Ant. S. What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face, Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave. [Strikes him. Dro. E. What mean you, sir? For God's sake, hold your hands; Nay, an you will not, sir, I'll take my heels. 2 [Exit DROMIO E. Ant. S. Upon my life, by some device or other, The villain is o'er-raught' of all my money. They say, this town is full of cozenage; As, nimble jugglers, that deceive the eye; Dark-working sorcerers, that change the mind; Soul-killing witches, that deform the body; Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks, And many such like liberties of sin.3 If it prove so, I will be gone the sooner. I'll to the Centaur, to go seek this slave; I greatly fear my money is not safe. [Exit. ACT II. SCENE I. A public Place. Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA. Adr. Neither my husband, nor the slave returned, That in such haste I sent to seek his master! Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock. Luc. Perhaps some merchant hath invited him, And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner. Good sister, let us dine, and never fret. A man is master of his liberty; 1 i. e. overreached. 2 This was the character which the ancients gave of Ephesus. Time is their master; and when they see time, Adr. Why should their liberty than ours be more? Luc. Because their business still lies out o' door. Adr. Look, when I serve him so, he takes it ill. Luc. O, know, he is the bridle of your will. Adr. There's none but asses, will be bridled so. Luc. Why, headstrong liberty is lashed with woe.' There's nothing, situate under Heaven's eye, But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky. The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls, Are their males' subjects, and at their controls. Men, more divine, the masters of all these, Lords of the wide world, and wild watery seas, Endued with intellectual sense and souls, Of more pre-eminence than fish and fowls, Are masters to their females, and their lords. Then let your will attend on their accords. 1 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; 2 3 They can be meek, that have no other cause. 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. 1 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 1 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; For, in conclusion, he did beat me there. 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. 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. 1 Dro. E. Am I so round 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. Of my A sunny look of his would soon repair. But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale, 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. Adr. Unfeeling fools can with such wrongs dis 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 By computation, and mine host's report, I could not speak with Dromio, since at first 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. |