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I should kick, being kick'd; and, being at that pass, You would keep from my heels, and beware of an ass. Ant. E. You are sad, 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 wel

come dear.

Ant. E. O, signior Balthazar, either at flesh or fish, A table full of welcome makes scarce one dainty dish. Bal. Good meat, sir, is common; that every churl

affords.

Ant. E. And welcome more common; for that's nothing but words. Bal. Small cheer, and great welcome, makes a merry feast.

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

guest:

But though my cates be mean, take them in good part; Better cheer may you have, but not with better heart. But, soft; my door is lock'd; Go bid them let us in. Dro. E. Maud, Bridget, Marian, Cicely, Gillian, Jen'! Dro. S. [within] Mome, malt-horse, capon, coxcomb,

idiot, patch!

Either get thee from the door, or sit down at the hatch:

:

Mr. Theobald, instead of doth, reads-don't. Malone. I do not think this emendation necessary. He first says, that his wrongs and blows prove him an ass; but immediately, with a correction of his former sentiment, such as may be hourly observed in conversation, he observes that, if he had been an ass, he should, when he was kicked, have kicked again. Johnson.

5 Mome,] 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.

So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630:

"Important are th' affairs we have in hand;
"Hence with that Mome!"

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Brutus, forbear the presence." Steevens. 6-patch!] i. e. fool. Alluding to the parti-coloured coats

worn by the licensed fools or jesters of the age. So, in Macbeth:

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what soldiers, patch?"

See notes on A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III, sc. ii, and

The Merchant of Venice, Act I, sc. i. Steevens.

4

:

Dost thou conjure for wenches, that thou call'st for such

store,

When one is one too many? Go, get thee from the door. Dro. E. What patch is made our porter? My master stays in the street.

Dro. S. Let him walk from whence he came, lest he

catch cold on 's feet.

Ant. E. Who talks within there? ho, open the door. Dro. S. Right, sir, I'll tell you when, an you 'll tell

me wherefóre.

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

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

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

Dro. S. The porter for this time, sir, and my name is Dromio.

Dro. E. O villain, thou hast stolen both mine office and my name;

The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame. If thou had'st been Dromio to-day in my place,

Thou would'st have chang'd thy face for a name, or thy

name for an ass." aface

Luce. [within] What a coil is there! Dromio, who are

those at the gate?

Dro. E. Let my master in, Luce.
Luce.

Faith no; he comes too late;

And so tell your master.
Dro. E.

O Lord, I must laugh:Have at you with a proverb - Shall I set in my staff? Luce. Have at you with another: that 's, - When? can

7

you tell?

Dro. S. If thy name be called Luce, Luce, thou hast answer'd him well.

Ant. E. Do you hear, you minion? you 'll let us in, I hope ?8

I owe?] i. e. I own, am owner of. So, in The Four Pren

tices of London, 1615:

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"Who owes that shield?

"I:-and who owes that?" Steevens.

8 - I hope?] A line either preceding or following this has,

I believe, been lost. Mr. Theobald and the subsequent editors

Luce. I thought to have ask'd you.
Dro. S.

And you said, no.

Dro. E. So, come, help; well struck; there was blow for blow.

Ant. E. Thou baggage, let me in.
Luce.

Can you tell for whose sake?

Dro. E. Master, knock the door hard.
Luce.

Let him knock till it ake. Ant. E. You'll cry for this, minion, if I beat the door

down.

Luce. What needs all that, and a pair of stocks in the town?

Adr. [within] Who is that at the door, that keeps all this noise?

Dro. S. By my troth, your town is troubled with unruly boys.

Ant. E. Are you there, wife? you might have come

before.

Adr. Your wife, sir knave! go, get you from the door. Dro. E. If you went in pain, master, this knave would

go sore.

Ang. Here is neither cheer, sir, nor welcome; we

would fain have either.

Bal. In debating which was best, we shall part with

neither.9

Dro. E. They stand at the door, master; bid them

welcome hither.

read-I trow; but that word, and hope, were not likely to be con

founded by either the eye or the ear.

Malone.

The text, I believe, is right, and means I expect you'll let us in. To hope, in ancient language, has sometimes this signifi

cation. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

66

- I cannot hope

"Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together."

Again, in Chaucer's Reve's Tale, v. 4027:

"Our manciple I hope he wol be ded." Steevens.

9- we shall part with neither.] In our old language, to part signified to have part. See Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, ver. 9504: "That no wight with his blisse parten shall." The French use partir in the same sense. Tyrwhitt.

Tyrwhitt mistakes the sense of this passage. To part does not signify to share or divide, but to depart or go away; and Balthazar means to say, that whilst debating which is best, they should go away without either. M. Mason.

Ant. E. There is something in the wind, that we can

not get in.

Dro. E. You would say so, master, if your garments

were thin.

Your cake here is warm within; you stand here in the cold:

It would make a man mad as a buck, to be so bought and sold.1

Ant. E. Go, fetch me something, I'll break ope the gate.

Dro. S. Break any breaking here, and I'll break your knave's pate.

Dro. E. A man may break a word with you, sir; and

words are but wind;

Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind. Dro. S. It seems, thou wantest breaking; Out upon

thee, hind!

Dro. E. Here's too much, out upon thee! I pray thee, let me in.

Dro. S. Ay, when fowls have no feathers, and fish have no fin.

Ant. E. Well, I'll break in; Go, borrow me a crow. Dro. E. A crow without a feather; master, mean you

so?

For a fish without a fin, there's a fowl without a feather:
If a crow help us in, sirrah, we'll pluck a crow together."
Ant. . Go, get thee gone, fetch me an iron crow.
Bal. Have patience, sir; O, let it not be so;

Herein you war against your reputation,
And draw within the compass of suspect

1- bought and sold.] This is a proverbial phrase. "To be bought and sold in a company," See Ray's Collection, p. 179, edit. 1737.

2

Steevens.

we'll pluck a crow together.] We find the same quibble on a like occasion in one of the comedies of Plautus.

The children of distinction among the Greeks and Romans had usually birds of different kinds given them for their amusement. This custom Tyndarus, in The Captives, mentions, and says, that for his part he had

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- tantum upират."

Upupa signifies both a lapwing and a mattock, or some instrument of the same kind, employed to dig stones from the quarries.

Steevens.

VOL. VI.

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The unviolated honour of your wife.
Once this, 3-Your long experience of her wisdom,
Her sober virtue, years, and modesty,
Plead on her part some cause to you unknown;
And doubt not, sir, but she will well excuse
Why at this time the doors are made against you.5
Be rul'd by me; depart in patience,
And let us to the Tiger all to dinner;
And, about evening, come yourself alone,
To know the reason of this strange restraint.
If by strong hand you offer to break in,
Now in the stirring passage of the day,
A vulgar comment will be made on it;
And that supposed by the common rout
Against your yet ungalled estimation,
That may with foul intrusion enter in,
And dwell upon your grave when you are dead:
For slander lives upon succession; 7

For ever hous'd, where it once gets possession.

8

3 Once this,] This expression appears to me so singular, that I cannot help suspecting the passage to be corrupt. Malone.

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Once this, may mean, once for all, at once. So, in Sydney's Arcadia, Book I: "Some perchance loving my estate, others my person. But once, I know all of them," &c. Again, ibid. B. III: - She hit him, with his own sworde, such a blowe upon the waste, that she almost cut him asunder: once she sundred his soule from his body, sending it to Proserpina, an angry goddess against ravishers." Steevens.

4

- Your long experience of her wisdom,

Plead on her part -) The old copy reads-your, in both places. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone.

5 - the doors are made against you.] Thus the old edition. The modern editors read:

- the doors are barr'd against you.

To make the door, is the expression used to this day in some counties of England, instead of, to bar the door. Steevens.

6- supposed by the common rout - For supposed I once thought it might be more commodious to substitute supported: but there is no need of change: supposed is founded on supposition, made by conjecture. Johnson.

7- upon succession;] Succession is often used as a quadrisyllable by our author, and his contemporaries. So, Act IV, sc. i, line 5, satisfaction composes half a verse:

"Therefore make present satisfaction -."

Malone.

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