Dro. S. Sure ones then.

Ant. S. Nay, not sure, in a thing falsing.'

Dro. S. Certain ones then.

Ant. S. Name them.

Dro. S. The one, to save the money that he spends in tiring; the other, that at dinner they should not drop in his porridge.

Ant. S. You would all this time have proved, there is no time for all things.

Dro. S. Marry, and did, sir; namely, no time* to recover hair lost by nature.

Ant. S. But your reason was not substantial, why there is no time to recover.

Dro. S. Thus I mend it: Time himself is bald, and therefore, to the world's end, will have bald followers, Ant. S. I knew, 'twould be a bald conclusion: But soft! who wafts us2 yonder?

Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA.

Adr. Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange, and frown; Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects,

I am not Adriana, nor thy wife.

The time was once, when thou unurg'd would'st vow
That never words were musick to thine ear,

That never object pleasing in thine eye,
That never touch well-welcome to thy hand,

That never meat sweet-savour'd in thy taste,

Unless I spake, look'd, touch'dt, or carv'd, to thee.
How comes it now, my husband, oh, how comes it,
That thou art then estranged from thyself?
Thyself I call it, being strange to me,

1 -falsing.] This word is now obsolete. Spenser and Chaucer often use the verb to false. Mr. Heath would read falling.STEEVENS,

That undividable, incorporate,

Am better than thy dear self's better part.
Ah, do not tear away thyself from me;

For know, my love, as easy may'st thou fall
A drop of water in the breaking gulph,
And take unmingled thence that drop again,
Without addition, or diminishing,

As take from me thyself, and not me too.
How dearly would it touch thee to the quick,
Should'st thou but hear I were licentious?
And that this body, consecrate to thee,
By ruffian lust should be contaminate?
Would'st thou not spit at me, and spurn at me,
And hurl the name of husband in my face,
And tear the stain'd skin off my harlot brow,
And from my false hand cut the wedding ring,
And break it with a deep-divorcing vow?

I know thou canst; and therefore, see, thou do it.
I am possess'd with an adulterate blot;

My blood is mingled with the crime of lust:
For, if we two be one, and thou play false,

I do digest the poison of thy flesh,

Being strumpeted by thy contagion.

Keep then fair league and truce with thy true bed;

I live dis-stain'd, thou undishonoured.

Ant. S. Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not:

In Ephesus I am but two hours old,

As strange unto your town, as to your

talk;

Who, every word by all my wit being scann'd,

Want wit in all one word to understand.

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

you:

When were you wont to use my sister thus?

She sent for you by Dromio home to dinner.

Ant. S. By Dromio?

Dro. S. By me?

3 may'st thou fall-] To fall is here a verb active.

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

Denied my house for his, me for his wife.

Ant. S. Did you converse, sir, with this gentlewoman? What is the course and drift of your compáct?

Dro. S. I, sir? I never saw her till this time. Ant. S. Villain, thou liest; for even her very words Didst thou deliver to me on the mart.

Dro. S. I never spake with her in all my life.

Ant. S. How can she thus then call us by our names, Unless it be by inspiration?

Adr. How ill agrees it with your gravity,
To counterfeit thus grossly with your slave,
Abetting him to thwart me in my mood?
Be it my wrong, you are from me exempt, 4
But wrong not that wrong with a more contempt.
Come, I will fasten on this sleeve of thine:
Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine;
Whose weakness, married to thy stronger state,
Makes me with thy strength to communicate:
If aught possess thee from me, it is dross,
Usurping ivy, briar, or idle moss; 5

Who, all for want of pruning, with intrusion

Infect thy sap, and live on thy confusion.

Ant. S. To me she speaks; she moves me for her

theme:

What, was I married to her in my dream?
Or sleep I now, and think I hear all this?
What error drives our eyes and ears amiss?
Until I know this sure uncertainty,

I'll entertain the offer'd fallacy.

4

· you are from me exempt,] Johnson says that exempt means separated, parted; yet I think that Adriana does not use the word exempt in that sense, but means to say, that as he was her husband she had no power over him, and that he was privileged to do her wrong. M. MASON.

5 idle moss ;] That is, moss that produces no fruit, but being unfertile is useless.

Luc. Dromio, go bid the servants spread for dinner. Dro. S. O, for my beads! I cross me for a sinner. This is the fairy land; - O, spite of spites! We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish sprites; If we obey them not, this will ensue,

-

They'll suck our breath, or pinch us black and blue.

Luc. Why prat'st thou to thyself, and answer'st not? Dromio, thou drone, thou snail, thou slug, thou sot! Dro. S. I am transformed, master, am not I?

Ant. S. I think, thou art, in mind, and so am I.
Dro. S. Nay, master, both in mind, and in my shape,
Ant. S. Thou hast thine own form.

Dro. S.

No, I am an ape. Luc. If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an ass.

Dro. S. 'Tis true; she rides me, and I long for grass.

'Tis So, I am an ass; else it could never be,

But I should know her as well as she knows me.

Adr. Come, come, no longer will I be a fool,
To put the finger in the eye and weep,

Whilst man, and master, laugh my woes to scorn.
Come, sir, to dinner; Dromio, keep the gate:-
Husband, I'll dine above with you to-day,

And shrive you of a thousand idle pranks:
Sirrah, if any ask you for your master,

Say, he dines forth, and let no creature enter.
Come, sister:-Dromio, play the porter well.
Ant. S. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?
Sleeping or waking? mad, or well advis'd?
Known unto these, and to myself disguis'd!
I'll say as they say, and perséver so,

And in this mist at all adventures go.

Dro. S. Master, shall I be porter at the gate?

Adr. Ay; and let none enter, lest I break your pate.

Luc. Come, come, Antipholus, we dine too late.

[Exeunt.

6 And skrive you] That is, I will call you to confession, and make you tell your tricks.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus, DROMIO of Ephesus, ANGELO, and Balthazar.

Ant. E. Good signior Angelo, you must excuse us all; My wife is shrewish, when I keep not hours: Say, that I linger'd with you at your shop, To see the making of her carkanet, 7 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 didst thou mean by this? Dro. E. 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 handwriting would tell you what I think.
Ant. E. I think, thou art an ass.

Dro. E.

Marry, so it doth appear By the wrongs I suffer, and the blows I bear.

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 welcome dear.

7 carkanet,] Seems to have been a necklace, or rather chain, perhaps hanging down double from the neck.