Adr. Hence, prating peafant, fetch thy master home. E. Dro. Am I fo round with you, as you with me,3 That like a foot ball you do fpurn me thus? You spurn me hence, and he will fpurn me hither: If I laft in this fervice, you must cafe me in leather. [Exit. Luc. Fy, how impatience lowreth in your face! Adr. His company muft do his minions grace, Whilft I at home ftarve for a merry look. Hath homely age the alluring beauty took From my poor cheek? then he hath wafted it: Are my difcourfes dull? barren my wit? If voluble and sharp discourse be marr'd, Unkindness blunts it more, than marble hard. Do their gay vestments his affections bait? That's not my fault: he's master of my state. What ruins are in me, that can be found By him not ruin'd? then, is he the ground Of my defeatures. + My decayed fair A funny look of his would foon repair. But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale, And feeds from home; poor I am but his ftale."

Luci

1Âm ĺ so round with you, as you with me,] He plays upon the word round, which fignified spherical applied to himself, and unre frained, or free in fpeech or action, fpoken of his mistrefs. So the king, in Hamlet, bids the queen be round with her fon. JOHNSON. -My decayed fair] Shakefpeare ufes the adjective gilt, as a fubitantive, for what is gilt, and very probably fair for fairn fs. Today, is a fimilar expreffion. In the Midfummer-Night's Dream, the old quarto's read,

4

"Demetrius loves your fair." STEEVENS.

too enruly der,] The ambiguity of der and dear is borrowed, poor as it is, by Waller, in his poem on the Ladies

Girdle.

"This was my heav'n's extremeft fphere,

"The pale that held my lovely deer." JOHNSON.

poor I am but his fale.] The word frie, in our authour, fed as a fubftantive, means, not fomething offered to allure or attract, but fomething vitiated with fe, fomething of which the beft part has been enjoyed and confumed. JOHNSON.

VOL. II.

M

Stale

Luc. Self-harming jealoufy !-fy, beat it hence. Adr. Unfeeling fools can with fuch wrongs difpenfe. I know, his eye doth homage other-where; Or elfe, what lets it, but he would be here? Sifter, you know, he promis'd me a chain; Would that alone, alone, he would detain, So he would keep fair quarter with his bed!I fee, the jewel, beft enamelled,"

Will lofe his beauty; and the gold 'bides ftill,
That others touch; yet often touching will
Wear gold and fo no man, that hath a name,
But falfhood and corruption doth it fhame.
Since that my beauty cannot please his eye,
I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die.
Luc. How many fond fools ferve mad jealoufy!
[Exeunt.
Stale means, I believe, in this place, the fame as the French
word chaperon. Poor I am but the cover for his infidelity. STEEVENS,
7 Ife, the jewel, best enamelled,

Will lofe bis beauty, yet the gold 'bides ftill,
That others touch, and often touching will:
Where gold and no man, that hath a name,
By falfhood and corruption doth it shame.]

In this miferable condition is this paflage given us. It should be read thus,

66

I fes, the jewel, best enamelled,

Will lofe bis beauty; and the gold 'bides fill,
That others touch; yet often touching will
Wear gold: and so no man, that hath a name,
But falfhood, and corruption, doth it shame.

The fenfe is this, "Gold, indeed, will long bear the handling; however, often touching will wear even gold; juft fo the greatest character, tho' as pure as gold itfelf, may, in time, be injured, "by the repeated attacks of falfhood and corruption. WARBUR The Revifal reads thus,

-yet the gold 'bides fill,

That others touch, tho' often touching will
Wear gold, and so a man that hath a name,
By falfhood and corruption doth it shame.

I would read,

and though gold 'bides ftill, &c.

and the reft, with Dr. Warburton. STEEVENS.

SCENE

SCENE II.

Changes to the Street.

Enter Antipholis of Syracufe.

Ant. The gold, I gave to Dromio, is laid up
Safe at the Centaur; and the heedful flave
Is wander'd forth, in care to feek me out.
By computation, and mine hoft's report,
I could not speak with Dromio, fince at first
1 fent him from the mart. See, here he comes.

Enter Dromio of Syracufe.

How now, fir? is your merry humour alter'd?
As you love ftrokes, fo jeft with me again.
You know no Centaur? you receiv'd no gold?
Your mistress sent to have me home to dinner?
My house was at the Phoenix? Waft thou mad,
That thus fo madly thou didst answer me?

S. Dro. What answer, fir? when spake I fuch a word?

Ant. Even now, even here, not half an hour fince. S. Dro. I did not fee you fince you sent me hence Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me. Ant. Villain, thou didst deny the gold's receipt; And told❜ft me of a mistress, and a dinner; For which, I hope, thou felt'ft I was difpleas'd. S. Dro. I am glad to fee you in this merry vein: What means this jeft? I pray you, mafter, tell me? Ant. Yea, doft thou jeer and flout me in the teeth? Think'ft thou, I jeft? Hold, take thou that, and [Beats Dro. S. Dro. Hold, fir, for God's fake: now your jeft

that.

is earnest:

Upon what bargain do you give it me?

M 2

Ant

Aut. Because that I familiarly fometimes
Do ufe you for my fool, and chat with you,
Your fawcinefs will jeft upon my love,

' And make a common of my serious hours.
When the fun fhines, let foolish gnats make sport;
But creep in crannies, when he hides his beams.
If you will jeft with me, know my aspect,
And fashion your demeanor to my looks;
Or I will beat this method in your fconce.

S. Dro. Sconce, call you it? fo you would leave battering, I had rather have it a head: an you use thefe blows long, I must get a fconce for my head, and infconce it too, or elfe I fhall feek my wit in my fhoulders. But, I pray, fir, why am I beaten? Ant. Doft thou not know?

S. Dra. Nothing, fir, but that I am beaten.
Ant. Shall I tell you why?

S. Dro. Ay, fir, and wherefore; for, they fay, every why hath a wherefore.

Ant. Why, first, for flouting me; and then, wherefore,

For urging it the fecond time to me.

S. Dro. Was there ever any man thus beaten out of feafon?

When, in the why, and the wherefore, is neither rhime nor reason?

Well, fir, I thank you.

Ant. Thank me, fir? for what?

S. Dro. Marry, fir, for this fomething that you gave me for nothing.

Ant. I'll make you amends next, to give you no thing for fomething. But fay, fir, is it dinner-time?

• And make a common of my serious bours.] i. e. intrude on them when you please. The allufion is to thefe tracts of ground deftined to the general ufe, which are thence called commons.

STEEVENS

S. Dro

S. Dro. No, fit; I think, the meat wants that I

have.

Ant. In good time, fir, what's that?

S. Dro. Bafting.

Ant. Well, fir, then 'twill be dry.

S. Dro. If it be, fir, pray you eat none of it.
Ant. Your reason?

S. Dro. Left it make you cholerick, and purchase me another dry-bafting.

Ant. Well, fir, learn to jeft in good time. There's a time for all things.

S. Dro. I durft have deny'd that, before you were fo cholerick.

Ant. By what rule, fir?

S. Dro. Marry, fir, by a rule as plain as the plain of father Time himself.

bald

pate

Ant. Let's hear it.

S. Dro. There's no time for a man to recover his hair, that grows bald by nature,

Ant. May he not do it by fine and recovery?

S. Dro. Yes, to pay a fine for a peruke, and recover the loft hair of another man.

Ant. Why is Time fuch a niggard of hair, being, as it is, fo plentiful an excrement?

S. Dro. Because it is a bleffing that he bestows on beafts and what he hath fcanted men in hair, he hath given them in wit.

Ant. Why is time, &c.] In former editions:

Ant. Why is Time fuch a niggard of hair, being, as it is, fo plentiful an excrement ?

S. Dro. Because it is a blessing that he bestows on beasts, and what be bath feanted them in hair, be bath given them in wit.

Surely, this is mock-reasoning, and a contradiction in sense, Can hair be fuppofed a bleffing, which Time beftows on beafts pecaliarly; and yet that he hath Scanted them of it too? Men and Them, I obferve, are very frequently miftaken vice verfa for each other, in the old impreffions of our author.

M 3

THEOBALD.

Ant.