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,
Left that your goods too foon be confifcate.
This very day a Syracufan merchant
Is apprehended for arrival here;

And not being able to buy out his life,
According to the ftatute of the town,
Dies ere the weary fun fets in the weft.
There is your money that I had to keep..

Ant. Go bear it to the Centaur, where we hoft,
And stay there,. Dremio, 'till I come to thee:
Within this hour it will be dinner-time;
'Till that I'll view the manners of the town,,
Perufe the traders, gaze upon the buildings,
And then return and fleep within mine inn;
For with long travel I am stiff and weary.
Get thee away.

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:
My prefent bufinefs calls me from you now.
Ant. Farewel 'till then; I will go lofe myself,
And wander up and down to view the city.
Mer. Sir, I commend you to your own content.
[Exit Merchant.
Ant. He that commends me to my own content,
Commends me to the thing I cannot get.
I to the world am like a drop of water,
That in the ocean feeks another drop,
Who falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unfeen, inquifitive, confounds himself:
So I, to find a mother and a brother,
In queft of them, unhappy, lofe myself.

Enter DROMIO of Ephefus.

Here comes the almanac of my true date.
What now? how chance thou art returned so foon?
E. Dro. Returned fo foon! rather approached
too late :

The capon burns, the pig falls from the fpit,
The clock has ftrucken twelve upon the bell;
My mistress made it one upon my
cheek:
She is fo hot, because the meat is cold;

The meat is cold because you come not home;
You come not home, because you have no ftomach;
You have no ftomach, having broke your fift:
But we that know what 'tis to faft and pray,
Are penitent for your default to-day.

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?
The fadler had it, Sir; I kept it not.

Ant. I am not in a fportive, humour now,

Tell me and dally not, where is the money?
We being ftrangers here, how dareft thou truft !
-So great a charge from thine own cuftody?

E. Dro. I pray you jeft, Sir, as you fit at dinner;
I from my miftrefs come to you in poft;
If I return, I fhall be poft indeed;

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:
Where is the gold I gave in charge to thee? [me..
E. Dro. To me, Sir? why, you gave no gold to
Ant. Come on, Sir knave, have done your foolish-
nefs :

And tell me how thou haft difpofed thy charge?
E. Dro. My charge was but to fetch you from

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,
halt thou?

E. Dro. Your Worship's wife, my mistress at the
Phoenix;

She that doth faft 'till you come home to dinner;
And
prays that you will hie you 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;
Soul-killing witches, that deform the body;
Difguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many fuch like libertines of fin:
If it prove fo, I will be gone the fooner.
I'll to the Centaur, to go feek this flave;
I greatly fear my money is not safe.

[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,
They'll go or come; if fo, be patient, fifter.

Adr. Why fhould their liberty than ours be more?
Luc. Because their business still lyes out a-door.
Adr. Look when I ferve him fo he takes it ill.
Luc. Oh, know he is the bridle of your will.
Adr. There's none but alles will be bridled fo.

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,
That thou hast practised on her with foul charms,
Abufed her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals,
That weaken notion.