I live dif-ftain'd, thou undishonoured (5).

Ant. Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not: In Ephesus I am but two hours old,

As strange unto your town as to your talk.

Who, every word by all my wit being fcann'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 Dromia.?

S. Dro. By me?

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

Deny'd my houfe 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.

my life.

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

Adr. How ill agrees it with your gravity,
To counterfeit thus grofly with your flave,
Abetting him to thwart me in my mood?
Be it my wrong, you are from me exempt (6),
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;podel

(5) Llier diftain'd, thou undisonoured.] To diftaine (from the French Word, deftaindre) fignifies, to flain, defile, pollute. But the Context requires a Senfe quite oppofite. We muft either read, unftain'd; or, by adding an Hypben, and giving the Prépofition a primitive Force, read dif-stam'd; and then it will mean, unftain'd, undefiled. THEOBALDE

The Revifal reads, I live diftain'd, then dishonoured.
I am in doubt.

(6)

you are from me exempt.] Exempt, feparated, parted. The fenfe is, If I am doomed to fuffer the wrong of feparation, yet injure not with contempt me who am already injured.

If aught poffefs thee from me, it is drofs,
Ufurping ivy, brier, or idle mofs;

Who, all for want of pruning, with intrufion
Infect thy fap, and live on thy confufion.

Ant. To me the fpeaks; fhe moves me for her theam: What, was I marry'd to her in my dream.? 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 fervant fpread for dinner. S. Dro. Oh, for my beads! I crofs me for a finner. This is the Fairy land: oh, fpight of fpights! We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish fprights (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 anfwer'ft not (8)?

Dromio, thou drone, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot!

S. Dra

(7) We talk with goblins, owls, and elifo fprights;] Here Mr. Theobald calls out in the name of Nonfenfe, the first time he had. formally invoked her, to tell him how Owls could fuck their breath, and pinch them black and blue. He, therefore, alters Owls to Oupbs, and dares fay, that bis readers will acquiefce in the juftnefs of bis emendation. But, for all this, we maft not part with the old reading. He did not know it to be an old popular fuperftition, that the fcretch-owl fucked out the breath and blood of infants in the cradle. On this account, the Italians called Witches, who were fuppofed to be in like manner mifchievously bent against children, Strega, from Strix, the Stretch-owl. This fuperftition they had derived from their Pagan ancestors, as appears from this paffage of Ovids

Sunt avida volucres; non quæ Pbineia menfis

Gustura fraudabant: fed genus inde trahunt.
Grande caput fantes oculi: roftra apta rapina:
Canities pennis, unguibus bamus inft

Note volant, PUBROSQUE PETUNT nutricis egentes;
Et vitiant CUNIS corpora rapta fuis.

Carpere dicuntur latentia vifcera roftris;
Et plenum poto fanguine guttur babent.

Eft illis ftrigibus nomen:

8) Why prat't thou to thyself? Dromio, thou Dromio, thou frail, tbou flug, thou for !] In the first of thefe Lines Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope have both, for what

Reafon

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

S. Dro. No; I am an ape.

my shape.

Luc. If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an afs. S. Dro. 'Tis true; the 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 the 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;
Hufband, I'll dine above with you to day,
And shrive you (9) of a thousand idle pranks;
Sirrah, if any afk you for your mafter,
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 these, and to myfelf disguis'd?
I'll fay as they fay, and perfevere fo;
And in this mift at all adventures go.

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

}

[Exeunt.

Reafon I cannot tell, curtail'd the Measure, and difmounted the doggrel Rhyme, which I have replac'd from the first Folio. The fecond Verfe is there likewife read;

Dromio, thou Dromio, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot.

The Verfe is thus half a Foot too long: my Correction cures that Fault befides Drone correfponds with the other Appellations of Reproach.

THEOBALD.

(9) And forive you] That is, I will call you to confeffion, and make you tell your tricks.

ACT

ACT IN.

SCENE I.

The Street before Antipholis's Houfe.

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

G

E. ANTIPHOLIS.

OOD Signior Angelo, you muft excufe us; My wife is fhrewith, when I keep not hours; Say, that I lingered with you at your fhop To fee the making of her carkanet (1); 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 thoufand marks in gold; And that I did deny my wife and house:

Thou drunkard, thou, what didft 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 fhow;

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.

E. Dro. Marry fo it doth appear (2)

By the wrongs I fuffer, and the blows I bear;

(1) Carkanet feems to have been a necklace, or rather chain, perhaps hanging down double from the neck. So Lovelace in his poem, The Emprefs fpreads ber carcanets.

(2) Marry, fo it doth appear

By the wrongs I fuffer, and the Biows I bear ;] Thus all the printed copies; but, certainly, This is Crofs-purpofes. in Reafoning. It appears, Dromio is an Afs by his making no Refiftance: because 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 emendation neceffary. He first fays, that his wrongs and blows prove him an afs; but immediately, with a correction of his former fentiment, fuch as may be hourly obferved in converfation, he obferves, that, if he had been an afs, he fhould, when he was kicked, have kicked again.

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

May anfwer 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 fcarce one dainty dish. Bal. Good meat, Sir, is common: that every chuti 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 nigardly hoft, and more fparing gueft:

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-horfe, 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

ftore,

When one is one too many go, get thee fr from the door. E. Dro. What patch is made our porter? my mafter ftays in the street.

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

E. Ant. Who talks within there? hoa, open the door. S. Dro. Right, Sir, I'll tell you when, an you'll tell me wherefore.

E. Ant. Wherefore? for my dinner: I have not din'd to day.

S. Dro. Nor to day here you must not come again

when you may.

E. Ant. What art thou, that keep'ft me out from the houfe I owe?

S. Dro.