Egeon. Hopeless and helpless doth Ægeon wend, But to procraftinate his livelefs end. [Exeunt Ægeon and Jailer.. SCENE changes to the Street.. Enter ANTIPHOLLS of Syracuse, a Merchant, and DROMIO. Mer. Therefore give out you are of Epidamnum, And not being able to buy out his life, Ant. Go bear it to the Centaur, where we hoft, Dro.. Many a man. would take you at your word, And go indeed, having so good a means. [Exit Dros Ant. A trufty villain, Sir, that very oft, When I am dull with care and melancholy, Lightens my humour with his merry jefts. What, will you walk with me about the town, And then go to the inn and dine with me? Mer. I am invited, Sir, to certain merchants, Of whom I hope to make much benefit: I crave your pardon. Soon at five o'clock, Pleafe I'll meet with you, the mart, you upon And afterward confort you 'till bed-time: Enter DROMIO of Ephefus. Here comes the almanac of my true date. The capon burns, the pig falls from the fpit, The meat is cold because you come not home; Ant. Stop'in your wind, Sir; tell me this, I pray, Where you have left the money that I gave you? E. Dro. Oh,-- -fixpence that I had a Wednefday last, To pay the fadler for my mistress' crupper? Ant. I am not in a fportive, humour now, Tell me and dally not, where is the money? E. Dro. I pray you jeft, Sir, as you fit at dinner; For she will score your fault upon my pate: Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock, And ftrike you home without a meffenger. Ant. Come, Dromio, come, these jets are out of feafon; ( Referve them 'till a merrier hour than this: And tell me how thou haft difpofed thy charge? the mart Home to your houfe, the Phenix, Sir, to dinner; My mistress and her fifter stay for you. Ant. Now, as I am a Christian, answer me, In what fafe place you have bestowed my money * Or I fhall break that merry sconce of yours, That ftands on tricks when I am undifpofed: Where are the thoufand marks thou hadst of me? E. Dro. I have fome marks of yours upon my pate; Some of my mistress' marks upon my fhoulders; But not a thousand marks between you both.--If I fhould pay your Worfhip thofe again, Perchance you will not bear them patiently. Ant. Thy mistress' marks? what miftrefs, flave, E. Dro. Your Worship's wife, my mistress at the She that doth faft 'till you come home to dinner; Ant. What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face Being forbid? there, take you that, Sir knave. E. Dro. What mean you, Sir? for God's fake hold your hands; Nay, an you will not, Sir, I'll take my heels. [Exit Dromio. Ant. Upon my life, by fome device or other, The villain is o'er-wrought of all my money.. They fay this town is full of couzenage; As nimble jugglers that deceive the eye; (4) (4) As, nimble jugglers, that deceive the eye; Dark-working forcerers, that change the mind; Soul-killing witches, that deform the body;] Though I have not difturbed the text, the ingenious conjecture Mr .Warburton made to me upon this paffage has fuch an appearance of juftness and likelihood, that I fhall fubjoin it in his own words. "Thofe, who attentively confider thefe "three lines, muft confefs, that the Poet intended the e"pithet given to each of thefe mifcreants fhould declare the t power by which they perform their feats, and which "would therefore be a juft characteristic of each of them. Thus, by nimble jugglers, we are taught that they perform "their tricks by flight of hand: and by foul-killing witches, we are informed, the mifchief they do is by the affiftance "of the devil to whom they have given their fouls. But " then, by dark-working forcerers, we are not inftructed in "the means by which they perform their ends. Befides, 86 this epithet agrees as well to witches, as to them; and "therefore, certainly, our Author could not defign this as the characteristic. I am confident we should read; Drug-working forcerers, that change the mind. "And we know by the whole history of ancient and modern "fuperftition, that thefe kind of jugglers always pretended "to work changes of the mind by thefe applications. "Hence, all the fuperftition of love potions, which in this "line is alluded to: and this practice was fo common a "mongst the Greeks, that they gave the name of papuarie "to this operator: and therefore has Theocrites called his fecond Eidyllium, whose subject is built on this kind of 6 forcery, φαρμακεύτρια. Mr Warburton. Brabantio, I remember, in Othello, where he thinks his Dark-working forcerers, that change the mind; [Exit. A C T II. SCENE, the House of Antipholis of Ephefus. N Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA. ADRIANA, EITHER my husband nor the flave returned, That in fuch hafte I fent to feek his master ! Sure, Luciano, it is two o'clock. Luc. Perhaps fome merchant hath invited him, And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner: >Good fifter, let us dine and never fret. A man is master of his liberty: Time is their mafter; and when they fee time, Adr. Why fhould their liberty than ours be more? daughter's fenfes and inclinations must have been perverted by the Moor's practices, fpeaks not a little in confirmation of my friend's conjecture. Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense, |