A man is master of his liberty:

Time is their master; and, when they see time,
They'll go, or come: if so, be patient, sister.

Adr. Why should their liberty than ours be more?
Luc. Because their business still lies out o' door.
Adr. Look, when I serve him so, he takes it ill3.
Luc. O! know he is the bridle of your will.
Adr. There's none but asses will be bridled so.
Luc. Why, head-strong liberty is lash'd with woe.
There's nothing, situate under heaven's eye,
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky:
The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls,
Are their males' subjects, and at their controls.
Men, more divine, the masters of all these +,
Lords of the wide world, and wild wat'ry seas,
Indued with intellectual sense and souls,
Of more pre-eminence than fish and fowls,
Are masters to their females, and their lords:
Then, let your will attend on their accords.

Adr. This servitude makes you to keep unwed.
Luc. Not this, but troubles of the marriage-bed.
Adr. But, were you wedded, you would bear some
sway.

Luc. Ere I learn love, I'll practise to obey.

Adr. How if your husband start some other where"? Luc. Till he come home again, I would forbear. Adr. Patience unmov'd, no marvel though she pause; They can be meek, that have no other cause.

3 He takes it ILL.] No doubt ill, which is the word in the second folio, is right, and the first folio wrong in having it thus. The scene henceforward is in rhyme, until the entrance of Dromio of Ephesus.

4 MEN, more divine, the MASTERS of all these,] The old copies read man and master, and lord in the next line; but the rest of the passage shows that "men," 'masters," and "lords,” are necessary to the sense.

66

5 --some other where ?] i. e. Some where else, as we now familiarly express it. Johnson suggests that we should read "start some other hare," and Steevens is for taking "where" as a noun; but no alteration whatever is required. Adriana says afterwards, "I know his eye doth homage other where."

* Till he come HOME again, I would forbear.] "Home" is omitted in Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell. It is found in all the old copies.

A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;
But were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain;
So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience would'st relieve me:
But if thou live to see like right bereft,
This fool-begg'd patience' in thee will be left.

Luc. Well, I will marry one day, but to try.—
Here comes your man: now is your husband nigh.

Enter DROMIO of Ephesus.

Adr. Say, is your tardy master now at hand? Dro. E. Nay, he is at two hands with me, and that my two ears can witness.

Adr. Say, didst thou speak with him? Know'st thou his mind?

Dro. E. Ay ay; he told his mind upon mine ear. Beshrew his hand, I scarce could understand it.

Luc. Spake he so doubtfully, thou couldst not feel his meaning?

Dro. E. Nay, he struck so plainly, I could too well feel his blows; and withal so doubtfully, that I could scarce understand them.

Adr. But say, I pr'ythee, is he coming home?

It seems, he hath great care to please his wife.
Dro. E. Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad.
Adr. Horn-mad, thou villain !

Dro. E.

I mean not cuckold-mad;

But, sure, he is stark mad.

When I desir'd him to come home to dinner,
He ask'd me for a thousand marks in gold:

7

- FOOL-BEGG'D patience-] She seems, says Johnson, to mean by "foolbegg'd patience," that patience which is so near to idiotical simplicity, that your next relation would take advantage from it to represent you as a fool, and beg the guardianship of your fortune.

8

a THOUSAND marks in gold :--] The oldest copy reads-a hundred marks. The correction was made in the second folio.

"Tis dinner-time, quoth I; my gold, quoth he:
Your meat doth burn, quoth I; my gold, quoth he:
Will you come, quoth I"? my gold, quoth he:
Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?
The pig, quoth I, is burn'd; my gold, quoth he:
My mistress, sir, quoth I; hang up thy mistress;
I know not thy mistress out on thy mistress!
Luc. Quoth who?

Dro. E. Quoth my master:

I know, quoth he, no house, no wife, no mistress.
So that my errand, due unto my tongue,

I thank him, I bear home upon my shoulders;
For, in conclusion, he did beat me there.

Adr. Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him home. Dro. E. Go back again, and be new beaten home? For God's sake, send some other messenger.

Adr. Back, slave, or I will break thy pate across. Dro. E. And he will bless that cross with other

beating.

Between you I shall have a holy head.

Adr. Hence, prating peasant! fetch thy master home. Dro. E. Am I so round with you', as you with me, That like a foot-ball you do spurn me thus? You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither: If I last in this service, you must case me in leather2. [Exit. Luc. Fie, how impatience lowreth in your face! Adr. His company must do his minions grace, Whilst I at home starve for a merry look. Hath homely age th' alluring beauty took From my poor cheek? then, he hath wasted it: Are my discourses dull? barren my wit?

If voluble and sharp discourse be marr'd,

• Will you come, quoth I?] All the modern editions read "Will you come home, quoth I?" but without any authority.

1 Am I so ROUND with you,] "To be round" meant, of old, to be plainly spoken, or free of speech. Dromio plays upon the ambiguity of the expression. 2 -case me in leather.] Like a foot-ball, which he has previously mentioned.

Unkindness blunts it, more than marble hard.
Do their gay vestments his affections bait?
That's not my fault; he's master of my state.
What ruins are in me, that can be found
By him not ruin'd? then is he the ground
Of my defeatures. My decayed fair 3
A sunny look of his would soon repair;
But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale,

And feeds from home: poor I am but his stale.
Luc. Self-harming jealousy!-fie! beat it hence.
Adr. Unfeeling fools can with such wrongs dispense.
I know his eye doth homage other where,
Or else, what lets it but he would be here?
Sister, you know, he promis'd me a chain :
Would that alone, alone he would detain 5,
So he would keep fair quarter with his bed!
I see, the jewel best enamelled

Will lose his beauty: yet though gold 'bides still,
That others touch, an often touching will
Wear gold; and no man, that hath a name,
By falsehood and corruption doth it shame ".
Since that my beauty cannot please his eye,
I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die.
Luc. How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!
[Exeunt.

3 My decayed FAIR,] Nothing would be easier than to accumulate instances where "fair" is used for fairness by the writers of Shakespeare's time and earlier.

Poor I am but his STALE.] Stale here means, as Steevens remarks, a pretended wife the stalking horse, or pretended horse, behind which sportsmen formerly shot, was sometimes called "a stale." In the Menæchmi of Plautus, translated by W. W. 1595, Shakespeare might have met with the same word used on a similar occasion: "He makes me a stale, and a laughing stock."

5 Would that alone, ALONE he would detain,] The meaning is, "I wish he would only detain from me the chain alone." The first folio has it," Would that alone a love he would detain," which the second folio corrected.

it shame.] In the folio of 1623, this passage stands literatim as follows:-
"I see the lewell best enamaled

Will loose his beautie: yet the gold bides still
That others touch, and often touching will,
Where gold and no man that hath a name,
By falshood and corruption doth it shame."

[The

SCENE II.

The Same.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse".

Ant. S. The gold, I gave to Dromio, is laid up
Safe at the Centaur; and the heedful slave
Is wander'd forth, in care to seek me out.
By computation, and mine host's report,
I could not speak with Dromio, since at first
I sent him from the mart. See, here he comes.

Enter DROMIO of Syracuse.

How now, sir? is your merry humour alter'd?
As you love strokes, so jest with me again.
You know no Centaurs? You receiv'd no gold?
Your mistress sent to have me home to dinner?
My house was at the Phoenix? Wast thou mad,
That thus so madly thou didst answer me?

Dro. S. What answer, sir? when spake I such a word?

Ant. S. Even now, even here, not half an hour since. Dro. S. I did not see you since you sent me hence, Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me. Ant. S. Villain, thou didst deny the gold's receipt, And told'st me of a mistress, and a dinner; For which, I hope, thou felt'st I was displeas'd.

The folio of 1632 omits entirely the last two lines. Sense may be made of this difficult passage if we convert "yet the," in the second line, into yet tho', or though, a very small change, omit the last letter of "and" in the third line, and read wear for" where " in the fourth line, an easy corruption: the meaning will then be, "I see that the jewel best enamelled will lose his beauty: yet though gold that others touch remains gold, an often touching will wear gold; no man with a name willingly shames it by falsehood and corruption."

7 Enter Antipholus of Syracuse.] Here called Antipholis Errotis.

You know no Centaur ?] Dromio of Ephesus did not say that he knew no Centaur: the question was not put to him by Antipholus of Syracuse.