Enter DROMIO of Ephesus. Here comes the almanack of my true date.- late: The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit; The meat is cold, because you come not home; Ant. S. Stop in your wind, sir; tell me this, I pray; Where have you left the money that I gave you? Dro. E. O,-six-pence, that I had o'Wednesday last, To pay the saddler for my mistress' crupper;- Ant. S. I am not in a sportive humour now: 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, · I shall be post indeed; For she will score your fault upon my pate.] Perhaps, before writing was a general accomplishment, a kind of rough reckoning, concerning wares issued out of a shop, was kept by chalk or notches on a post, till it could be entered on the books of a trader. And strike you home without a messenger. Ant. S. Come, Dromio, come, these jests are out of season; Reserve them till a merrier hour than this: Where is the gold I gave in charge to thee? Dro. E. To me, sir? why you gave no gold to me. Ant. S. Come on, sir knave; have done your foolishness, And tell me, how thou hast dispos'd thy charge. Dro. E. My charge was but to fetch you from the mart Home to your house, the Phoenix, sir, to dinner; My mistress, and her sister, stay for you. Ant. S. Now, as I am a christian, answer me, Some of my mistress' marks upon my shoulders, Ant. S. Thy mistress' marks! what mistress, slave, hast thou? Dro. E. Your worship's wife, my mistress at the Phoenix; 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. 7 — that merry sconce of yours,] Sconce is head. Dro. E. What mean you, sir? for God's sake, hold your hands; Nay, an you will not, sir, I'll take my heels. [Exit DRO. E. Ant. S. Upon my life, by some device or other, The villain is o'er-raught of all my money. They say, this town is full of cozenage;9 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 :1 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. [Exit. ACT II. SCENE I. A publick Place. 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: o'er-raught-] That is, over-reached. 9 They say, this town is full of cozenage;] This was the character the ancients give of it. Hence 'Erä λızıpαgμana was proverbial amongst them. Thus Menander uses it, and 'EQ rgawwara, in the same sense. WARBURTON. 1 liberties of sin:] By liberties of sin, Shakspeare perhaps means licensed offenders, such as mountebanks, fortune-tellers, &c. who cheat with impunity. A man is master of his liberty: Time is their master; and, when they see time, Adr. Why should their liberty than ours be more? Luc. Because their business still lies out o'door. There's nothing, situate under heaven's eye, Adr. This servitude makes you to keep unwed. some sway. Luc. Ere I learn love, I'll practise to obey. Adr. How if your husband start some other where?3 Luc. Till he come home again, I would forbear. 2 Adr. There's none, but asses, will be bridled so. Luc. Why, headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe.] Should it not rather be leash'd, i. e. coupled like a headstrong hound? Or perhaps the meaning of this passage may be, that those who refuse the bridle must bear the lash, and that woe is the punishment of headstrong liberty. Mr. M. Mason inclines to leashed. 3 start some other where?] I suspect that where has here the power of a noun. The sense is, How, if your husband fly off in pursuit of some other woman? Adr. Patience, unmov'd, no marvel though she pause ;* They can be meek, that have no other cause." But were we burden'd with like weight of pain, Luc. Well, I will marry one day, but to try;Here comes your man, now is your husband nigh. Enter DROMIO of Ephesus. Adr. Say, is your tardy master now at hand? Dro. E. Nay, he is at two hands with me, and that my two ears can witness. Adr. Say, didst thou speak with him? know'st thou his mind? Dro. E. Ay, ay, he told his mind upon mine ear: Beshrew his hand, I scarce could understand it. Luc. Spake he so doubtfully, thou couldst not feel his meaning? Dro. E. Nay, he struck so plainly, I could too well feel his blows; and withal so doubtfully, that I could scarce understand them.8 though she pause;] To pause is to rest, to be in quiet. 5 They can be meek, that have no other cause.] That is, who have no cause to be otherwise. With urging helpless patience-] By exhorting me to patience, which affords no help. 7-fool-begg'd-] She seems to mean, by fool-begg'd patience, that patience which is so near to idiotical simplicity, that your next relation would take advantage from it to represent you as a fool, and beg the guardianship of your fortune. that I could scarce understand them.] i. e. that I could scarce stand under them. This quibble, poor as it is, seems to have been a favourite with Shakspeare. |