Nor now I had not, but that I am bound Or I'll attach you by this officer. Ang. Even just the sum, that I do owe to you, And, in the instant that I met with you. I shall receive the money for the same: Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus, and DROMIO of Ephesus. Offi. That labour may you save; see where he comes. Ant. E. While I go to the goldsmith's house, go thou And buy a rope's end; that will I bestow Among my wife and her confederates,5 For locking me out of my doors by day.— Dro. E. I buy a thousand pound a year! I buy a rope! [Exit DRO. Ant. E. A man is well holp up, that trusts to you: I promised your presence, and the chain; But neither chain, nor goldsmith, came to me: Belike, you thought our love would last too long, If it were chain'd together; and therefore came not. Ang. Saving your merry humour, here's the note, How much your chain weighs to the utmost carrat; The fineness of the gold, and chargeful fashion; Which doth amount to three odd ducats more Than I stand debted to this gentleman: I pray you, see him presently discharg'd, For he is bound to sea, and stays but for it. Ant. E. I am not furnish'd with the present money; Besides, I have some business in the town: 3 want gilders ] A gilder is a coin valued from one shilling and six-pence, to two shillings. Steevens. 5 Is growing to me -] i. e. accruing to me. rates. Steevens. and her confederates,] The old copy has-their confedeThe emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. Malone. VOL. VI. I i Good signior, take the stranger to my house, Ang. Then you will bring the chain to her yourself? enough. Ang. Well, sir, I will: Have you the chain about you? Ant. E. An if I have not, sir, I hope you have; Or else you may return without your money. Ang. Nay, come, I pray you, sir, give me the chain; I should have chid you for not bringing it, Mer. The hour steals on; I pray you, sir despatch. money. Ang. Come, come, you know, I gave it you even now; Either send the chain, or send me by some token. Ant. E. Fy! now you run this humour out of breath: Ant. E. I answer you! What should I answer you? say so. Ang. You wrong me more, sir, in denying it: Consider, how it stands upon my credit. Mer. Well officer, arrest him at my suit. Offi. I do; and charge you, in the duke's name, to obey me. 6 Perchance, I will be there as soon as you.] I will, instead of I shall, is a Scoticism. Douce. And an Irishism too. Reed. Ang. This touches me in reputation:Either consent to pay this sum for me, Or I attach you by this officer. Ant. E. Consent to pay thee that I never had! Ang. Here is thy fee; arrest him officer;— Offi. I do arrest you, sir; you hear the suit. Ang. Sir, sir, I shall have law in Ephesus, Enter DROMIO of Syracuse. Dro. S. Master, there is a bark of Epidamnum, But for their owner, master, and yourself. Ant. E. How now! a madman? Why thou peevish sheep, 8 What ship of Epidamnum stays for me? Dro. S. A ship you sent me to, to hire waftage. And told thee to what purpose, and what end. Dro. S. You sent me, sir, for a rope's-end as soon:9 You sent me to the bay, sir, for a bark. Ant. E. I will debate this matter at more leisure, 7 And then, sir, bears away:] The old copy redundantly readsAnd then, sir, she bears away. Steevens. 8 thou peevish sheep,] Peevish is silly. So, in Cymbeline: "Desire my man's abode where I did leave him: "He's strange and peevish" Steevens. 9 You sent me, sir, for a rope's-end as soon:] I suppose, a word has been casually omitted in the old copy, and that we should read as I have printed. So, above, the same speaker says"And then, sir, bears away: our fraughtage, sir, Steevens. And teach your ears to listen with more heed. Give her this key, and tell her, in the desk And that shall bail me: hie thee, slave; be gone. [Exeunt Mer. ANG. Offi. and ANT. E. SCENE II. The same. Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA. Adr. Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so? Might'st thou perceive austerely in his eye That he did plead in earnest, yea or no? [Exit. Look'd he or red, or pale; or sad, or merrily? What observation mad'st thou in this case, Of his heart's meteors tilting in his face?1 Luc. First, he denied you had in him no right. 1 - meteors tilting in his face?] Alluding to those meteors in the sky, which have the appearance of lines of armies meeting in the shock. To this appearance he compares civil wars in another place-King Henry IV, P. I, sc. i: "Which like the meteors of a troubled heaven, "All of one nature, of one substance bred, Warburton. The allusion is more clearly explained by the following comparison in the second Book of Paradise Lost: "As when, to warn proud cities, war appears "Wag'd in the troubled sky, and armies rush "To battle in the clouds, before each van "Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears "From either end of heaven the welkin burns." Steevens.. The original copy reads-Oh, his heart's meteors, &c. The correction was made in the second folio. Malone. Luc. Then swore he, that he was a stranger here. Adr. And true he swore, though yet forsworn he were. Luc. Then pleaded I for you. Adr. And what said he? Luc. That love I begg'd for you, he begg'd of me. Adr. With what persuasion did he tempt thy love? Luc. With words, that in an honest suit might move. First, he did praise my beauty; then, my speech. Adr. Didst speak him fair? Luc. Have patience, I beseech. Adr. I cannot, nor I will not, hold me still; My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will. Luc. Who would be jealous then of such a one? Adr. Ah! but I think him better than I say, And yet would herein others' eyes were worse: Far from her nest the lapwing cries away;4 2 My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse. Enter DROMIO of Syracuse. Dro. S. Here, go; the desk, the purse; sweet now, make haste. sere,] That is, dry, withered. Johnson. So, in Milton's Lycidas: “— ivy never sere." Steevens. 3 Stigmatical in making,] That is, marked or stigmatized by nature with deformity, as a token of his vicious disposition. So, in The Wonder of a Kingdom, 1635: Johnson. Stigmatically drawn, like to a fury's," &c. Steevens. 4 Far from her nest the lapwing &c.] This expression seems to be proverbial-I have met with it in many of the old comick writers. Greene, in his second Part of Coney-Catching, 1592, says,-"But again to our priggers, who, as before I said, cry with the lapwing farthest from the nest, and from their place of residence where their most abode is." Nash, speaking of Gabriel Harvey, says "he withdraweth men, lapwing-like, from his nest, as much as might be." See this passage yet more amply explained in a note on Measure for Measure, Vol. III, p. 337, n. 4. Steevens. |