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And break it with a deep-divorcing vow?
I know thou can'ft; and therefore, fee, thou do it.
I am poffefs'd with an adulterate blot;
My blood is mingled with the crime of luft:
For if we two be one, and thou play false,
I do digeft the poifon of thy fleih,

Being ftrumpeted by thy contagion.

Keep then fair league, and truce with thy true bed; I live dif-ftain'd; thou undifhonoured.

(7)

Ant. Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not: In Ephesus I am but two hours old,

As ftrange unto your town as to your talk.

Who, every word by all my wit being scann'd,
Wants wit in all one word to understand.

Luc. Fie, brother, how the world is chang'd with

you;

When were you wont to use my fifter thus?

She fent for you by Dromio home to dinner.
Ant. By Dromio?

S. Dro. By me?

Adr. By thee; and thus thou didst return from him, That he did buffet thee, and in his blows

Deny'd my houfe for his, me for his wife.

Ant. Did you converfe, Sir, with this gentlewoman? What is the courfe and drift of your compact?

S. Dro. I, Sir? I never faw her 'till this time.
Ant. Villain, thou lieft; for even her very words
Didft thou deliver to me on the mart.

S. Dro I never spoke with her in all my life.
Ant. How can the thus then call us by our names,
Unless it be by inspiration?

Adr. How ill agrees it with your gravity, To counterfeit thus grofly with your flave, Abetting him to thwart me in my mood?

(7) I live difiain'd, thou undishonoured.] To diftaine (from the French Word, deftaindre) fignifies, to ftain, defile, pollute. But the Context requires a Senfe quite oppofite. We muit either read, unftain'd; or, by adding an Hyphen, and giving the Prepofition a privative Force, read dif ftain'd, and then it will mean, unftain'd, undefiled.

Be

Be it my wrong, you are from me exempt,
But wrong not that wrong with a more contempt.
Come, I will faften on this fleeve of thine;
Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine:
Whose weakness, marry'd to thy ftronger ftate,
Makes me with thy ftrength to communicate;
If ought poffefs thee from me, it is drofs,
Ufurping ivy, brier, or idle mofs;

Who, all for want of pruning, with intrufion
Infect thy fap, and live on thy confufion.

Ant. To me the fpeaks; the moves me for her theam; What was I marry'd to her in my dream? Or fleep I now, and think I hear all this? What error drives our eyes and ears amifs? Until I know this fure uncertainty,

I'll entertain the favour'd fallacy.

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Luc. Dromio, go bid the fervants fpread for dinner. S. Dro. Oh, for my beads! I crofs me for a finner. This is the Fairy land: oh, fpight of fpights!

We talk with goblins, ouphs, and elvifh fprights; (8) If we obey them not, this will enfue,

They'll fuck our breath, and pinch us black and blue. Luc. Why prat'ft thou to thy felf, and answer'ft not? (9)

(8) We talk with Goblins, Owls, and elvish Sprights;] They might fancy, they talk'd with Goblins and Sprights; but why with Owls, in the Name of Nonfenfe? Or could Owls fuck their Breath, and pinch them black and blue? I dare fay, my Readers will acquiefce in the Juftnefs of my Emendation here: The Word is common with our Author in other Paffages;

Merry Wives of Windfor.

Strew good Luck, Quphs, on ev'ry facred Room.

And, again;

Like Urchins, Quphs, and Fairies, green and white. (9) Why prat ft thou to thy felf?

Dromio, thou Dromio, nail, thou flug, thou fot.] In the first of thefe Lines Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope have Both, for what Reafon I cannot tell, curtail'd the Meafare, and difmounted the doggrel Rhyme, which I have replac'd from the first Folio. The fecond Verfe is there likewise read;

Dromio, thou Dromio, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot. The Verfe is thus half a Foot too long; my Correction cures that Fault: befides Drone corresponds with the other Appellations of Reproach.

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Dromio, thou drone, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot.

S. Dro. I am transformed, mafter, am not I?

Ant. I think, thou art in mind, and fo am I.

S. Dro. Nay, mafter, both in mind and in my shape. Ant. Thou haft thine own form.

S. Dro. No; I am an ape.

Luc. If thou art chang'd to ought, 'tis to an ass. S. Dro. 'Tis true; fhe rides me, and I long for grass. 'Tis fo, I am an ass; else it could never be,

But I fhou'd know her, as well as fhe knows me.
Adr. Come, come, no longer will I be a fool,
To put the finger in the eye and weep,

Whilft man and mafter laugh my woes to Scorn.
Come, Sir, to dinner; Dromio, keep the gate;
Husband, I'll dine above with you to day,
And thrive you of a thousand idle pranks;
Sirrah, if any ask
your master,

you for

Say, he dines forth, and let no creature enter:
Come, fifter; Dromio, play the porter well.

Ant. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?
Sleeping or waking, mad or well advis'd?
Known unto thefe, and to my self disguis'd?
I'll fay as they fay, and perfever fo;
And in this mist at all adventures go.

S. Dro. Mafter, fhall I be porter at the gate?
Adr. Ay, let none enter, left I break your pate.
Luc. Come, come, Antipholis, we dine too late.

[Exeunt.

ACT

ACT III.

SCENE, the Street before Antipholis's Houfe.

Enter Antipholis of Ephefus, Dromio of Ephefus, Angelo, and Balthazar.

G

E. ANTIPHOLIS.

OOD Signior Angelo, you must excuse us;
My wife is fhrewith, when I keep not hours;
Say, that I linger'd with you at your shop
To fee the making of her carkanet;

And that to morrow you will bring it home.
But here's a villain, that would face me down
He met me on the mart, and that I beat him;
And charg'd him with a thousand marks in gold;
And that I did deny my wife and house:

Thou drunkard, thou, what didft thou mean by this?
E. Dro. Say, what you will, Sir; but I know what
I know;

That you beat me at the mart, I have your hand to

show;

If the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink,

Your own hand-writing would tell you what I think.
E. Ant. I think, thou art an ass.

E. Dre. Marry, fo it don't appear (10)
By the wrongs I fuffer, and the blows I bear;

(10) Marry, fo it doth appear

By the Wrongs I fuffer, and the Blows I bear.] Thus all the printed Copies; But, certainly, This is Cross-purposes in Reasoning. It appears, Dromio is an Afs by his making no Refistance: because an Ass, being kick'd, kicks again. Our Author never argues at this wild Rate, where his Text is genuine.

I should kick, being kickt; and, being at that pass, You would keep from my heels, and beware of an ass. E. Ant. Y'are fad, Signior Balthazar. Pray God,

our cheer

May anfwer my good will, and your good welcome here. Bal. I hold your dainties cheap, Sir, and your welcome dear.

E. Ant. Ah, 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.

E. Ant. And welcome more common; for that's nothing but words.

Bal. Small cheer, and good welcome, makes a merry feast.

E. Ant. Ay, to a niggardly hoft, and more sparing gueft:

But tho' my cates be mean, take them in good part; Better cheer may you have, but not with better heart. But foft; my door is lockt; go bid them let us in.

E. Dro. Maud, Bridget, Marian, Cicely, Gillian, Ginn. S. Dro. within. Mome, malt-horfe, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch,

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

Doft thou conjure for wenches, that thou call'ft for fuch store,

When one is one too many? go, get thee from the door.

E. Dro. What patch is made our porter? my mafter ftays in the street.

S. Dro. Let him walk from whence he came, left he catch cold on's feet.

E. Ant. Who talks within there? hoa, open the door. S. Dro. Right, Sir, I'll tell you when, an you'll tell me wherefore.

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

S. Dro. Nor to day here you must not: come again,

when you may.

E. Ant.

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