Prin. Great thanks, great Pompey. Cost. 'Tis not so much worth; but, I hope, I was perfect: I made a little fault in, great. Biron. My hat to a halfpenny, Pompey proves the best worthy. Enter NATHANIEL arm'd, for Alexander. By east, west, north, and south, I spread my Biron. Your nose smells, no, in this, most Prin. The conqueror is dismay'd; Proceed, good Alexander. Nath. When in the world I liv'd, I was the Boyet. Most true, 'tis right; you were so, Biron. Pompey the great. Cost. Your servant, and Costárd. Biron. Take away the conqueror, take away Alisander. Enter ARMADO armed, for Hector. Biron. Hide thy head, Achilles; here comes Hector in arms. Dum. Though my mocks come home by me, I will now be merry. King. Hector was but a Trojan in respect of this. Boyct. But is this Hector ? Dum. I think, Hector was not so clean. Long. His leg is too big for Hector. Boyet. No; he is best indued in the small. Dum. He's a god or a painter: for he makes faces. Cost. O Sir, [To NATH.] you have over-timber'd. thrown Alisander the conqueror! You will be scraped out of the painted cloth for this: your lion, that holds his poll-ax sitting on a closestool, will be given to A-jax: he will be the ninth worthy. A conqueror, and afeard to speak! run away for shamne, Alisander. [NATH. retires.] There, an't shall please you; a foolish mild man ; an honest man, look you, and soon dash'd! He is a marvellous good neighbour, insooth; and a very good bowler: but, for Alisander, alas, you see, how 'tis ;-a little o'erparted :-But there are worthies a coming will speak their mind in some other sort. Prin. Stand aside, good Pompey. Enter HOLOFERNES armed, for Judas, and Hol. Great Hercules is presented by this Whose club kill'd Cerberus, that three- And, when he was a babe, a child, a shrimp, Arm. The armipotent Mars, of lances the Dum. No, cloven. Arm. Peace. The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty, From morn till night, out of his pavalion. Dum. That mint. Long. That columbine. Arm. Sweet lord Longaville, rein thy tongue. Long. I must rather give it the rein; for it runs against Hector. Dum. Ay, and Hector's a greyhound. Arm. The sweet war-man is dead and rotten; sweet chucks, beat not the bones of the buried: when he breath'd, he was a man-But I will forward with my device: Sweet royalty, [to the PRINCESS.] bestow on me the sense of hearing. [BIRON whispers COSTARD. Prin. Speak, brave Hector; we are much delighted. Arm. I do adore thy sweet grace's slipper. Dum. He may not by the yard. Arm. This Hector ja surmounted Hanni. bal, • A soldier's powder-horn. † An ornamental buckle for fastening hat-hauds, &c. : Lance-men. Cost. The party is gone, fellow Hector, she Forbid the smiling courtesy of love, is gone; she is two months on her way. Arm. What meanest thou? Cost. Faith, unless you play the honest Trojan, the poor wench is cast away: she's quick; the child brags in her belly already; 'tis yours. Arm. Dost thou intamonize me among potentates? thou shalt die. Cost. Then shall Hector be whipp'd, for Jaquenetta that is quick by him; and hang'd, for Pompey that is dead by him. Dum. Most rare Pompey! The holy suit which fain it would convince; Biron. Honest plain words best pierce the ear And by these badges understand the king. Biron. Greater than great, great, great, great Play'd foul play with our oaths; your beauty ladies, Pompey, Pompey the huge! Dum. Hector trembles. Hath much deform'd us, fashioning our hours Biron. Pompey is mov'd :-More Ates,* more And what in us hath seem'd ridículous,— Dum. Hector will challenge him. Biron. Ay, if he have no more man's blood in's belly than will sup a flea. As love is full of unbefitting strains: Arm. By the north pole, I do challenge thee. Dum, Most resolute Pompey! Arm. Gentlemen, and soldiers, pardon me; I will not conibat in my shirt. Dum. You may not deny it; Pompey hath made the challenge. Arm. Sweet bloods, I both may and will, Boyet. True, and it was enjoin'd him in Rome for want of linen since when, I'll be sworn, he wore none, but a dish-clout of Jaquenetta's; and that 'a wears next his heart, for a favour. Enter MERCADE. Mer. God save you, madam! Prin. Welcome, Mercade; But that thou interrupt'st our merriment. Which party-coated presence of loose love Prin. We have receiv'd your letters fall of Your favours, the ambassadors of love; In their own fashion, like a merriment. Long. So did our looks. Ros. We did not quote them so. King. Now, at the latest minute of the hour, Mier. I am sorry, madam; for the news 1 Grant us your loves. bring, Prin. A time methinks, too short Is heavy in my tongue. The king your father-To make a world-without-end bargain in ; Mer. Even so; my tale is told. Arm. For mine own part, I breathe free breath: I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier. [Exeunt Worthies. King. How fares your majesty? For all your fair endeavours; and entreat, All causes to the purpose of his speed; No, no, my lord, your grace is perjur'd much Change not your offer made in heat of blood: Nip not the gaudy blossoms of our love, King. If this, or more than this, I would dest, You are attaint with faults and perjury; Dum. But to what to me, my love? but what to me? Kath. A wife !-A beard, fair health, and honesty; With three-fold love I wish you all these three. Dum. O shall I say, I thank you, gentle wife? Kath. Not so, my lord;-a twelvemonth and a day I'll mark no words that smooth-fac'd wooers say: Come when the king doth to my lady come, Kath. Yet swear not, lest you be fors worn again. Long. What says Maria? Mar. At the twelvemonth's end, I'll change my black gown for a faithful friend. Long. I'll stay with patience; but the time is long. Mar. The liker you; few taller are so young. Biron. Studies my lady? mistress, look on me, Behold the window of my heart, mine eye. What humble suit attends thy answer there; Impose some service on me for thy love. Ros. Oft have I heard of you, my lord Birón, Before I saw you and the world's large tongue Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks; Full of comparisons and wounding flouts; Which you on all estates will execute, That lie within the mercy of your wit: To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain; And, therewithal, to win me, if you please, (Without the which I am not to be won,) You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day Visit the speechless sick, and still converse With all the fierce endeavour of your wit, It cannot be; it is impossible: Ros. Why, that's the way to choke a gibing spirit, Whose influence is begot of that loose grace, Of him that hears it, never in the tongue King. Come, Sir, it wants a twelvemonth and a day, And then 'twill end. Biron. That's too long for a play. Enter ARMADO. Arm. Sweet majesty, vouchsafe me,Prin. Was not that Hector ? Dum. The worthy knight of Troy. Arm. I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave: I am a votary; I have vow'd to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her sweet love three years. But most esteemed greatness, will you hear the dialogue that the two learned meu have compiled, in praise of the owl and the cuckoo ? it should have follow'd in the end of our show. King. Call them forth quickly, we will do so. Arm. Holla! approach. Enter HOLOFERNES, NATHANIEL, MOTH, This side is hyems, winter; this Ver, the spring; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the cuckoo. Ver, begin. SONG. Spring. When dasies pied, and violets blue, And lady-smocks all silver white, And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue, Do paint the meadows with delight, Cuckoo, cuckoo,-O word of fear, II. When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks. When turtles tread and, rooks and daws, And maidens bleach their summer smocks, The cuckoo then, on every tree, Cuckoo, cuckoo,-O word of fear, III. Winter. When icicles hang by the wall, And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, And Tom bears logs into the hall, And milk comes frozen home in pail. When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul, Then nightly sings the staring owl, To-who; To-whit, to-who, a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. IV. When all aloud the wind doth blow. And birds sits brooding in the snow, To-whit, to-who, a merry note. way. • Cool. Exeunt. + Wild apples. COMEDY OF ERRORS. LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE. THE Menaechmi of Plautus (translated by an anonymous author in 1595,) furnished Shakspeare with the precipal incidents of this play. It is one of his earliest productions. Stevens thinks that the piece is nac entirely of his writing. The singularity of the plot gives occasion to many amusing perplexities; but they are repeated till they become wearisome, and varied till they become unintelligible. Were it possible to precure in the representation, two Dromios, or two Antipholus's, of whom one should be exactly the counterpart of the other, no powers of perception or of memory, would enable an audience to carry their recollection of each individual beyond the termination of a second act. The very facility of invention with which the tsembling individuals are made to puzzle and to thwart each other, would so confound the senses of a spectator, that he would soon be as much bewildered as the parties themselves: whereas the zest of the entertainment depends upon his being able accurately to retain the personal identity of each; without which, he may be involved in the intricacy, but cannot enjoy the humour, occasioned by similarity of person, and contrariety of purpose. Mr. Stevens has justly observed, that this comedy "exhibits more intricacy of plot than IS tion of character; and that attention is not actively engaged, since every one can tell how the descurarst will be effected." ACT I. SCENE 1.-A Hall in the DUKE's Palace. Ege. Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall, Excludes all pity from our threat'ning looks. Name of a coin. Nay, more, If any, born at Ephesus, be seen My woes end likewise with the evening sun. Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence, And by me too, had not our hap been bad. other, As could not be distinguish'd but by names. the A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd, Yet the incessant weepings of my wife, For we may pity, though not pardon thee. We were encounter'd by a mighty rock; five : lesser Weight, but not with lesser woe, Was carned with more speed before the wind; And in our sight they three were taken up By fishermen of Corinth, as we thought." • Natural affection. At length, another ship had seiz'd on us; And would have reft the fishers of their prey, course. Thus have you heard me sever'd from my bliss ; Duke. And, for the sake of them thou sorrowest for, Do me the favour to dilate at full At eighteen years became inquisitive After his brother; and impórtun'd me, mark'd To bear the extremity of dire mishap! Try all the friends thou hast in Ephesus; Jail. I will, my lord. Ege. Hopeless, and helpless, doth geon wend, But to procrastinate his lifeless end. [Ercunt. SCENE II-A public Place. Enter ANTIPHOLUS and DROMIO of Syracuse, and a MERCHANT. Mer. Therefore, give out you are of Epidamnum, Lest that your goods too soon be confiscate. Ant. S. Go bear it to the Centaur, where we host, And stay there, Dromio, till I come to thee. Dro. S. Many a man would take you at your word, And go indeed, having so good a mean. [Exit DRO. S. |