Dro. S. Master, shall I fetch your stuff from shipboard? Ant. E. Dromio, what stuff of mine hast thou embark'd? Dro. S. Your goods, that lay at host, sir, in the Centaur. Ant. S. He speaks to me; I am your master, Come, go with us; we'll look to that anon: [Exeunt Antipholus S. and E. Adr. and Luc. Dro. S. There is a fat friend at your master's house, That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner; Dro. E. Methinks, you are my glass, and not my brother: I see by you, I am a sweet-fac'd youth. Dro. E. That's a question: how shall we try it? then, lead thou first. Dro. E. Nay, then thus: We came into the world, like brother and brother: And now let's go hand in hand, not one before an[Exeunt. other. ΑΝΝΟΤΑTIONS UPON THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. * Was wrought by nature,] i. e. by natural af fection. 2 Roaming clean through the bounds of Asia.] Clean had anciently the sense of quite or entirely. 3 A trusty villain-] Villain means here slave. Ægeon informed the duke in the first scene that he had bought the poor woman's twin-children to grow up as attendants on his boys. 4-o'er-raught-] i. e. over-reached, defrauded. 5 They say this town is full of cozenage.] This was the character the ancients gave of it. Hence Eφεσια αλεξιφαρμακα was proverbial amongst them. Thus Menander uses it, and Ἐφεσια γράμματα, in the same sense. WARBURTON. 6 As nimble jugglers, that deceive the eye, Dark-working sorcerers, that change the mind, Soul-killing witches that deform the body-] Those, who attentively consider these three lines, must confess, that the poet intended the epithet given to each of these miscreants, should declare the power by which they perform their feats, and which would therefore be a just characteristic of each of them. Thus, by nimble jugglers, we are taught, that they perform their tricks by slight of hand: and by soulkilling witches, we are informed, the mischief they do is by the assistance of the devil, to whom they have given their souls: but then, by dark-working sorcerers, we are not instructed in the means by which they perform their ends. Besides, this epithet agrees as well to witches as to them; and therefore certainly our author could not design this in their characteristick. We should read, Drug-working sorcerers, that change the mind; and we know by the history of ancient and modern superstition, that these kind of jugglers always pretended to work changes of the mind by these applications. WARBURTON. The learned commentator has endeavoured with much earnestness to recommend his alteration; but, if I may judge of other apprehensions by my own, without great success. This interpretation of soulkilling is forced and harsh. Sir T. Hanmer reads soul-selling, agreeable enough to the common opinion, but without such improvement as may justify the change. Perhaps the epithets have only been misplaced, and the lines should be read thus, Soul-killing sorcerers, that change the mind; This change seems to remove all difficulties. JOHNSON. faculties by such means as make men fancy themselves beasts. Witches or sorcerers themselves, as well as those who employed them, were supposed to forfeit their souls by making use of a forbidden agency. In that sense, they may be said to destroy the souls of others as well as their own. I believe Dr. Johnson has done as much as was necessary to remove all difficulty from the passage. STEEVENS. 7-is lash'd with woe.] Should it not rather be leash'd, i. e. coupled like a head-strong hound? The high opinion I must necessarily entertain of the learned Lady's judgment, who furnished this observation, has taught me to be diffident of my own, which I am now to offer. The meaning of this passage may be, that those who refuse the bridle must bear the lash, and that woe is the punishment of headstrong liberty. It may be observed, however, that the seamen still use lash in the same sense with leash. Lace was the old English word for a cord, from which verbs have been derived differently modelled by the chances of pronunciation. When the mariner lashes his guns, the sportsman leashes his dogs, the female laces her clothes, they all perform the same act of fastening with a lace or cord. Of the same original is the word windlass, or more properly windlace, an engine, by which a lace or cord is wound upon a barrel. STEEVENS. -fool-begg'd-] She seems to mean by fool-begg'd |