With circumftance and oaths fo to deny Fie on thee, wretch! 'tis pity, that thou liv'ft S. Ant. Thou art a villain, to impeach me thus. [They draw. Enter Adriana, Luciana, Courtezan, and others. Adr. Hold, hurt him not, for God's fake; he is mad Some get within him, take his sword away: Bind Dromio too, and bear them to my house. S. Dro. Run, mafter, run; for God's fake, take a house; This is fome Priory; in, or we are fpoil'd. [Exeunt to the Priory. Enter Lady Abbefs. Abb. Be quiet, people; wherefore throng you hither? Adr. To fetch my poor distracted husband hence; Let us come in, that we may bind him faft, And bear him home for his recovery. Ang. I knew, he was not in his perfect wits. Mer. I'm forry now, that I did draw on him. Abb. How long hath this poffeffion held the man? Adr, This week he hath been heavy, fower, fad, And much, much different from the man he was: But, 'till this afternoon, his paffion No'er Ne'er brake into extremity of rage. Abb. Hath he not loft much wealth by wreck at fea? A fin, prevailing much in youthful men, Adr. To none of thefe, except it be the laft; Abb. Ay, but not rough enough. Adr. As roughly, as my modefty would let me. Adr. And in affemblies too. Abb. Ay, but not enough. Adr. It was the copy of our conference. (20). Still did I tell him, it was vile and bad. Abb. And thereof came it, that the man was mad. The venom clamours of a jealous woman Poifon more deadly, than a mad dog's tooth. (20) It was the Copy of our Conference:] We are not to understand this Word here, as it is now used, in Oppofition to an Original; any Thing done after a Pattern; but we are to take it in the nearest Senfe to the Latine Word Copia, from which it is derived. Adriana would fay, her Reproofs were the Burden, the Fulness of her Conference, all the Subject of her Talk. And in thefe Acceptations the Word Copie was ufed by Writers before our Author's time, as well as by his Contemporaries. So Hall, in his Reign of K. Henry Vth. p. 8. fays; If you vanquish the Numidians, you shall have Copic of Beafts. i. e. plenty. And fo B. Jonfon in his Every Man out of his Humour; that, being a Woman, She was bleft with no more Copy of Wit, but to ferve bis Humour thus. And, again, in his Cynthia's Revels. to be fure to have daily about him Copy and Variety of Co lours. E 2 And And thereof comes it, that his head is light. Thereof the raging fire of fever bred; And what's a fever, but a fit of madness? Kinfman to grim and comfortless despair? Abb. No, not a creature enters in my house. Or lose my labour in affaying it. Adr. I will attend my husband, be his nurse, And therefore let me have him home with me. It is a branch and parcel of mine oath, A charitable duty of my order; Therefore depart, and leave him here with me. To feparate the husband and the wife. Abb. Abb. Be quiet and depart, thou shalt not have him. Luc. Complain unto the Duke of this indignity, [Exit Ábbels. Adr. Come, go; I will fall proftrate at his feet, And never rise, until my tears and prayers Have won his Grace to come in perfon hither; And take perforce my husband from the Abbefs. Mer. By this, I think, the dial points at five: Anon, I'm fure, the Duke himself in perfon Comes this way to the melancholy Vale; The place of death and forry execution, (21) Behind the ditches of the abbey here. Ang. Upon what cause? Mer. To fee a reverend Syracufan merchant, Against the laws and ftatutes of this town, Ang. See, where they come; we will behold his death. Luc. Kneel to the Duke, before he pass the abbey. Enter the Duke, and Egeon bare-headed; with the Headfman, and other Officers. Duke. Yet once again proclaim it publickly, If any friend will pay the fum for him, He fhall not die, fo much we tender him. Adr. Juftice, moft facred Duke, against the Abbels. (Whom I made lord of me and all I had, (21) The Place of Death and forry Execution.] i. e. difmal, lamentable, to be griev'd at. In the like Acceptations our Poet employs it again, where Macbeth, after the Murder of Duncan, is looking on his own bloody Hands. This is a forry Sight. E 3 Doing Doing difpleafare to the citizens, By ruthing in their houses; bearing thence A That here and there his fury had committed: He broke from thofe, that had the guard of him; Nor fend him forth, that we may bear him hence. (When thou didnt make him mafter of thy bed,) Enter a Melenger. Me O mistress, miftrefs, fhift and fave your felf, My mafter and his man are both broke loote, Beaten the maids a-row, and bound the doctor, Whole beard they have fing'd off with brands of fire; And ever as it blaz'd, they threw on him r'; Great pails of puddled miré to quench the hair Adr. Peace, fool, thy mafter and his man are here, And That is falfe, thou doft report to us: Meff |