Ant. E. O, most unhappy strumpet!

Dro. E. Master, I am here enter'd in bond for you. Ant. E. Out on thee, villain! wherefore dost thou mad me?

Dro. E. Will you be bound for nothing? be mad, good master;

Cry, the devil.—

Luc. God help, poor souls! how idly do they talk. Adr. Go bear him hence.-Sister, go you with me.[Exeunt PINCH and assistants with ANT. and DRO. Say now, whose suit is he arrested at?

Jail. One Angelo, a goldsmith; do you know him? Adr. I know the man. What is the sum he owes ?

Jail. Two hundred ducats.

Adr.

Say, how grows it due?

Jail. Due for a chain your husband had of him. Adr. He did bespeak a chain for me, but had it not. Cour. When as your husband, all in rage, to-day Came to my house, and took away my ring, (The ring I saw upon his finger now) Straight after did I meet him with a chain. Adr. It may be so, but I did never see it.Come, jailor, bring me where the goldsmith is: I long to know the truth hereof at large.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse, with his rapier drawn, and DROMIO of Syracuse.

Luc. God, for thy mercy! they are loose again.
Adr. And come with naked swords. Let's call more

help,

To have them bound again.

Jail.

Away! they'll kill us.

[Exeunt ADRIANA, LUCIANA, and Jailor 5.

S and Luciana.] "Run all out" is the stage-direction of the old copies, in one place, and afterwards, as if to be more emphatic, "Exeunt omnes, as fast as may be, frighted." The jailor does not " run out," until the others are gone.

Ant. S. I see, these witches are afraid of swords.
Dro. S. She, that would be your wife, now ran from

you.

6

Ant. S. Come to the Centaur; fetch our stuff from

thence:

I long, that we were safe and sound aboard.

Dro. S. Faith, stay here this night, they will surely do us no harm; you saw they speak us fair, give us gold. Methinks they are such a gentle nation, that but for the mountain of mad flesh that claims marriage of me, I could find in my heart to stay here still, and turn witch.

Ant. S. I will not stay to-night for all the town; Therefore away, to get our stuff aboard.

[Exeunt.

Enter Merchant and ANGELO.

Ang. I am sorry, sir, that I have hinder'd you; But, I protest, he had the chain of me,

Though most dishonestly he doth deny it.

Mer. How is the man esteem'd here in the city?
Ang. Of very reverend reputation, sir,

Of credit infinite, highly belov'd,

Second to none that lives here in the city:

His word might bear my wealth at any time.
Mer. Speak softly: yonder, as I think, he walks.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS and DROMIO of Syracuse.
Ang. 'Tis so; and that self chain about his neck,
Which he forswore most monstrously to have.
Good sir, draw near to me, I'll speak to him.-

6 — our STUFF ] i. e. our baggage.

Signior Antipholus, I wonder much

That you would put me to this shame and trouble;
And not without some scandal to yourself,
With circumstance and oaths so to deny
This chain, which now you wear so openly:
Beside the charge, the shame, imprisonment,
You have done wrong to this my honest friend;
Who, but for staying on our controversy,
Had hoisted sail, and put to sea to-day.

This chain, you had of me: can you deny it?
Ant. S. I think, I had: I never did deny it.

Mer. Yes, that you did, sir; and forswore it too.
Ant. S. Who heard me to deny it, or forswear it?
Mer. These ears of mine, thou knowest, did hear
thee.

Fie on thee, wretch! 'tis pity that thou liv'st
To walk where any honest men resort.

Ant. S. Thou art a villain to impeach me thus.
I'll prove mine honour and mine honesty
Against thee presently, if thou dar'st stand.
Mer. I dare, and do defy thee for a villain.

[They draw.

Enter ADRIANA, LUCIANA, Courtezan, and Others.

Adr. Hold! hurt him not, for God's sake! he is mad.

Some get within him; take his sword away.

Bind Dromio too, and bear them to my house.

Dro. S. Run, master, run; for God's sake take a houses!

This is some priory:-in, or we are spoil'd.

8

[Exeunt ANTIPHOLUS and DROMIO to the Abbey.

7 get WITHIN him ;] i. e. close with him, get within his guard.

take a house.] i. e. Go into a house, in the same way as people used to say, "Take sanctuary," which Antipholus and Dromio do in "the Priory," as it is called in the stage-direction of the old copy.

Enter the Lady Abbess'.

Abb. Be quiet, people. Wherefore throng you

hither?

Adr. To fetch my poor distracted husband hence.
Let us come in, that we may bind him fast,
And bear him home for his recovery.

Ang. I knew, he was not in his perfect wits.
Mer. I am sorry now, that I did draw on him.
Abb. How long hath this possession held the man?
Adr. This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad;
And much different from the man he was;

But, till this afternoon, his passion

Ne'er brake into extremity of rage.

Abb. Hath he not lost much wealth by wreck of sea? Buried some dear friend? Hath not else his eye Stray'd his affection in unlawful love?

A sin prevailing much in youthful men,
Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing.
Which of these sorrows is he subject to?

Adr. To none of these, except it be the last;
Namely, some love, that drew him oft from home.
Abb. You should for that have reprehended him.
Adr. Why, so I did.

Abb.

Ay, but not rough enough. Adr. As roughly, as my modesty would let me.

Abb. Haply, in private.

Adr.

Abb. Ay, but not enough.

And in assemblies too.

10

Adr. It was the copy of our conference 1o.

In bed, he slept not for my urging it;

9 Enter the Lady Abbess.] It was therefore an abbey, not a priory, in which Antipholus and Dromio took sanctuary. She is called "Lady Abbess" in the old folios, but the modern editors deprive her of her title.

10 It was the COPY of our conference :] i. e. The chief part of our discourse: copy is often used in this sense by our old writers, from the Latin copia: thus Stephen Gosson, in his "School of Abuse," 1579, talks of " copy of abuses," or

abundance of abuses.

At board, he fed not for my urging it;
Alone, it was the subject of my theme;
In company, I often glanc'd it:

Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.

Abb. And thereof came it that the man was mad :
The venom clamours of a jealous woman
Poison more deadly than a mad dog's tooth.

It seems, his sleeps were hinder'd by thy railing,
And thereof comes it, that his head is light.

Thou say'st, his meat was sauc'd with thy upbraidings:

Unquiet meals make ill digestions ;

Thereof the raging fire of fever bred:

And what's a fever but a fit of madness?

Thou say'st, his sports were hinder'd by thy brawls:
Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue,
But moody and dull melancholy,

Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair,
And at her heels a huge infectious troop '
Of pale distemperatures, and foes to life?
In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest
To be disturb'd, would mad or man or beast.
The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
Have scar'd thy husband from the use of wits.

Luc. She never reprehended him but mildly,
When he demean'd himself rough, rude, and wildly.-
Why bear you these rebukes, and answer not?
Adr. She did betray me to my own reproof.-
Good people, enter, and lay hold on him.

Abb. No; not a creature enters in my house.
Adr. Then, let your servants bring my husband forth.
Abb. Neither: he took this place for sanctuary,

1 And at HER heels a huge infectious troop] So the old copies; and Malone needlessly altered her to their, when, in fact, only one person is spoken of, viz. "moody and dull melancholy :" the next line,

"Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair,"

is clearly parenthetical. There is no reason why Shakespeare should not make the personification of melancholy feminine, as he has previously made lore in this play, excepting that he had called her “kinsman" in the preceding line. Their was originally proposed by Heath.