Keep then fair league, and truce with thy true bed; I live diftain'd, thoy undishonoured.

Ant. Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not; In Ephefus I am but two hours old,

As ftrange unto your town as to your talk.
Who, every word by all my wit being scann'd,
Wants wit in all one word to understand.

Luc. Fie, brother! how the world is chang'd with

you;

When were you wont to use my fifter thus?
She fent for you by Dromio home to dinner.
Ant. By Dromio?

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.
Ant. How can fhe thus then call us by our names,
Unless it be by inspiration?

Adr. How ill agrees it with your gravity, To counterfeit thus grofly with your flave, Abetting him to thwart me in my mood? Be it my wrong, you are from me exempt, But wrong not that wrong with a more contempt. Come, I will faften on this fleeve of thine; "Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine: "Whose weaknefs, marry'd to thy stronger ftate, "Makes me with thy ftrength to communicate; "If aught poffefs thee from me, it is drofs,

4- you are from me exempt,] Exempt, for eftranged. Q2

« Ufurp

Ufurping ivy, brier, or idle mofs; "Who, all for want of pruning, with intrusion "Infect thy fap, and live on thy confusion.

Ant. To me he speaks; fhe moves me for her theam;

What, was I marry'd to her in my dream?
Or fleep I now, and think I hear all this?
What error drives our eyes and ears amiss?
Until I know this fure uncertainty,

I'll entertain the favour'd fallacy.

Luc. Dromio, go bid the fervants fpread for dinner. S. Dro. Oh, for my beads! I crofs me for a finner. This is the Fairy land: oh, fpight of spights!

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 thy felf, and answer'st not?

Dromio, thou drone, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot!

5 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 dares fay, that his readers will acquiefce in the juftness of bis emendation. But, for all this, we muft not part with the old reading. He did not know it to be an old popular fuperftition, that the fcretch-owl 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 mischievously bent against children, Strega from Strix, the Scretch-owl. This fuperftition they had derived from their Pagan ancestors, as appears from this paffage of Ovid, Sunt avide volucres non que Phineia menfis Guttura fraudabant: fed genus inde trahunt. Grande caput: fantes oculi: roftra apta rapine: Canities pennis, unguibus hamus ineft.

Nocte volant, PUEROSQUE PETUNT nutricis egentes i
Et vitiant CUNIS corpora rapta fuis.

Carpere dicuntur la&antia viscera roftris;
Et plenum poco fanguine guttur habent.
Eft illis ftrigibus nomen :

Lib. 6. Feft.

S. Dre.

S. Dro. I am transformed, master, am not I?
Ant. I think, thou art in mind, and fo am I.

S. Dro. Nay, master, both in mind and in my
shape.

Ant. Thou haft thine own form.

S. Dro. No; I am an ape.

Luc. If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an afs.
S. Dro. 'Tis true; the rides me, and I long for
grafs.

'Tis fo, I am an ass; else it could never be,
But I fhould know her, as well as fhe knows me.
Adr. Come, come, no longer will I be a fool,
To put the finger in the Eye and weep,
Whilft man and mafter laugh my woes to fcorn.
Come, Sir, to dinner; Dromio, keep the gate;
Husband, I'll dine above with you to day,
And fhrive you of a thousand idle pranks;
Sirrah, if any ask you for your master,

Say, he dines forth, and let no creature enter :
Come, fifter; Dromio, play the porter well.

Ant. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?
Sleeping or waking, mad or well advis'd?
Known unto these, and to myself difguis'd?
I'll fay as they fay, and persever so;
And in this mist at all adventures go.

S. Dro. Master, fhall I be porter at the gate?
Adr. Ay, let none enter, left I break your pate.
Luc. Come, come, Antipholis, we dine too late.

}

[Exeunt.

ACT

III.

SCENE 1.

The Street before Antipholis's House.

Enter Antipholis of Ephefus, Dromio of Ephefus, Angelo, and Balthazar.

GMy

E. ANTIPHOLIS.

OOD Signior Angelo, you must excuse us;
My wife is fhrewish, when I keep not hours;
Say, that I linger'd with you at your shop
To fee the making of her carkanet;

And that to morrow you will bring it home.
But here's a villain, that would face me down
He met me on the mart, and that I beat him;
And charg'd him with a thousand marks in gold;
And that I did deny my wife and house:

Thou drunkard, thou, what didft thou mean by this?
E. Dro. Say, what you will, Sir; but I know what
I know;

That

you beat me at the mart, I have your hand to

fhow;

If the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink,

Your own hand-writing would tell you what I think. E. Ant. I think, thou art an afs.

E. Dro. Marry, fo it doth appear

By the wrongs I fuffer, and the blows I bear;

I fhould kick, being kickt; and, being at that pafs, You would keep from my heels, and beware of an aís. E. Ant. Y'are fad, Signior Balthazar. Pray God, our cheer

May answer my good will, and your good welcome

here.

Bal. I hold your dainties cheap, Sir, and your welcome dear.

E. Ant.

E. Ant. Ah, Signior Balthazar, either at flesh or fish, A table-full of welcome makes scarce one dainty difh. Bal. Good meat, Sir, is common;

affords.

that

every

churl

E. Ant. And welcome more common; for that's nothing but words.

Bal. Small cheer, and great welcome, makes a merry feaft.

E. Ant. Ay, to a niggardly host, and more sparing guest:

But tho' my cates be mean, take them in good part;
Better cheer may you have, but not with better heart.
But, foft; my door is lockt; go bid them let us in.
E. Dro. Maud, Bridget, Marian, Cicely, Gillian, Ginn!
S. Dro. [within] Mome, malt-horse, capon, cox-
comb, idiot, patch !

Either get thee from the door, or fit down at the hatch: Doft thou conjure for wenches, that thou call❜ft for fuch store,

When one is one too many? go, get thee from the door.

E. Dro. What patch is made our porter ? my master ftays in the street.

S. Dro. Let him walk from whence he came, left he catch cold on's feet.

E. Ant. Who talks within there? hoa, open

door.

the

S. Dro. Right, Sir, I'll tell you when, an you'll tell me wherefore.

E. Ant. Wherefore? for my dinner: I have not din'd to day.

S. Dro. Nor to day here you must not: come again, when you may.

E. Ant. What art thou, that keep'ft me out from the house I owe?

S. Dro. The porter for this time, Sir, and my name

is Dromio.