executed. Lucio. Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping, and hanging. Duke. Sland'ring a prince deserves it.— She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore.— 'I have confess'd her, and I know her virtue.— What's mine is your's, and what is your's is mine [Exeunt OBSERVATIONS. COMEDY OF ERRORS.] Shakespeare might have taken the general plan of this comedy from a translation of the Menæchmi of Plautus, by W. W. i. e. (according to Wood) William Warner, in 1595, whose version of the acrostical argument is as follows: "Two twinne borne sonnes a Sicill marchant had, "Menechmus one, and Sosicles the other; "The first his father lost, a little lad; "The grandsire namde the latter like his brother: "Where th' other dwelt inricht, and him so like, Perhaps the last of these lines suggested to Shakespeare the title for his piece. See this translation of the Menæchmi, among six old Plays on which Shakespeare founded, &c. published by S. Leacroft, Charing Cross. At the beginning of an address Ad Lectorem, prefixed to the errata of Decker's Satiromastix, &c. 1602, is the following passage, which apparently alludes to the title of the comedy before us: "In steed of the trumpets sounding thrice before the play begin, it shall not be amisse (for him that will read) first to beholde this short Comedy of Errors, and where the greatest enter, to give them instead of a hisse, a gentle correction." STEEVENS. I suspect this and all other plays where much rhyme is used, and especially long hobbling verses, to have been among Shakespeare's more early productions. BLACKSTONE. |