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11)

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A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd, After his brother; and importun'd me
Before the always-wind-obeying deep

That his attendant-so his case was like,
Gave any tragic instance of our harm :

Reft of his brother, but retain'd his nameBut longer did we not retain much hope ; Might bear him company in the quest of him ; For what obscured light the heavens did grant Whom whilst I labour'd of a love to see, Did but convey unto our fearful minds

I hazarded the loss of whom I lov'd. A doubtful warrant of immediate death; Five summers have I spent in furthest Greece, Which, though myself would gladly have em- Roaming clean through the bounds of Asia, brac'd,

And, coasting homeward, came to Ephesus, Yet the incessant weepings of my wife, 70 Hopeless to find, yet loath to leave unsought Weeping before for what she saw must come, Or that or any place that harbours men. And piteous plainings of the pretty babes, But there must end the story of my life; That mourn'd for fashion, ignorant what to fear, And happy were I in my timely death, Forc'd me to seek delays for them and me. Could all my travels warrant me they live. And this it was, for other means was none: Duke. Hapless Ægeon, whom the fates have The sailors sought for safety by our boat,

mark'd And left the ship, then sinking-ripe, to us: To bear the extremity of dire mishap! My wife, more careful for the latter-born, Now, trust me, were it not against our laws, Had fasten'd him unto a small spare mast, Against my crown, my oath, my dignity Such as seafaring men provide for storms; Which princes, would they, may not disannul, To him one of the other twins was bound, My soul should sue as advocate for thee. Whilst I had been like heedful of the other. But though thou art adjudged to the death, The children thus dispos'd, my wife and I, And passed sentence may not be recallid Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix'd, But to our honour's great disparagement, Fasten'd ourselves at either end the mast; Yet will I favour thee in what I can : And floating straight, obedient to the stream, Therefore, merchant, I'll limit thee this day 150 Were carried towards Corinth, as we thought. To seek thy life by beneficial help: At length the sun, gazing upon the earth, Try all the friends thou hast in Ephesus ; Dispers'd those vapours that offended us, Beg thou, or borrow, to make up the sum, And by the benefit of his wished light

And live ; if no, then thou art doom'd to die. The seas wax'd calm, and we discovered Gaoler, take him to thy custody. Two ships from far making amain to us;

Gaol. I will, my lord. Of Corinth that, of Epidaurus this:

Æge. Hopeless and helpless doth Ægeon wend, But ere they came,--01 let me say no more ; But to procrastinate his lifeless end, Ereunt, Gather the sequel by that went before. Duke. Nay, forward, old man; do not break

SCENE II.--The Mart. For we may pity, though not pardon thee.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse, DROMIO of Ege. O! had the gods done so, I had not now

Syracuse, and a Merchant. Worthily term'd them merciless to us,

Mer. Therefore, giveout you are of Epidamnum, For, ere the ships could meet by twice five Lest that your goods too soon be confiscate. leagues,

100 This very day, a Syracusian merchant We were encounter'd by a mighty rock; Is apprehended for arrival here; Which being violently borne upon,

And not being able to buy out his life, Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst ; According to the statute of the town So that in this unjust divorce of us

Dies ere the weary sun set in the west. Fortune had left to both of us alike

There is your money that I had to keep. What to delight in, what to sorrow for.

Ant. S. Go bear it to the Centaur, where we Her part, poor soul ! seeming as burdened

host, With lesser weight, but not with lesser woe, And stay there, Dromio, till I come to thee. Was carried with more speed before the wind, Within this hour it will be dinner-time: And in our sight they three were taken up 110 Till that, I'll view the manners of the town, By fishermen of Corinth, as we thought. Peruse the traders, gaze upon the buildings, At length another ship had seized on us; And then return and sleep within mine inn, And, knowing whom it was their lap to save, For with long travel I am stiff and weary. Gave healthful welcome to their shipwreck'd Get thee away. guests;

Dro. S. Many a man would take you at your And would have reft the fishers of their prey, word, Had not their bark been very slow of sail; And go indeed, having so good a mean. Eril. And therefore homeward did they bend their Ant. S. A trusty villain, sir, that very oft, course.

When I am dull with care and melancholy, Thus have you heard me sever'd from my bliss, Lightens my humour with his merry jests. That by misfortunes was my life prolong'd, What, will you walk with me about the town, To tell sad stories of my own mishaps. 120 And then go to my inn and dine with me? Duke. And, for the sake of them thou sorrow- Mer. I am invited, sir, to certain merchants, est for,

Of whom I hope to make much benefit; Do me the favour to dilate at full

I crave your pardon. Soon at five o'clock, What hath befall'n of them and thee till now. Please you, I'll meet with yon upon the mart,

£ge. My youngest boy, and yet my eldest care, And afterwards consort you till bed-time: At eighteen years became inquisitive

My present business calls me from you now.

off so;

10

20

Ant. S. Farewell till then: I will go lose myself,
And wander up and down to view the city.
Mer. Sir, I commend you to your own content.
Exit.
Ant. S. He that commends me to mine own

content

Commends me to the thing I cannot get.
I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop;
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself:
So I, to find a mother and a brother,
In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.
Enter DROMIO of Ephesus.

31

Dro. E. Your worship's wife, my mistress at the Phoenix;

91

She that doth fast till you come home to dinner,
And prays that you will hie you home to dinner.
Ant. S. What wilt thou flout me thus unto
my face,
Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.
Strikes him.
Dro. E. What mean you, sir? for God's sake,
hold your hands.

40 Nay, an you will not, sir, I'll take my heels. Exit.
Ant. S. Upon my life, by some device or other
The villain is o'erraught of all my money.
They say this town is full of cozenage;
As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,
Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,
Soul-killing witches that deform the body,
Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many such like liberties of sin :
If it prove so, I will be gone the sooner.
I'll to the Centaur, to go seek this slave:
I greatly fear my money is not safe.

Here comes the almanac of my true date.
What now? How chance thou art return'd so
soon?

Dro. E. Return'd so soon! rather approach'd
too late.

The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit,
The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell;
My mistress made it one upon my cheek:
She is so hot because the meat is cold;
The meat is cold because you come not home;
You come not home because you have no stomach;
You have no stomach having broke your fast; 50
But we that know what 'tis to fast and pray
Are penitent for your default to-day.

Ant. S. Stop in your wind, sir. Tell me this,
I pray:

Where have you left the money that I gave you?
Dro, E. Ol--sixpence, that I had o Wednes-
day last

To pay the saddler for my mistress' crupper;
The saddler had it, sir; I kept it not.

Ant. S. I am not in a sportive humour now,
Tell me, and dally not, where is the money?
We being strangers here, how dar'st thou trust
So great a charge from thine own custody?

Dro. E. I pray you, jest, sir, as you sit at dinner.
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.
Methinks, your maw, like mine, should be your
clock

61

Ant. S. Thy mistress' marks! what mistress, slave, hast thou?

Ant. S. Now, as I am a Christian, answer me, In what safe place you have bestow'd my money; Or I shall break that merry sconce of yours That stands on tricks when I am undispos'd. 80 Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me? Dro. E. 1 have some marks of yours upon my

200

Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I.-The House of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.
Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA,

Adr. Neither my husband nor the slave return'd,
That in such haste I sent to seek his master !
Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock.

Luc. Perhaps some merchant hath invited him,
And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner.
Good sister, let us dine and never fret:
A man is master of his liberty:

Time is their master, and, when they see time,
They'll go or come: if so, be patient, sister.

Adr. Why should their liberty than ours be
more?

10

Luc. Because their business still lies out o'
door.

Adr. Look, when I serve him so, he takes it ill.
Luc. O know he is the bridle of your will.
Adr. There's none but asses will be bridled so.
Luc. Why, headstrong liberty is lash'd with

woe.

20

There's nothing situate under heaven's eye
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky:
The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls,
Are their males' subjects and at their controls.
Men, more divine, the masters of all these,
Lords of the wide world, and wild wat'ry seas,
Indued with intellectual sense and souls,
Of more pre-eminence than fish and fowls,
Are masters to their females, and their lords:
Then let your will attend on their accords.

Adr. This servitude makes you to keep unwed.
Luc. Not this, but troubles of the marriage bed.
Adr. But, were you wedded, you would bear

some sway.

Luc. Ere I learn love, I'll practise to obey. Adr. How if your husband start some other where?

3)

Adr. Horn-mad, thou villain!

Dro. E. I mean not cuckold-mad; but, sure, I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die.

he is stark mad.

Luc. How many foud fools serve mad jealousy!
Exeunt.

101

110

VOW

Do use you for my fool and chat with you, Ant. S. Nay, not sound, I pray you.
Your sauciness will jet upon my love,

Dro. S. Sure ones then.
And make a common of my serious hours.

Ant. S. Nay, not sure, in a thing falsing.
When the sun shines let foolish goats make sport, Dro. S. Certain ones then,
But creep in crannies when he hides his beams. Ant. S. Name them.
If you will jest with me, know my aspect,

Dro, S. The one, to save the money that he And fashion your demeanour to my looks, spends in tiring; the other, that at dinner they Or I will beat tbis method in your sconce. should not drop in his porridge.

Dro. S. Sconce call you it ? so you would leave Ant. S. You would all this time have proved battering, I had rather have it a head : an yon there is no time for all things. use these blows long, I must get a sconce for Dro. S. Marry, and did, sir; namely, no time my head and ensconce it too; or else I shall to recover hair lost by nature. seek my wit in my shoulders. But, I pray, sir, Ant. S. But your reason was not substantial, why am I beaten ?

4) why there is no time to recover. Ant. S. Dost thou not know?

Dro. S. Thus I mend it: Time himself is bald, Dro. S. Nothing, sir, but that I am beaten. and therefore to the world's end will have bale Ant. S. Shall I tell you why?

followers. Dro. S. Ay, sir, and wherefore ; for, they say, Ant. $. I knew 'twould be a bald conclusion : every why hath a wherefore,

But soft! who wafts us yonder ? Ant. S. Why, first,--for flouting me; and, then, wherefore, -

Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA. For urging it the second time to me.

Adr. Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and Dro. S. Was there ever any man thus beaten frown: out of season,

Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects, When, in the why and the wherefore is neither I am not Adriana nor thy wife. rime nor reason ?

The time was once when thou unurg'd would'st Well, sir, I thank you. Ant. S. Thank me, sir! for what?

That never words were music to thine ear, Dro. S. Marry, sir, for this something, that That never object pleasing in thine eye, you gave me for nothing.

That never touch well welcome to thy hand, Ant. S. I'll make you amends next, to give That never meat sweet-savour'd in thy taste, 120 you nothing for something. But say, sir, is it Unless I spake, or look’d, or touch'd, or carv'd dinner-time?

to thee. Dro. S. No, sir : I think the meat wants that How comes it now, my husband, O! how comes it, I have.

That thou art thus estranged from thyself? Ant. S. In good time, sir ; what's that ? Thyself I call it, being strange to me, Dro. S. Basting

60 That, undividable, incorporate, Ant. S. Well, sir, then 'twill be dry.

Am better than thy dear self's better part. Dro. S. If it be, sir, I pray you eat none of it. Ah! do not tear away thyself from me, Ant. S. Your reason ?

For know, my love, as easy may'st thou fall Dro. S. Lest it make you choleric, and pur. A drop of water in the breaking gulf, chase me another dry basting.

And take unmingled thence that drop again, iso An'. S. Well, sir, learn to jest in good time: Without addition or diminishing, there's a time for all things.

As take from me thyself and not me too. Dro. S. I durst have denied that, before you How dearly would it touch thee to the quick, were so choleric.

Should'st thou but hear I were licentious, Ant. S. By what rule, sir ?

70 And that this body, consecrate to thee, Dro. S. Marry, sir, by a rule as plain as the By ruffian lust should be contaminate! plain bald pate of Father Time himself.

Would'st thou not spit at me, and spurn at me, Ant. S. Let's hear it.

And hurl the name of husband in my face, Dro. S. There's no time for a man to recover And tear the stain'd skin off my harlot-brow, his bair that grows bald by nature.

And from my false hand cut the wedding-ring, 140 Ant. S. May he not do it by fine and recovery? And break it with a deep-divorcing vow?

Dro. S. Yes, to pay a fine for a periwig and I know thou canst ; and therefore see thou do it. recover the lost hair of another man.

I am possess'd with an adulterate blot ; Ant. S. Why is Time such a niggard of hair, My blood is mingled with the crime of lust: being, as it is, so plentiful an excrement ? 8.) For if we two be one and thou play false,

Dro. S. Because it is a blessing that he be- I do digest the poison of thy flesh, stows on beasts : and what he hath scanted men Being strumpeted by thy contagion. in hair he hath given them in wit.

Keep then fair league and truce with thy true Ant. S. Why, but there's many a man hath bed; more hair than wit.

I live distain'd, thou undishonoured. Dro. S. Not a man of those but he hath the Ant. S. Plead you to me, fair dame? I know wit to lose his hair.

Ant. S. Why, thou didst conclude hairy men In Ephesus I am but two hours old, plain dealers without wit.

As strange unto your town as to your talk; Dro. S. The plainer dealer, the sooner lost : Who, every word by all my wit being scann'a, yet he loseth it in a kinel of jollity.

Want wit in all one word to understand. Ant. S. For what reason ?

Luc. Fie, brother: how the world is chang'd Dro. S. For two; and sound ones too.

with you!

you not.

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170

180

10

When were you wont to use my sister thus ? Ant. S. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell ?
She sent for you by Dromio home to dinner. Sleeping or waking ? mad or well-advis'd ?
Ant. S. By Dromio ?

Known unto these, and to myself disguis'd ! Dro. S. By me?

I'll say as they say, and persever so, Adr. By thee; and this thou didst return And in this mist at all adventures go. from him,

Dro. S. Master, shall I be porter at the gate ? That he did buffet thee, and in bis blows

Adr. Ay; and let none enter, lest I break your Denied my house for his, me for his wife,

pate. Ant. S. Did you converse, sir, with this gentle- Luc. Come, come, Antipholus ; we dine too woman?

late.

Excunt. What is the course and drift of your compact ? Dro. S. I, sir? I never saw her till this time.

ACT III.
Ant. S. Villain, thou liest ; for even her very
words

SCENE I.-A public Place.
Didst thou deliver to me on the mart.
Dro. S. I never spake with her in all my life.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus, DROMIO of

Ephesus, ANGELO, and BALTHAZAR. Ant. S. How can she thus then call us by our names,

Ant. E. Good Signior Angelo, you must excuse Unless it be by inspiration ?

us all ; Adr. How ill agrees it with your gravity My wife is shrewish when I keep not hours. To counterfeit thus grossly with your slave, Say that I linger'd with you at your shop Abetting him to thwart me in my mood ! To see the making of her carcanet, Be it my wrong, you are from me exempt, And that to-morrow you will bring it home. But wrong not that wrong with a more contempt. But here's a villain that would face me down Come, I will fasten on this sleeve of tbine; He met me on the mart, and that I beat him, Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine,

And charg'd him with a thousand marks in gold, Whose weakness, married to thy stronger state, And that I did deny my wife and house. Makes me with thy strength to communicate: Thou drunkard, thou, what didst thou mean by If aught possess thee from me, it is dross,

this? U'surping ivy, brier, or idle moss;

Dro. E, Say what you will, sir, but I know Who, all for want of pruning, with intrusion

what I know; Infect thy sap and live on thy confusion. That you beat me at the mart, I have your hand Ant. S. To me she speaks ; she moves me for to show : her theme!

If the skin were parchment and the blows you What! was I married to her in my dream,

gave were ink, Or sleep I now and think I hear all this? Your own handwriting would tell you what I What error drives our eyes and ears amiss ?

think. Until I know this sure uncertainty,

Ant. E. I think thou art an ass. I'll entertain the offer'd fallacy.

Dro. E.

Marry, so it doth appear Luc. Dromio, go bid the servants spread for By the wrongs I suffer and the blows I bear. dinner.

190 I should kick, being kick'd; and being at that Dro. S. O, for my beads! Icross me for a sinner. pass, This is the fairy land : 01 spite of spites, You would keep from my heels and beware of We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish sprites. If we obey them not, this will ensue,

Ant. E. You are sad, Signior Balthazar: pray They'll suckour breath, or pinch us black and blue. God, our cheer Luc. Why prat'st thou to thyself and answer'st May answer my good will and your good welnot ?

come here. Dromio, thou drone, thou snail, thou slug, thou Bal, I hold your dainties cheap, sir, and your sot!

welcome dear. Dro. S. I am transformed, master, am I not? Ant. E. O Signior Balthazar, either at flesh or Ant. S. I think thou art, in mind, and so am I. fish, Dro. S. Nay, master, both in mind and in my A table-full of welcome makes scarce one dainty shape.

dish. Ant. S. Thou hast thine own form.

Bal. Good meat, sir, is common; that every Dro. S.

No, I am an ape.

churl affords. Luc. If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an ass. Ant. E. And welcome more common, for that's Dro. S. 'Tis true; she rides me and I long for nothing but words. grass.

Bal. Small cheer and great welcome makes a 'Tis so, I am an ass ; else it could never be But I should know her as well as she knows me. Ant. E. Ay, to a niggardly host and more

Adr. Come, come; no longer will I be a fool, sparing guest : To put the finger in the eye and weep,

But though my cates be mean, take them in good Whilst man and master laugh my woes to scorn. part; Come, sir, to dinner. Dromio, keep the gate. Better cheer may you have, but not with better Husband, I 'll dine above with you to-day,

heart. And shrive you of a thousand idle pranks. But soft! my door is lock’d. Go bid them let Sirrah, if any ask you for your master, Say he dines forth, and let no creature enter, Dro. E. Maud, B:idget, Marian, C'icely, Gillian, Come, sister. Dromio, play the porter well.

Jen!

an ass.

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merry feast.

210

us in.

30