Beyond imagination is the wrong
That she this day hath shameless thrown on me.
Duke. Discover how, and thou shalt find me
just.

A living dead man: this pernicious slave,
Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer;
And, gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse,
And with no face, as 't were, outfacing me,

doors upon me,

While she with harlots feasted in my house.

Duke. A grievous fault. Say, woman, didst thou so.

sister,

To-day did dine together. So befall my soul,
As this is false he burdens me withal!

Luc. Ne'er may I look on day, nor sleep on night,

But she tells to your highness simple truth.

Ang. O perjured woman! they are both for

sworn.

In this the madman justly chargeth them.

Ant. E. My liege, I am adviséd what I say;
Neither disturbed with the effect of wine,
Nor heady-rash, provoked with raging ire,
Albeit my wrongs might make one wiser mad.
This woman locked me out this day from dinner:
That goldsmith there, were he not packed with her,
Could witness it, for he was with me then;
Who parted with me to go fetch a chain,
Promising to bring it to the Porcupine,
Where Balthazar and I did dine together.
Our dinner done, and he not coming thither,

I went to seek him. In the street I met him;
And in his company, that gentleman.

Ran hither to your grace; whom I beseech
To give me ample satisfaction

For these deep shames and great indignities.

Ang. My lord, in truth, thus far I witness with

him,

That he dined not a home, but was locked out.

Duke. But had he such a chain of thee, or no? Ang. He had, my lord: and when he ran in here,

These people saw the chain about his neck.

Mer. Besides, I will be sworn, these ears of mine Heard you confess you had the chain of him, After you first forswore it on the mart, And thereupon I drew my sword on you; And then you fled into this abbey here, From whence, I think, you are come by miracle. Ant. E. I never came within these abbey walls, Nor ever didst thou draw thy sword on me: I never saw the chain, so help me heaven! And this is false you burden me withal.

Duke. Why, what an intricate impeach is this! I think all have drank of Circe's cup. you

word:

Haply I see a friend will save my life,

may

And the sum that pay deliver me. Duke. Speak freely, Syracusan, what thou wilt. Ege. Is not your name, sir, called Antipholus? And is not that your bondman, Dromio?

Dro. E. Within this hour I was his bondman, sir;

But he, I thank him, gnawed in two my cords: Now am I Drumio, and his man, unbound.

Ege. I am sure you both of you remember me.
Dro. E. Ourselves we do remember, sir, by you;

For late we were bound, as you are now.
You are not Pinch's patient, are you, sir?

I ne'er saw Syracusa in my life.

Duke. I tell thee, Syracusan, twenty years Have I been patron to Antipholus, During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa : I see thy age and dangers make thee dote. Re-enter the Abbess, with ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse, and DROMIO of Syracuse.

Abb. Most mighty Duke, behold a man much wronged. [All gather to see him, Adr. I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive

me.

Dro. E. Ay, sir? but I am sure I do not; and whatsoever a man denies, you are now bound to believe him.

Ege. Not know my voice! O time's extremity! Hast thou so cracked and splitted my poor tongue, In seven short years, that here my only son Knows not my feeble key of untuned cares? Though now this grainéd face of mine be hid In sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow, And all the conduits of my blood froze up; Yet hath my night of life some memory, My wasting lamps some fading glimmer left, My dull deaf ears a little use to hear: All these old witnesses (I cannot err) Tell me, thou art my son Antipholus.

Ant. E. I never saw my father in my life. Ege. But seven years since, in Syracusa, boy, Thou know'st we parted; but perhaps, my son, Thou sham'st to acknowledge me in misery.

Ant. E. The Duke, and all that know me in the city,

Dro. S. I, sir, am Dromio; command him away. Dro. E. I, sir, am Dromio; pray let me stay. Ant. S. Ægeon, art thou not? or else his ghost? Dro. S. O, my old master! who hath bound him here?

Abb. Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds. And gain a husband by his liberty. Speak, old geon, if thou beest the man That hadst a wife once, called Æmilia, That bore thee at a burden two fair sons: O, if thou beest the same Ægeon, speak, And speak unto the same Æmilia!

Ege. If I dream not, thou art Æmilia:
If thou art she, tell me where is that son
That floated with thee on the fatal raft?

Abb. By men of Epidamnum, he and I,
And the twin Dromio, all were taken up;
But, by and by, rude fishermen of Corinth
By force took Dromio and my son from them,
And me they left with those of Epidamnum;
What then became of them I cannot tell :
I to this fortune that you see me in.

Duke. Why here begins his morning story right.
These two Antipholuses, these two so like,
And these two Dromios, one in semblance,-
Besides her urging of her wreck at sea,—
These are the parents to these children,
Which accidentally are met together.-
Antipholus, thou cam'st from Corinth first.

Ant. S. No, sir, not I; I came from Syracuse. Duke. Stay, stand apart; I know not which is which.

Dro. E. And I with him.

Ang. I think I did, sir; I deny it not.

Adr. I sent you money, sir, to be your bail, By Dromio; but I think he brought it not.

Dro. E. No, none by me.

Ant. S. This purse of ducats I received from you,

And Dromio, my man, did bring them me.
I see we still did meet each other's man,
And I was ta'en for him, and he for me;
And thereupon these Errors are arose.

Ant. E. These ducats pawn I for my father here. Duke. It shall not need; thy father hath his life.

Cour. Sir, I must have that diamond from you. Ant. E. There, take it: and much thanks for my good cheer.

Of you, my sons; nor, till this present hour,
My heavy burdens are deliveréd.

The Duke, my husband, and my children both,
And you the calendars of their nativity!
Go to a gossip's feast, and go with me:
After so long grief, such nativity!

Duke. With all my heart, I'll gossip at this feast.

[Exeunt DUKE, Abbess, ÆGEON, Courtesan, Merchant, ANGELO, and Attendants. Dro. S. Master, shall I fetch your stuff from shipboard?

Ant. E. Dromio, what stuff of mine hast thou embarked?

Dro. S. Your goods, that lay at host, sir, in the Centaur.

Ant. S. He speaks to me. I am your master,

Dromio:

Come, go with us; we'll look to that anon:
Embrace thy brother there, rejoice with him.
[Exeunt the two ANTIPHOLUSES,
ADRIANA, and LUCIANA.
Dro. S. There is a fat friend at your master's
house,

That kitchened me for you to-day at dinner:
She now shall be my sister, not my wife.

Dro. E. Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother:

I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth.
Will you walk in to see their gossiping?

Dro. S. Not I, sir; you are my elder.
Dro. E. That's a question: how shall we try it?
Dro. S. We will draw cuts for the senior: till

Dro. E. Nay, then, thus:

We came into the world like brother and brother; And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another. [Exeunt.

"My youngest boy, and yet my eldest care,

At eighteen years became inquisitive
After his brother."- Act 1., Scene 1.

This appears to be a lapse of memory in the poet. Egeon says previously, in his account of the shipwreck:

"My wife, more careful for the latter-born,
Had fastened him unto a small spare mast,
Such as seafaring men provide for storms;
To him one of the other twins was bound,
Whilst I had been like heedful of the other."

"I from my mistress come to you in post;

If I return, I shall be post indeed ;

For she will score your fault upon my pate."

Act I., Scene 2.

A kind of rough reckoning seems to have been generally kept in a merchant's warehouse, by means of a post. In Ben Jonson's "EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOR," Kitely makes jealous inquiries of Cob concerning his wife; to which the servant replies, "If I saw anybody to be kissed, unless they would have kissed the post in the middle of the warehouse," &c. So, also, in "EVERY WOMAN IN HER HUMOR," we find:

Host. Out of my doors, knave, thou enterest not my doors. I have uo chalk in my house; my posts shall not be guarded with a little sing-song."

"Be it my wrong you are from me exempt,

But wrong not that wrong with a more contempt,
Act II., Scene 2.

Exempt is here probably used in the sense of separated or parted. In the first part of" IIENRY VI.," there is a similar use of the word:"And by his treason stand 'st thou not attainted, Corrupted and exempt from ancient gentry?"

"This is the fairy land; 0, spite of spites!

We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish sprites:
If we obey them not, this will ensue,

They'll suck our breath, or pinch us black and blue."
Act II., Scene 2.

The striges, or screech-owls, are here meant. In the Cambridge Latin Dictionary (1594), we find:-"Strix, a scritche-owl; an unluckie kind of bird (as they of old time said), which sucked out the blood of infants lying in their cradles. A witch, that changeth the fa vor of children; an hagge, or fairie." "THE LONDON PRODIGAL," a comedy (1605), also has:-"Soul, I think I am sure crossed or witched with an owl."

"Mome, malt-horse, capon," &c. Act III., Scene 1. Mome signifies a dull, stupid blockhead, a stock, a post. This owes its original to the French word momon, which signifies the gaming at dice in masquerade; the custom and rule of which is, that a strict silence is to be observed: whatever sum one stakes another covers, but not a word is to be spoken. From hence, also, comes our word "Mum" for silence.-HAWKINS.

"And doubt not, sir, but she will well excuse Why at this time the doors are made against you." Act III., Scene 2. To make the door is still a provincial phrase, signifying to bar the door.

"You have prevailed: I will depart in quiet; And in despite of mirth, mean to be merry.” Act III., Scene 1.

That is, though mirth has withdrawn herself from me, and seems determined to avoid me, yet, in despite of her, and whether she will or not, I am resolved to be merry.- HEATH.

"Let Love, being light, be drowned if she sink !”

Act III., Scene 2. Love here means the queen of love. As in " ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA:"

"Now for the love of Love and her soft hours." And, more appositely, in "VENUS AND ADONIS," Venus says, speak ing of herself: -

"Love is a spirit all compact of fire,

Not gross to sink, but light, and will aspire."

"ANT. S. Where France?

Allusion is here supposed to be made to the war of the League against Henry IV. of France, which was terminated, in 1593, by Henry's renunciation of the Protestant faith. In 1591, Elizabeth sent over four thousand men to his assistance, under the Earl of Essex. The present play was probably written about the same period.

" And, I think, if my breast had not been made of faith, and my heart of steel,

She had transformed me to a curtail-dog, and made me turn i' the wheel."-Act III., Scene 2.

It was a popular belief that a great share of faith was a protection from witchcraft. These lines are usually printed as prose; but we adopt the opinion of a contemporary, that they were intended for doggerel rhyme.

"Where Dowsabel did claim me for her husband."

Act IV., Scene 1.

This name occurs in one of Drayton's Pastorals:"He had, as antique stories tell, A daughter cleped Dowsabel."

"What observation mad'st thou in this case, Of his heart's meteors tilling in his face."

Act IV., Scene 2.

This is an allusion to those meteors which, in more superstitious times, were sometimes thought to resemble armies meeting in the shock of battle. The same thought occurs in " HENRY IV.," Part 1., speaking of civil wars:

"Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,

All of one nature, of one substance bred,

Did lately meet in the intestine shock

And furious close of civil butchery."

"A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough."— Act IV., Scene 2. There were faries, like hobgoblins, pitiless and rough, and described as malevolent and mischievous. As in Milton's "COMUS:"

"No goblin, or swart fairy of the mine,
Hath hurtfold power o'er true virginity."

“A hound that runs counter and yet draws dry-foot well.”
Act IV., Scene 2.

To run counter, is to run backward, by mistaking the course of the animal pursued. To draw dry-foot, is when the dog pursues the game by the scent of the foot, for which the bloodhound is famed. The jest consists in the ambiguity of the word counter, which means the wrong way in the chase, and a prison in London. In "EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOR," Brainworm says, "Well, the truth is, my old master intends to follow my young master, dry-foot, over Moorfields to London this morning."

"One that, before the judgment, carries poor souls to hell.”

Act IV., Scene 2. The arrest here spoken of is that upon mesne process, now abolished. Hell appears to have been the cant term for a dungeon in any of our prisons. It is also said to have been the designation of a place of confinement under the Exchequer Chamber, for debtors of the crown.

"I do not know the matter; he is 'rested on the case." Act IV., Scene 2. An action upon the case is a general action given for the redress of a wrong done any man without force, and not especially provided for by law.-GREY.

"Tell me, was he arrested on a band?"— Act IV., Scene 2. Band is here used in the sense of bond; it also signifies a neckcloth; hence the equivoque arises.

"What, have you got rid of the picture of old Adam new apparal

"As when, to warn proud cities, war appears
Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush
To battle in the clouds, before each van

Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears,
Till thickest legions close. With feats of arms
From either end of Heaven the welkin burns."

"Stigmatical in making, worse in mind."— Act IV., Sceno 2. That is, marked or stigmatized by nature with deformity, as a token of his vicious disposition.

"Far from her nest the lapwing cries away.”

Act IV., Scene 2. This image is frequent in writers of the same period. Shakspeare has it again in "MEASURE FOR MEASURE," Act I., Scene 5:

"With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest
Tongue far from heart."

In Lily's "CAMPASPE" (1584), we have, "You resemble the lapwing who crioth most where her nest is not."

“A devil in an everlasting garment hath him.”

Act IV., Scene 2.

The two words "rid of" were inserted by Theobald, and on sufficient ground, as it seems to us. His reasons are thus stated by himself:-"A short word or two must have slipped out by some accident, in copying, or at press; otherwise I have no conception of the meaning of the passage. The case is this: Dromio's master had been arrested, and sent his servant home for money to redeem him; he, running back with the money, meets the twin Antipholus, whom he mistakes for his master, and seeing him clear of the officer before the money was come, he cries, in a surprise, 'What, have you got rid of the picture of old Adam new apparaled?' for so I have ventured to supply by conjecture.

"But why is the officer called 'Old Adam new apparaled?' The allusion is to Adam in his state of innocence going naked, and immediately after the fall being clothed in a frock of skins. Thus he was new apparaled; and, in like manner, the sergeants of the Counter were formerly clad in buff, or calf's-skin, as the author humorously a little lower calls it."

Similar allusions to Adam's primitive suit are frequent in the old writers.

"And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?" There is a particular kind of stuff, worn by the working classes,

As for prophesying like the parrot, this alludes to people's teaching that bird unlucky words; with which, when any passenger was of fended, it was the standing joke of the wise owner to say, 'Take heed, sir, my parrot prophesies." In support of his explanation, War