Great pails of puddled mire to quench the hair:
My master preaches patience to him, and the while
His man with scissars nicks him 13 like a fool;
And, sure, unless you send some present help,
Between them they will kill the conjurer.

Adr. Peace, fool, thy master and his man are here; And that is false, thou dost report to us.

Ser. Mistress, upon my life, I tell you true; I have not breath'd almost, since I did see it. He cries for you, and vows, if he can take you, To scorch your face, and to disfigure you:

[Cry within. Hark, hark, I hear him, mistress; fly, be gone. Duke. Come, stand by me, fear nothing: Guard with halberds.

Adr. Ah me, it is my

husband! Witness you,

That he is borne about invisible:

Even now we hous'd him in the abbey here;
And now he's there, past thought of human reason.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS and DROMIO of Ephesus. Ant. E. Justice, most gracious duke, oh, grant me justice!

Even for the service that long since I did thee,
When I bestrid thee in the wars 1a, and took

14

13 The heads of fools were shaved, or their hair cut close, as appears by the following passage in The Choice of Change, 1598. Three things used by monks which provoke other men to laugh at their follies. 1. They are shaven and notched on the head like fooles.' Florio explains, zuccone, a shaven pate, a notted poll, a poll-pate, a gull, a ninnie.'

14 This act of friendship is frequently mentioned by Shakspeare. Thus in King Henry IV. Part I. :- Hal, if thou see me down in the battle and bestride me so it is an act of friendship.' Again in King Henry VI. Part III. :

'Three times to-day I holp him to his horse,
Three times bestrid him; thrice I led him off.'

Deep scars to save thy life; even for the blood That then I lost for thee, now grant me justice. Ege. Unless the fear of death doth make me dote, I see my son Antipholus, and Dromio.

Ant. E. Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there.

She whom thou gav'st to me to be my wife;
That hath abused and dishonour'd me,

Even in the strength and height of injury!
Beyond imagination is the wrong,

That she this day hath shameless thrown on me.

Duke. Discover how, and thou shalt find me just. Ant. E. This day, great duke, she shut the doors upon me,

While she with harlots 15 feasted in my house.

Duke. A grievous fault: Say,woman, didst thou so? Adr. No, my good lord;-myself, he, and my sister,

To-day did dine together: So befall my soul,
As this is false he burdens me withal!

Luc. Ne'er may I look on day, nor sleep on night, But she tells to your highness simple truth!

Ang. O perjur'd woman! They are both forsworn. In this the madman justly chargeth them.

Ant. E. My liege, I am advised 16 what I say; Neither disturbed with the effect of wine, Nor heady rash, provok'd with raging ire, Albeit, my wrongs might make one wiser mad. This woman lock'd me out this day from dinner: That goldsmith there, were he not pack'd with her, Could witness it, for he was with me then; Who parted with me to go fetch a chain,

See

15 Harlot was a term anciently applied to a rogue or base person among men, as well as to wantons among women. Todd's Johnson.

16I speak with consideration and circumspectly, not rashly and precipitately.'

Promising to bring it to the porcupine,
Where Balthazar and I did dine together.
Our dinner done, and he not coming thither,
I went to seek him: in the street I met him;
And in his company, that gentleman,

There did this perjur'd goldsmith swear me down,
That I this day of him receiv'd the chain,
Which, God he knows, I saw not: for the which,
He did arrest me with an officer.

I did obey; and sent my peasant home

For certain ducats: he with none return'd.
Then fairly I bespoke the officer,

To go

in person with me to my

By the way we met

house.

My wife, her sister, and a rabble more

Of vile confederates; along with them

They brought one Pinch; a hungry lean-fac'd villain,
A mere anatomy, a mountebank,

A thread-bare juggler, and a fortune teller;
A needy, hollow-ey'd, sharp-looking wretch,
A living dead man 17: this pernicious slave,
Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer;
And, gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse,
And with no face, as 'twere outfacing me,
Cries out, I was possess'd: then altogether
They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence;
And in a dark and dankish vault at home
There left me and my man, both bound together;
Till gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder,
I gain'd my freedom, and immediately
Ran hither to your grace; whom I beseech
To give me ample satisfaction

For these deep shames and great indignities.

17

but as a living death,

So ded alive of life he drew the breath.'

Sackville's Induction to the Mirror of Magistrates.

Ang. My lord, in truth, thus far I witness with him; That he dined not at home, but was lock'd out. Duke. But had he such a chain of thee, or no? Ang. He had, my lord: and when he ran in here, These people saw the chain about his neck.

Mer. Besides, I will be sworn, these ears of mine Heard you confess, you had the chain of him, After you first forswore it on the mart, And, thereupon, I drew my sword on you; And then you fled into this abbey here, From whence, I think, you are come by miracle. Ant. E. I never came within these abbey walls, Nor ever didst thou draw thy sword on me: I never saw the chain, so help me heaven! And this is false, you burden me withal.

Duke. Why, what an intricate impeach is this! I think, you all have drunk of Circe's cup. If here you hous'd him, here he would have been; If he were mad, he would not plead so coldly:You say, he dined at home; the goldsmith here Denies that saying:-Sirrah, what say you?

Dro. E. Sir, he dined with her there, at the Porcupine.

Cour. He did; and from my finger snatch'd that ring.

Ant. E. 'Tis true, my liege, this ring I had of her. Duke. Saw'st thou him enter at the abbey here? Cour. As sure, my liege, as I do see your grace. Duke. Why, this is strange :--Go call the abbess hither;

I think, you are all mated 18,

or stark mad.

[Exit an Attendant. Ege. Most mighty duke, vouchsafe me speak a

word;

18 Mated is confounded. See note on Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 1.

Haply I see a friend will save my life,
And pay the sum that may deliver me.

Duke. Speak freely, Syracusan, what thou wilt. Ege. Is not your name, sir, call'd Antipholus? And is not your bondman Dromio?

Dro. E. Within this hour I was his bondman, sir, But he, I thank him, gnaw'd in two my cords; Now am I Dromio, and his man, unbound. Ege. I am sure, you both of you remember me. Dro. E. Ourselves we do remember, sir, by you; For lately we were bound as you are now. You are not Pinch's patient, are you, sir?

Ege. Why look you strange on me? you know me well.

Ant. E. I never saw you in my. life, till now. Ege. Oh! grief hath chang'd me, since you saw me last;

And careful hours, with Time's deformed 19 hand Have written strange defeatures 20 in my face: But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice? Ant. E. Neither.

Ege.

Dromio, nor thou? Dro. E. No, trust me, sir, nor I.

Æge.

I am sure, thou dost.

Dro. E. Ay, sir? but I am sure, I do not; and whatsoever a man denies, you are now bound to believe him 21.

Æge. Not know my voice! O, time's extremity! Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue, In seven short years, that here my only son Knows not

22

my feeble key of untun'd cares 22?

19 Deformed for deforming.

20 See note on Act ii. Sc. 1, p. 144, note 12.

21 Dromio delights in a quibble, and the word bound has before

been the subject of his mirth.

22 i. e. the weak and discordant tone of my voice, which is changed by grief.