Will lofe his beauty; and the gold bides ftill,
That others touch; yet often touching will
Wear gold and so no man, that hath a name,
But falfhood, and corruption, doth it fhame.
Since that my beauty cannot please his eye,
I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die.
Luc. How many fond fools ferve mad jealoufie!

}

[Exeunt.

Ant.

Changes to the Street.

Enter Antipholis of Syracufe.

HE gold I gave to Dromio is laid up

TH

Safe at the Centaur ; and the heedful flave

Is wander'd forth in care to feek me out.

By computation, and mine hoft's report,
I could not fpeak with Dromio, fince at first
I fent him from the mart. See, here he comes.

Enter Dromio of Syracufe.

How now, Sir? is your merry humour alter'd?
As you love ftrokes, fo jeft with me again.
You know no Centaur? you receiv'd no gold?
Your mistress fent to have me home to dinner?
My house was at the Phenix? waft thou mad,
That thus fo madly thou didst answer me?

S. Dro. What anfwer, Sir? when fpake I fuch a

word?

That others touch; yet often touching will

Wear gold: and fo no man, that hath a name,
But falfhood, and corruption, doth it shame.

The fenfe is this, "Gold, indeed. will long bear the handling; "however, often touching, will wear even gold; just fo the great"eft character, tho' as pure as gold itself, may, in time, be injured, by the repeated attacks of falihood and corruption."

Ant.

Ant. Even now, even here, not half an hour fince.
S. Dro. I did not fee you fince you fent me hence
Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me.
Ant. Villain, thou didst deny the gold's receipt;
And told'st me of a mistess, and a dinner;
For which, I hope, thou felt'ft I was displeas'd.
S. Dro. I'm glad to see you in this merry vein:
What means this jeft, I pray you, mafter, tell me?
Ant. Yea, doft thou jeer and flout me in the teeth?
Think'ft thou, I jest? hold, take thou that, and that.
[Beats Dro.

S. Dro. Hold, Sir, for God's fake, now your jeft
is earnest ;

Upon what bargain do you give it me?

Ant. Because that I familiarly fometimes
Do use you for my fool, and chat with you,
Your fawciness will jeft upon my love,
And make a common of my serious hours.
When the fun fhines, let foolish gnats make sport;
But creep in crannies, when he hides his beams:
If you will jeft with me, know my afpect,
And fashion your demeanour to my looks;
your
Or I will beat this method in sconce.

S. Dro. Sconce, call you it? fo you would leave
battering, I had rather have it a head; an you use
thefe blows long, I must get a fconce for my head,
and infconce it too, or elfe I fhall feek my wit in my
shoulders: but, I pray, Sir, why am I beaten ?
Ant. Doft thou not know?

S. Dro. Nothing, Sir, but that I am beaten.
Ant. Shall I tell you why?

S. Dro. Ay, Sir, and wherefore; for, they fay, every why hath a wherefore.

Ant. Why, first, for flouting me; and then wherefore, for urging it the fecond time to me.

2

- beat this method. - Method, for instruction.

S. Dro.

S. Dro. Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season,

When, in the why, and wherefore, is neither rhime nor reason?

Well, Sir, I thank you.

Ant. Thank me, Sir, for what?

that you

S. Dro. Marry, Sir, for this fomething that gave me for nothing.

Ant. I'll make you amends next, to give you nothing for fomething. But fay, Sir, is it dinner-time? S. Dro. No, Sir, I think, the meat wants that I have. Ant. In good time, Sir, what's that?

S. Dro. Bafting.

Ant. Well, Sir, then 'twill be dry.

S. Dro. If it be, Sir, I pray you eat none of it.
Ant. Your reason ?

S. Dro. Left it make you cholerick, and purchase me another dry-bafting.

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.

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 (a) them in wit.

[(a) men, Mr. Theobald-Vulg. them.]

Ant

Ant. Why, but there's many a man hath more hair

than wit.

a S. Dro. Not a man of thofe, but he hath the wit to lose his hair.

Ant. Why, thou didst conclude hairy men plain dealers without wit.

S. Dro. The plainer dealer, the fooner loft; yet he loseth it in a kind of jollity.

Ant. For what reafon ?

S. Dro. For two, and found ones too.
Ant. Nay, not found, I pray you.
S. Dro. Sure ones then.

Ant. Nay, not fure in a thing falfing.
S. Dro. Certain ones then.

Ant. Name them.

S. Dro. The one to fave the money that he fpends in trying the other, that at dinner they fhould not drop in his porridge.

Ant. You would all this time have prov'd, there is no time for all things.

SS. 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 himself 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

Enter Adriana, and Luciana

Adri. Ay, ay, Antipholis, look ftrange and frown, Some other mistress hath thy sweet afpects:

I am not Adriana, nor thy wife.

The time was once, when thou, unurg'd, wouldst vow, That never words were musick to thine eary

VOL. III.

Q

That

That never object pleafing in thine eye, • That never touch well welcome to thy hand, • That never meat fweet-favour'd in thy taste, • Unless I fpake, or look'd, or touch'd, or carv'd. How comes it now, my husband, oh, how comes it, That thou art thus eftranged from thy felf? Thy felf I call it, being strange to me: That, undividable, incorporate,

Am better than thy dear felf's better part.
Ah, do not tear away thy felf from me:
For know, my love, as eafie may'st thou fall
A drop of water in the breaking gulph,
And take unmingled thence that drop again,
Without addition or diminishing,

As take from me thy felf; and not me too.
How dearly would it touch thee to the quick,
Should'ft thou but hear, I were licentious?
And that this body, confecrate to thee,
By ruffian luft should be contaminate?
Would'st thou not fpit at me, and fpurn at me,
And hurl the name of husband in my face,
And tear the ftain'd skin of my harlot-brow,
And from my falfe hand cut the wedding-ring,
And break it with a deep-divorcing vow?

I know thou can'ft; and therefore, fee, thou do it.
3 I am poffefs'd with an adulterate blot;
My blood is mingled with the Grime of luft:
For if we two be one, and thou play false,
I do digest the poison of thy flesh,
Being ftrumpeted by thy contagion.

3 I am poffefs'd with an adulterate blot ;

My blood is mingled with the CRIME of luft:] Both the integrity of the metaphor, and the word blot, in the preceding line, Thew that we should read,

with the GRIME of luft: i.e the flain, fmut. So again in this play,—A man may go over shoes in the GRIME of it.

Keep