E. Ant. Who talks within there? hoa, open the door. S. Dro. Right, Sir, I'll tell you when, an you'll tell me wherefore.

E. Ant. Wherefore? for my dinner: I have not din'd to day.

S. Dro. Nor to-day here you must not: come again, when you may.

E. Ant. What art thou, that keep'ft me out from the house I owe?

S. Dro. The porter for this time, Sir, and my name is Dromio.

E. Dro. O villain, thou haft ftoll'n both mine office and my name:

The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame.
If thou had'st been Dromio to-day in my place,
Thou would'st have chang'd thy face for a name, or
thy name for an ass.

Luce. (within) What a coil is there, Dromio ? who are those at the gate?

E. Dro. Let my malter in, Luce.

Luce. Faith, no; he comes too late;

And fo tell your master.

E. Dro. O Lord, I must laugh;

Have at you with a Proverb.-Shall I fet in my staff? Luce. Have at you with another; that's, when can you tell?

S. Dro. If thy name be call'd Luce, Luce, thoú haft anfwer'd him well.

E. Ant. Do you hear, you minion, you'll let us in, I trow ?

Luce. I thought to have afkt you.

S. Dro. And you faid, no.

E. Dro. So, come, help, well ftruck; there was blow for blow.

E. Ant. Thou baggage, let me in.
Luce. Can you tell for whofe fake?
E. Dro. Mafter, knock the door hard.
Luce. Let him knock, till it ake.

E. Ant.

E. Ant. You'll cry for this, minion, if I beat the door down.

Luce. What needs all that, and a pair of stocks in the town?

Adr. (within) Who is that at the door, that keeps all this noife?

S. Dro. By my troth, your town is troubled with unruly boys.

E. Ant. Are you there, wife? you might have come before.

Adr. Your wife, Sir knave! go, get you from the door.

E. Dro. If you went in pain, master, this knave would go fore.

Ang. Here is neither cheer, Sir, nor welcome; we would fain have either.

Bal. In debating which was beft, we shall have part with neither 3.

E. Dro. They ftand at the door, master; bid them welcome hither.

E. Ant. There's fomething in the wind, that we cannot get in.

E. Dro. You would fay fo, master, if your garments were thin.

Your cake here is warm within: you ftand here in the cold:

It would make a man mad as a buck to be fo bought and fold.

E. Ant. Go fetch me fomething, and I'll break ope the gate.

S. Dro. Break any thing here, and I'll break your knave's pate.

3 The reading was thus:

we all part with zeither.] Common fenfe re

quires us to read,-
HAVE part with neither.

-

we fall WARBURTON.

E. Dro.

E. Dro. A man may break a word with you, Sir; aud words are but wind:

Ay, and break it in your face, fo he break it not behind. S. Dro. It feems, thou wantest breaking; out upon thee, bind!

E. Dro. Here's too much, out upon thee! I pray thee, let me in.

S. Dro. Ay, when fowls have no feathers, and fish have no fin.

E. Ant. Well, I'll break in; go borrow me a crow. E. Dro. A crow without feather, master, mean you fo? For a fish without a fin, there's a fowl without a feather; If a crow help us in, firrah, we'll pluck a crow together. E. Ant. Go, get thee gone, fetch me an iron crow. Bal. Have patience, Sir: oh, let it not be fo. Herein you war against your reputation,

And draw within the compass of fufpect
Th'unviolated honour of your wife.

Once, this; your long experience of her wisdom,
Her fober virtue, years, and modesty,

Plead on her part fome caufe to you unknown;
And doubt not, Sir, but fhe will well excuse,
Why at this time the doors are barr'd against you.
Be rul'd by me, depart in patience,

And let us to the Tyger ali to dinner;
And about evening come yourself alone,
To know the reafon of this ftrange restraint.
If by strong hand you offer to break in,
Now in the ftirring paffage of the day,
A vulgar comment will be made of it;
And that fuppofed by the common rout
Against your yet ungalled eftimation,
That may with foul intrufion enter in,
And dwell upon your grave when you are dead:

Suppofed by the common rout.] For Suppose I once thought it might be more commodious to fubftitute Supported; but there is VOL. III.

no need of change: Juppr.dis, founded on fuppofition, made by conjecture.

K

For

For flander lives upon fucceffion * ;

For ever hous'd, where it once gets poffeffion.

E. Ant. You have prevail'd; I will depart in quiet, And, in defpight of mirth, mean to be merry.

I know a wench of excellent discourse,

Pretty and witty, wild, and, yet too, gentle;
There will we dine: this woman that I mean,
My wife (but, I proteft, without defert,)
Hath oftentimes upbraided me withal;
To her will we to dinner. Get you home,
And fetch the chain; by this, I know, 'tis made;
Bring it, I pray you, to the Porcupine;

For there's the houfe: that chain will I beftow
(Be it for nothing but to fpight my wife)
Upon mine hoftefs there. Good Sir, make haste :
Since my own doors refufe to entertain me,
I'll knock elsewhere, to fee if they'll difdain me.
Ang. I'll meet you at that place, fome hour, Sir,
hence.

E. Ant. Do fo; this jeft fhall coft me fome expence. [Exeunt.

The House of Antipholis of Ephefus.

Enter Luciana, with Antipholis of Syracufe. Luc. And may it be, that you have quite forgot Ahufband's office? fhall, Antipholis, hate,

* For flander lives upon fucceffion] The line apparently wants two fyllables: what they were cannot now be known. The line may be filled up according to the reader's fancy, as thus:

For lafhing flander lives upon fucceffion.

And, in defpight of mirth, -] Mr.Thetbald does not know what to make of this; and, therefore,

Even

has put wrath inftead of mirth into the text, in which he is followed by the Oxford Editor. But the old reading is right; and the meaning is, I will be merry, even out of fpite to mirth, which is, now, of all things, the moft unpleafing to me. WARBURT.

5 In former copies, And may it be, that you have quite forget

An

Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs rot?
Shall love, in building, grow fo ruinate,

If you did wed my filter for her wealth,

Then, for her wealth's fake, ufe her with more kindness;

Or if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth;

Muffle your falfe love with fome fhew of blindness: Let not my fifter read it in your eye;

Be not thy tongue thy own fhame's orator; Look fweet, fpeak fair; become difloyalty: Apparel vice, like virtue's harbinger; Bear a fair prefence, tho' your heart be tainted; Teach fin the carriage of a holy faint; Be fecret falfe: what need fhe be acquainted? What fimple thief brags of his own attaint? 'Tis double wrong, to truant with your bed, And let her read it in thy looks at board: Shame hath a baftard fame, well managed; Ill deeds are double with an evil word: Alas, poor women! make us but believe", Being compact of credit, that you love us; Tho' others have the arm, fhew us the fleeve: We in your motion turn, and you may move us.

Then,

dent at Prefs, as I take it; This
Scene for Fifty two Lines fuc-
ceffively is ftrictly in alternate
Rhimes: and this Measure is ne-
ver broken, but in the Second
and Fourth Lines of these two
Couplets, Tis certain, I think
a Monofyllable dropt from the
Tail of the Second Verfe; and
I have ventur'd to fupply it by,
I hope, a probable Conjecture.

K 2

THEOBALD.

Alas, poor Women! make us not believe, &c.] From the whole Tenour of the Context it is evident that this Negative (not)