Enter DROMIO of Syracufe.

S. Ant. Why, now now, Dromio, where run't thou fo faft?

S. Dro. Do you know me, Sir? am I Dromio? am I your man? am I myself?

S. Ant. Thou art Dromio, thou art my man, thou art thyfelf.

S. Dro. I am an afs, I am a woman's man and befides myself.

S. Ant. What woman's man? and how befides thyfelf?

S. Dro. Marry, Sir, befides myself, I am due to a woman; one that claims me, one that haunts me, one that will have me.

S. Ant. What claim lays fhe to thee?

S. Dro. Marry, Sir, fuch claim as you would lay to your horfe; and fhe would have me as a beast : not that, I being a beaft, fhe would have me; but. that fhe, being a very beastly creature, lays claim

to me.

.S. Ant. What is the?

S. Dro. A very reverent body: ay, fuch a one as a man may not fpeak of, without he fay, Sir reverence: I have but lean luck in the match; and yet she is a wondrous fat marriage..

S. Ant. How doft thou mean, a fat marriage? S. Dro. Marry, Sir, fhe's the kitchen-wench, and all greafe; and I know not what ufe to put her to but to make a lamp of her, and run from her by : her own light. I warrant, her rags, and the tallow in them, will burn a Poland winter: if the lives till. doomsday, the'll burn a week longer than the whole. world.

S. Ant. What complexion is the of?

S. Dra. Swart, like my fhoe, but her face no

thing like fo clean kept; for why? fhe fweats, a man may go over fhoes in the grime of it.

S. Ant. That's a fault that water will mend. S. Dra. No, Sir, 'tis in grain; Noah's flood could not do it.

S. Ant. (14) What's her name?

S. Dro. Nell, Sir;-but her name and three quarters (that is an ell and three quarters) will not meafure her from hip to hip.

S. Ant. Then she bears fome breadth?

S. Dro. No longer from head to foot, than from hip to hip; he is spherical, like a globe: I could find out countries in her.

S. Ant. In what part of her body ftands, Ireland. S. Dro. Marry, Sir, in her buttocks; I found it out by the bogs.

S. Ant. Where Scotland?

S. Dro. I found it out by the barrenness, hard in "the palm of her hand.

S. Ant. (15) Where France?

(14) What's her name?

S. Dro. Nell Sir; but her name is three quarters; that is, an.ell and three quarters, &c.] This paffage has hitherto lain as perplexed and unintelligible, as it is now easy, and truly humorous. If a conundrum be reftored, in fetting it right, who can help it? There are enough befides in our Author, and Ben Johnson, to countenance that current vice of the times when this play appeared. Nor is Mr Pope, in the chastity of his tale, to bristle up at me for the revival of this witticifin, fince I owe the correction to the fagacity of the ingenious Dr Thirlby.

(15) S. Ant.. Where France ?

S. Dro. In her forehead; armed and reverted, making war against her hair] All the other countries mentioned in this defeription, are in Dromio's replies fatirically characteri zed: but here, as the editors have ordered it, no remark is made upon France; nor any reafon given why it fhould be in her forehead a but only the kitchen wench's high forehead is rallied, as pufhing back her hair. Thus all the

S. Dro. In her forehead; armed and reverted making war against her heir.

S. Ant. Where England?

S. Dro. I looked for the chalky cliffs, but I could find no whitenefs in them; but I guess it ftood in her chin, by the falt rheum that ran between France and it."

S. Ant. Where Spain?

S. Dro. Faith, I faw it not, but I felt it hot in her breath.

S. Ant. Where America, the Indies?

S. Dro. Oh, Sir, upon her nofe, all o'er embellifhed with rubies, carbuncles, faphirs; declining their rich afpect to the hot breath of Spain, who fent whole armadoés of carracts to be ballaft at her nose.

S. Ant. Where stood Belgia, the Netherlands?

-making war

modern editions; but the first folio readsagainst her heir.And I am very apt to think, this last is the true reading; and that an equivoque, as the French call it, a double meaning is defigned in the Poet's allufion : and therefore I have replaced it in the text. If my conjecture be of any weight, we may be able from it pretty precisely to fix the date of this play's appearance. I am not afhamed to trust it to judgment, et valeat quantum valere poteft. In 1589, Henry IIId of France being stabbed and dying of his wound, was fucceeded by Henry IVth of Navarre, whom he appointed his fucceffor; but whofe claim the ftates of France refifted on account of his being a Proteftant. This, I take it, is what he means, by France making war against ther heir. Now as, in 1591, Queen Elizabeth fent over 4000 men, under the conduct of the Earl of Effex, to the affistance of this Henry of Navarre; it feems to me very probable that during this expedition being on foot, this comedy made its appearance. And it was the fineft addreis imaginable in the Poet, to throw fuch an oblique fneer at France, for oppofing the fucceffion of that heir, whose claim his Royal Miftrefs the Queen had fent over a force to eftablish, and oblige them to acknowledge.

To con

S. Dro. Oh, Sir, I did not look fo low. clude, this drudge, or diviner, laid claim to me, called me Dromio, fwore I was affured to her, told me what privy marks I had about me, as the marks of my fhoulder, the mole in my neck, the great wart on my left arm, that I, amazed, ran from her as a witch. And, I think, if my breast had not been made of faith, and my heart of steel, she had transformed me to a curtal-dog, and made me turn i'th' wheel.

S. Ant. Go, hye thee presently; poft to the road; And if the wind blow any way from fhore, I will not harbour in this town to-night. If any bark put forth, come to the mart; Where I will walk, 'till thou return to me: If every one knows us, and we know none, 'Tis time, I think, to trudge, pack and be gone. S. Dro. As from a bear a man would run for life, So fly I from her that would be my wife.

[Exit. S. Ant. There's none but witches do inhabit here; And therefore 'tis high time that I were hence. She, that doth call me husband, even my foul Doth for a wife abhor. But her fair filter, Poffeft with fuch a gentle fovereign grace, Of fuch enchanting prefence and difcourfe, Hath almoft made me traitor to myself: But left myself be guilty of felf wrong, I'll stop mine ears against the mermaid's fong. Enter ANGELO, with a chain.

Ang. Master Antipholis,

S. nt Ay, that's my name.

'ng. I know it well, Sir; lo, here is the chain; I thought t' have ta'en you at the Porcupine; The chain, unfinished, made me stay thus long.

S. Ant. What is your will that I shall do with

this?

Ang. What please yourself, Sir; I have made it for you.

S. Ant. Made it for me, Sir! I befpoke it not. Ang. Not once, nor twice, but twenty times you Go home with it and pleafe your wife withal; [have. And foon at fupper-time I'll visit you,

And then receive my money for the chain.

S. Ant. I pray you, Sir, receive the money now; For fear you ne'er fee chain nor money more. Ang. You are a merry man, Sir; fare you well. [Exit. S. Ant. What I fhould think of this, I cannot tell: But this: I think, there's no man is fo vain, That would refuse fo fair an offered chain. I fee a man here needs not live by thifts, When in the streets he meets fuch golden gifts: I'll to the mart, and there for Dromio stay; If any fhip put out, then strait away.

ACT IV.

SCENE, the Street.

[Exit.

Enter a Merchant, ANGELO, and an Officer.

You

MERCHANT.

u know, fince Pentecoft the fum is due; And finte I have not much importuned you; Nor now I had not, but that I am bound To Perfia, and want gilders for my voyage: Therefore make prefent fatisfaction, Or I'll attach you by this officer.