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E. Ant. I think, thou art an ass.

E. Dro. Marry, fo it don't appear (10) By the wrongs I fuffer, and the blows I bear; I fhould kick, being kickt; and, being at that pafs, You would keep from my heels, and beware of an afs.

E.Ant. Y'are fad,SigniorBalthazar. 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 good welcome, makes a merry feaft.

E. Ant. Ay, to a niggardly 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, Ginns 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 from the door.. E. Dro. What patch is made our porter? my master fays in the ftreet.

Dro. Let him walk fromwhence he came, left he catch cold on's feet.

(10) Marry, fo it doth appear

By the wrongs I fuffer, and the blows I bear.] Thus all the printed copies; hut, certainly, this is cross-purposes in reasoning. 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 zate, where his text is genuine,

E. Ant

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. The porter, for this time, Sif, and my name:

is Dromio.

E. Dro. O villain, thou haft ftoll'n both mine office and my name:

The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame. If thou hadft been Dromio to-day in my place,

Thou would't have chang'd thy face for a name, or thy

name for an afs.

Luce, within. What a coile is there, Dromio? who are thofe at the gate ?

E. Dro. Let my mafter in, Luce.

Luce. Faith, no; he comes too late;

And fo tell your mafter.

E. Dro. O lord, I muft laugh;

Have at you with a Proverb.-Shall I fet in my staff? Luce. Have at you with another; that's, when, cap you tell?

S. Dro. If thy name be call'd Luce, Luce, thou haft anfwer'd him well.

E. Ant. Do you hear, you minion, you'll let us in, I trow ?

1.

Luce. I thought to have afkt you.

S. Dro. And you faid, no.

E. Dro. So, come, help, well ftruck; there was blow

1

for blow.

E. Ant. Thou baggage, let me in.

Luce. Can you tell for whofe fake?
E. Dro. Mafter, knock the door hard.
Luce. Let him knock, 'till it ake.

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E. Ant. You'll cry for this, minion, if I beat the door down.

Luce. What needs all that, and a pair of stocks in the town?

Adr. within. Who is that at the door, that keeps all this noise?

S. Dro. By my troth, your town is troubled with unruly boys.

E. Ant. Are you there, wife? you might have come before..

Adr. Your wife, Sir knave! go, get you from the door.

E. Dro. If you went in pain, mafter, this knave would go fore.

Ang. Here is neither cheer, Sir, nor welcome; we would fain have either.

Bal. In debating which was beft, we shall part with neither.

E. Dro. They ftand at the doon, mater; bid them welcome hither.

E. Ant. There's fomething in the wind, that we cannot get in..

E. Dro. You would say sa, mafter, if your garments were thin..

Your cake here is warm within: you ftand here in the

cold:

It would make a man mad as a buck to be so bought and fold.

E. Ant. Gofetch me fomething, I'll break ope the gate, S. Dro.. Break any thing here, and I'll break your

knave's pate..

E. Dro. A man may break a word with you, Sir, and words are but wind;

Ay, and break it in your face, fo he break it not behind. S. Dro. It feems, thou wanteft breaking; out upon

thee hind!

E. Dro. Here's too much, out, upon thee! I

let me in..

pray thee,

S. Dro. Ay, when fowls have no feathers, and fish

have no fin.

E. Ant.

E. Ant. Well, I'll break in; go borrow me a crow. E.Dro. A crow without feather, mafter, mean you fo? For a fish without a fin, there's a fowl without a feather: If a crow help us in, firrah, we'll pluck a crow together. E. Ant. Go, get thee gone, fetch me an iron crow. Bal. Have patience, Sir: oh, let it not be fo. Herein you war against your reputation, And draw within the compafs of füfpect Th' unviolated honour of your wife.

Once, this;- your long experience of her wifdom,
Her fober virtue, years, and modesty,.

Plead on her part fome caufe to you unknown;
And doubt not, Sir, but he will well excufe,
Why at this time the doors are barr'd against you..
Be rul'd by me, depart in patience,

And let us to the Tyger all to dinner;
And about evening come yourself alone,
To know the reafon of this ftrange restraint.
If by ftrong hand you offer to break in,:
Now in the ftirring paffage of the day,
A vulgar comment will be made of it;
And that fuppofed by the common rout,
Against your yet ungalled eftimation,
That may with foul intrufion enter in,
And dwell upon your grave when you are dead':
For flander lives upan fucceffion ;

For ever hous'd, where it once gets poffeffion.

E. Ant. You have prevail'd'; I will depart in quiet, And, in defpight of wrath, (11) mean to be merry. I know a wench of excellent discourse,

Pretty and witty, wild, and, yet too, gentle;
There will we dine: this woman that I mean,
My wife (but, I proteft, without defert,)
Hath oftentimes upbraided me withal;

(11) And, in defpight of Mirth,] In defpight of what Mirth? We don't find, that it was any joke, or matter of mirth, to be fhut out of doors by his wife. I make no doubt therefore, but I have restor'd the true reading. Antipbolis's paffion is plain enough all thro' this fcene and, in the next act, we find him confelling how angry he was at this juncture.—And did not I in rage depart from thence? The circumstances, I think, fufficiently justify my emendation.

To

To her will we to dinner. Get you home,
And fetch the chain; by this, I know, 'tis made;
Bring it, I pray you, to the Porcupine;

For there's the houfe: that chain will I beftow,
(Be it for nothing but to fpight my wife,)
Upon mine hoftefs there. Good Sir, make hafte:
Since my own doors refufe to entertain me,
I'll knock elsewhere, to fee if they'll difdain me.
Ang. I'll meet you at that place, fome hour, Sir, hence.
E. Ant. Do fo; this jeft fhall coft me fome expence.

Exeunt.

SCENE, the House of Antipholis of Ephesus. Enter Luciana, with Antipholis of Syracuse.

Luc.

AND may it be, that you have quite forgot (12)

A husband's office? Shall, Antipholis, hate, Ev'n in the spring of love, thy love-fprings rot? Shall love, in building, grow fo ruinate?

If

you did wed my fifter for her wealth,

Then for her wealth's fake ufe her with more kindness; Or if you like elsewhere, do it by ftealth;

Muffle your falfe love with fome fhew of blindness; Let not my fifter read it in your eye;

Be not thy tongue thy own fhame's orator;
Look fweet, fpeak fair; become disloyalty:
Apparel vice, like virtue's harbinger;
Bear a fair prefence, tho' your heart be tainted:
Teach fin the carriage of a holy faint;
Be fecret-falfe: what need the be acquainted?
What fimple thief brags of his own attaint?
'Tis double wrong to truant with your bed,
And let her read it in thy looks at board:
Shame hath a baftard-fame, well managed;
Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word:

Alas

(12) And may it be, that you have quite forgot
An bufband's office? Sball, Antipholis,
Ev'n in the spring of love, thy love-Springs rot?

Shall love in buildings grow fo ruinate] This paffage has.

hitherto labour'd under a double corruption. What conceit could our

editora

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