Ant. Well, Sir, learn to jeft in good time; there's a time for all things. S. Dro. I durft have deny'd that, before you were fo cholerick. Ant. By what rule, Sir? S. Dro. Marry, Sir, by a rule as plain as the plain bald pate of father Time himself. Ant. Let's hear it. S. Dro. There's no time for a man to recover his hair, that grows bald by nature. Ant. May he not do it by fine and recovery ? S. Dro. Yes, to pay a fine for a peruke, and recover the loft hair of another man. 2 Ant. Why is Time fuch a niggard of hair, being, as it is, fo plentiful an excrement? S. Dro. Because it is a bleffing that he bestows on beafts; and what he hath fcanted men in hair, he hath given them in wit. Ant. Why, but there's many a man hath more hair than wit. S. Dro. Not a man of those, but he hath the wit to lofe his hair. Ant. Why, thou didst conclude hairy men plain dealers without wit. S. Dro. The plainer dealer, the fooner loft; yet he lofeth it in a kind of jollity. 2 In former Editions: Ant. Why is Time fuch a Niggard of Hair, being, as it is, fo plentiful an Excrement? S. Dro. Because it is a Bleffing that he leflows on Beafts, and what be bath fcanted them in hair, he bath given them in Wit.] Surely, this is Mock-reasoning, and a Contradiction in Senfe. Can Hair be fuppos'd a Bleffing, which Time beftows on Beafts peculiarly; and yet that he hath fcanted them of it too? Men and I 4 Them, I obferve, are very frequently mistaken vice verfa for each other, in the old Impreffions of our Author. THEOBALD. 3 Not a man of those, but he bath the wit to lose his hair.] That is, Those who have more hair than wit, are easily entrapped by loose women, and fuffer the confequences of lewdness, one of which, in the first appearance of the disease in Europe, was the lofs of hair. Ant. Ant. For what reafon ? S. Dro. For two, and found ones too. Ant. Nay, not fure in a thing falfing. Ant. Name them. S. Dro. The one to fave the mony that he spends in tyring; the other, that at dinner they should not drop in his porridge. Ant. You would all this time have prov'd, there is no time for all things. S. Dro. Marry, and did, Sir; namely, no time to recover hair loft by nature. Ant. But your reafon was not fubftantial, why there is no time to recover. S. Dro. Thus I mend it: Time himfelf is bald, and therefore to the world's end will have bald followers. Ant. I knew, twould be a bald conclufion: but, foft! who wafts us yonder? SCENE V. Enter Adriana, and Luciana. Adr. Ay, ay, Antipholis, look ftrange and frown, Some other miftrefs hath thy fweet afpects: I am not Adriana, nor thy wife. The time was once, when thou, unurg'd, wouldst vow, That never object pleafing in thine eye, Unless I fpake, or look'd, or touch'd, or carv'd. How comes it now, my husband, oh, how comes it, That, undividable, incorporate, Am better than thy dear felf's better part. As take from me thyfelf, and not me too. I know thou can'ft; and therefore, fee thou do it. My blood is mingled with the crime of luft+: Being trumpeted by thy contagion. Keep then fair league, and truce with thy true bed; I live dif-ftain'd, thou undishoured 5. Ant. Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not: In Ephefus I am but two hours old, As strange unto your town as to your talk. Who, every word by all my wit being scann'd, Luc. Fy, brother! how the world is chang'd with you; When were you wont to use my sister thus ? S. Dro. By me? Adr. By thee; and thus thou didst return from him, That he did buffet thee; and in his blows Deny'd my houfe for his, me for his wife. Ant. Did you converfe, Sir, with this gentlewoman? What is the courfe and drift of your compact? S. Dro. I, Sir? I never faw her 'till this time. Ant. Villain, thou lieft; for even her very words Didft thou deliver to me on the mart. S. Dro. I never spoke with her in all my life. Adr. How ill agrees it with your gravity, Who, all for want of pruning, with intrufion Infect thy fap, and live on thy confufion. Ant. To me the fpeaks; the moves me for her theam : What, was I marry'd to her in my dream? -you are from me exempt.] Exempt, feparated, parted. The fenfe is, if I am doomed to fuffer the wrong of feparation, yet injure not with contempt me who am already injured. Or Or fleep I now, and think I hear all this? I'll entertain the favour'd fallacy. Luc. Dromio, go bid the fervant fpread for dinner. S. Dro. Oh, for my beads! I cross me for a finner. This is the Fairy land: oh, fpight of fpights! We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish fprights?; If we obey them not, this will enfue, They'll fuck our breath, and pinch us black and blue. Luc. Why prat'ft thou to thyfelf, and answer'st not? Dromio, thou drone, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot! S. Dro. 7 We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish Sprights;] Here Mr. Theobald calls out in the name of Nonfenfe, the first time he had formally invoked her, to tell him how Owls could fuck their breath, and pinch them black and blue. He, therefore, alters Owls to Ouphs, and dures fay, that his readers will acquiefce in the juftness of his emendation. But, for all this, we must not part with the old reading. He did not know it to be an old popular fuperftition, that the fcretchowl fucked out the breath and blood of infants in the cradle. On this account, the Italians called Witches, who were fuppofed to be in like manner mifchievoufly bent against children, Strega, from Strix, the Scretchowl. This fuperftition they had derived from their Pagan anceftors, as appears from this paffage of Ovid, Sunt avida volucres; non quæ inde trahunt. Grande caput: ftantes oculi: rofira apta rapina: Canities pennis, unguibus bamus ineft. Nolte volant, PUBROSQUE PETUNT nutricis egentes; Et vitiant CUNIS corpora rapta fuis. Carpere dicuntur la&tentia vifcera roftris; Et plenum poto fanguine guttur habent. Eft illis ftrigibus nomen: Lib. 6. Feft. WARBURTON. Why prat'ft thou to thyself?. Dromio, thou Dromio, nail, thou flug, thou fot!] In the firft of thefe Lines Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope have both, for what Reafon I cannot tell, curtail'd the Measure, and difmounted the doggrel Rhyme, which I have replac'd from the first Folio. The fecond Verfe is there likewife read; Dromio, thou Dromio, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot. The |