Time is their master; and when they see time, Adr. Why should their liberty than ours be more? Adr. This servitude makes you to keep unwed. sway. Luc. Ere I learn love, I'll practise to obey. Adr. How if your husband start some other where? Luc. Till he come home again, I would forbear. Adr. Patience, unmoved, no marvel though she pause; They can be meek, that have no other cause.3 But were we burdened with like weight of pain, Luc. Well, I will marry one day, but to try.- 1 Steevens proposes to read leashed, i. e. coupled. 2 To pause is to rest, to be quiet. 3 i. e. no cause to be otherwise. 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. Adr. But say, I pr'ythee, is he coming home? It seems he hath great care to please his wife. Dro. E. Why, mistress, sure my master is hornmad. Adr. Horn-mad, thou villain? Dro. E. I mean not cuckold-mad; but, sure, he's stark mad. When I desired him to come home to dinner, Dro. E. Quoth my master. I know, quoth he, no house, no wife, no mistress ;— I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders; Adr. Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him home. 1 Home is not in the old copy: it was supplied, to complete the verse, by Capell. VOL. III. 16 Dro. E. Go back again, and be new beaten home? For God's sake, send some other messenger. Adr. Back, slave, or I will break thy pate across. Dro. E. And he will bless that cross with other beating. Between you I shall have a holy head. Adr. Hence, prating peasant! fetch thy master home. Dro. E. Am I so round1 with you, as you with me, That like a football you do spurn me thus? You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither. A sunny look of his would soon repair. 1 He plays upon the word round, which signifies spherical, as applied to himself; and unrestrained, or free in speech or action, as regards his mistress. The King, in Hamlet, desires the Queen to be round with her son. 2 Defeat and defeature were used for disfigurement or alteration of features. Cotgrave has "Un visage desfaict: Growne very leane, pale, wan, or decayed in feature and color." 3 Fair, strictly speaking, is not used here for fairness, as Steevens supposed; but for beauty. Shakspeare has often employed it in this sense, without any relation to whiteness of skin or complexion. The use of the adjective for the substantive, as in this instance, is not peculiar to him, but is the common practice of his contemporaries. 4 Adriana probably means she is thrown aside, forgotten, cast off, become stale to him. Luc. Self-harming jealousy!-fie, beat it hence. pense. I know his eye doth homage otherwhere; Will lose his beauty; and though gold 'bides still, SCENE II. The same. Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse. Ant. S. The gold I gave to Dromio is laid up As Enter DROMIO of Syracuse. How now, sir? is your merry humor altered? Dro. S. What answer, sir? when spake I such a word? 1 Hinders. Ant. S. Even now, even here, not half an hour since. Dro. S. I did not see you since you sent me hence, Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me. Ant. S. Villain, thou didst deny the gold's receipt ; And told'st me of a mistress, and a dinner; For which, I hope, thou felt'st I was displeased. Dro. S. I am glad to see you in this merry vein. What means this jest? I pray you, master, tell me. Ant. S. Yea, dost thou jeer, and flout me in the teeth? Think'st thou I jest? Hold, take thou that, and that. [Beating him. Dro. S. Hold, sir, for God's sake. Now your jest is earnest ; Upon what bargain do you give it me? Ant. S. Because that I familiarly sometimes Do use you for my fool, and chat with you, Your sauciness will jest upon my love, And make a common of my serious hours.1 If When the sun shines, let foolish gnats make sport, But creep in crannies when he hides his beams. you will jest with me, know my aspéct, And fashion your demeanor to my looks, Or I will beat this method in your sconce. Dro. S. Sconce, call you it? it? So So you would leave battering, I had rather have it a head. An you use these blows long, I must get a sconce for my head, and insconce it too; or else I shall seek my wit in my shoulders. But, I pray, sir, why am I beaten? Ant. S. Dost thou not know? Dro. S. Nothing, sir; but that I am beaten. Dro. S. Ay, sir, and wherefore; for, they say, every why hath a wherefore. Ant. S. Why, first,-for flouting me; and then wherefore, For urging it the second time to me. 1 i. e. intrude on them when you please. 2 To insconce was to hide, to protect as with a fort. |