Adr. Your wife, sir knave? go, get you from the

door.

Dro. E. If you went in pain, master, this knave would go sore.

Ang. Here is neither cheer, sir, nor welcome: we would fain have either.

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

Dro. E. They stand at the door, master: bid them welcome hither.

Ant. E. There is something in the wind, that we cannot get in.

Dro. E. You would say so, master, if your garments were thin.

Your cake here is warm within; you stand here in the cold:

It would make a man mad as a buck to be so bought and sold 9.

Ant. E. Go, fetch me something: I'll break ope the

gate.

Dro. S. Break any breaking here, and I'll break your knave's pate.

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

Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind. Dro. S. It seems, thou want'st breaking. Out upon

thee, hind!

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

thee, let me in.

I pray

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

have no fin.

Ant. E. Well, I'll break in. Go, borrow me a crow.

7- we shall PART with neither.] i. e. We shall depart or go away with neither.

8

* Bought and sold.] This phrase was equivalent to over-reached. We still say, vulgarly, "you are sold," to a person who has been deceived or disappointed.

Dro. E. A crow without feather? master, mean you

so?

For a fish without a fin, there's a fowl without a feather.
If a crow help us in, sirrah, we'll pluck a crow together.
Ant. E. Go, get thee gone: fetch me an iron crow.
Bal. Have patience, sir; O! let it not be so:
Herein you war against your reputation,
And draw within the compass of suspect

Th' unviolated honour of your wife.

Once this,-Your long experience of her wisdom1,
Her sober virtue, years, and modesty,

Plead on her part some cause to you unknown;

And doubt not, sir, but she will well excuse
Why at this time the doors are made against you.
Be rul'd by me: depart in patience,

And let us to the Tiger all to dinner;
And about evening come yourself alone
To know the reason of this strange restraint.
If by strong hand you offer to break in,
Now in the stirring passage of the day,
A vulgar comment will be made of it;
And that supposed by the common route,
Against your yet ungalled estimation,
That may with foul intrusion enter in,

And dwell upon your grave when you are dead:
For slander lives upon succession,

For ever housed, where it gets possession.

Ant. E. You have prevail'd: I will depart in quiet, And, in despite of mirth 2, mean to be merry.

I know a wench of excellent discourse 3,

Once this,] This expression puzzled Malone and Steevens, who did not perceive that it was elliptical, and meant "For once let me tell you this.”

1 — of HER wisdom,] The folios have your for her in this line; and in the next but one they read, "on your part ” for “ on her part." The sense corrects these errors.

* And, in despite of MIRTH,] The meaning is, says Warburton, "I will be merry even out of spite to mirth, which is now of all things the most unpleasing to me." 3 I know a wench of excellent discourse,] In the translation of the Menæchmi, by W. W., 1595, a parallel incident occurs. Menæchmus being shut out of his

Pretty and witty; wild, and yet too, gentle;
There will we dine: this woman that I mean,
My wife (but, I protest, without desert,)
Hath oftentimes upbraided me withal:
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 house. That chain will I bestow
(Be it for nothing but to spite my wife)

Upon mine hostess there. Good sir, make haste.
Since mine own doors refuse to entertain me,
I'll knock elsewhere, to see if they'll disdain me.
Ang. I'll meet you at that place, some hour hence.
Ant. E. Do so. This jest shall cost me some ex-
[Exeunt.

pense.

SCENE II.

The Same.

Enter LUCIANA, and ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse.
Luc. And may it be that you have quite forgot
A husband's office? Shall, Antipholus,
Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs rot?
Shall love, in building, grow so ruinous 5

If you did wed my sister for her wealth,

?

Then, for her wealth's sake use her with more kind

ness:

Or, if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth:

Muffle your false love with some show of blindness;

house by his wife, exclaims, (A. iiii.) "My wife thinks she is notably reveng'd on me, now she shuttes mee out of doores, as though I had not a better place to be welcome to. If she shut me out, I know who wil shut me in," &c. Sign. D b. 4 Luciana] Misprinted Juliana in first, but corrected in the second folio. 5 Shall love, in BUILDING, grow so ruinous ?] This line in both the early folios runs as follows:

"Shall love in buildings grow so ruinate ?”

which Malone corrected with little violence to the words, and some aid to the sense, while the intended rhyme is preserved.

Let not my sister read it in your eye;

Be not thy tongue thy own shame's orator;
Look sweet, speak fair, become disloyalty";
Apparel vice like virtue's harbinger :

Bear a fair presence, though your heart be tainted;
Teach sin the carriage of a holy saint:
Be secret-false; what need she be acquainted?
What simple 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 bastard fame, well managed;
Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.
Alas, poor women! make us but believe",
Being compact of credit, that you love us;
Though others have the arm, show us the sleeve,
We in your motion turn, and you may move us.
Then, gentle brother, get you in again:

Comfort my sister, cheer her, call her wife. "Tis holy sport to be a little vain,

When the sweet breath of flattery conquers strife. Ant. S. Sweet mistress, (what your name is else, I

know not,

Nor by what wonder you do hit of mine,)

Less in your knowledge, and your grace you show not,
Than our earth's wonder; more than earth divine.
Teach me, dear creature, how to think and speak:
Lay open to my earthy gross conceit,
Smother'd in errors, feeble, shallow, weak,
The folded meaning of your words' deceit.
Against my soul's pure truth, why labour you
To make it wander in an unknown field?
Are you a god? would you create me new?
Transform me then, and to your power I'll yield.
But if that I am I, then well I know,

7

Your weeping sister is no wife of mine,

6 become disloyalty ;] i. e. make disloyalty become you.

make us BUT believe,] The folios have not for "but."

Nor to her bed no homage do I owe:

Far more, far more, to you do I decline 3.
O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,
To drown me in thy sister's flood of tears".
Sing, syren, for thyself, and I will dote:

Spread o'er the silver waves thy golden hairs,
And as a bed I'll take thee ', and there lie;

And, in that glorious supposition, think He gains by death, that hath such means to die: Let Love, being light, be drowned if she sink?! Luc. What are you mad, that you do reason so? Ant. S. Not mad, but mated; how, I do not know. Luc. It is a fault that springeth from your eye. Ant. S. For gazing on your beams, fair sun, being by.

Luc. Gaze where you should, and that will clear your sight.

Ant. S. As good to wink, sweet love, as look on

night.

Luc. Why call you me love? call my sister so.

Ant. S. Thy sister's sister.

Luc.

Ant. S.

That's my sister.

No;

It is thyself, mine own self's better part;

Mine eye's clear eye, my dear heart's dearer heart ;
My food, my fortune, and my sweet hope's aim,
My sole earth's heaven, and my heaven's claim.

8

9

Luc. All this my sister is, or else should be.

To you do I DECLINE.] i. e. I do decline, or lean, from her to you.
SISTER'S flood of tears.] The folio of 1623 has it "sister flood of tears,"

but it is altered, as it stands in the text, in the folio of 1632.

And as a BED I'll take thee,] The earliest folio has bud for bed; the correction is made in the second folio.

2 Let Love, being light, be drowned if SHE sink !] Shakespeare not unfrequently makes Lore feminine.

3 Not mad, but MATED ;] The words which follow mated-"how, I do not know"-support the notion of Monck Mason, that a play was intended on the double meaning of "mated,” as confounded or bewildered, and matched with a wife.

♦ Gaze WHERE you should,] The old copies read when for where.