The meat is cold, because you come not home;
You come not home because you have no stomach;
You have no stomach, having broke your fast;
But we, that know what 'tis to fast and pray,
Are penitent for your default to-day.

Ant. S. Stop in your wind, sir; tell me this I pray;
Where have you left the money that I gave you?

Το

Dro. E. 0,-six-pence, that I had o'Wednesday last, pay the sadler for my mistress' crupper ;

The saddler had it, sir, I kept it not.

Ant. S. I am not in a sportive humour now :
Tell me, and dally not, where is the money?
We being strangers here, how dars't thou trust
So great a charge from thine own custody?

Dro. E. I pray you, jest, sir, as you sit at dinner :
I from my mistress come to you in post;
If I return, I shall be post indeed;

For she will score your fault upon my pate.f

Methinks, your maw, like mine, should be you clock,
And strike you home without a messenger.

Ant. S. Come, Dromio, come, these jests are out o season;

Reserve them till a merrier hour than this:

Where is the gold I gave in charge to thee?

Dro. E. To me, sir? why you gave no gold to me. Ant. S. Come on, sir knave; have done your foolishness, And tell me, how thou hast dispos'd thy charge.

Dro. E. My charge was but to fetch you from the mart
Home to your house, the Phoenix, sir, to dinner;
My mistress, and her sister, stay for you.

Ant. S. Now, as I am a christian, answer me,
In what safe place you have bestow'd my money;
Or I shall break that merry sconce of yours,
That stands on tricks when I am undispos'd:
Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me?

I shall be post indeed;

For she will score your fault upon my pate.] Perhaps, before writing was a general accomplishment, a kind of rough reckoning, concerning wares issued out of a shop, was kept by chalk or notches on a post, till it could be entered on the books of a trader.-STEEVENS.

that metry sconce of yours,] Sconce is head.

Dro. E. I have some marks of yours upon my pate,
Some of my mistress' marks upon my shoulders,
But not a thousand marks between you both.—
If I should pay your worship those again,
Perchance, you will not bear them patiently.

Ant. S. Thy mistress' marks! what mistress, slave, hast thou?

Dro. E. Your worship's wife, my mistress at the Phœ

nix ;

She that dost fast, till you come home to dinner,
And prays, that you will hie you home to dinner.

Ant. S. What, wilt thou float me thus unto my face, Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.

Dro. E. What mean you, sir? for God's sake, hold your hands;

Nay, an you will not, sir, I'll take my heels.

[Exit. DRO. 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;i 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 :* If it prove so, I will begone the sooner. I'll to the Centaur, to go seek this slave; I greatly fear, my money is not safe.

b o'er-raught-] That is, over-reached.

[Exit.

i They say this town is full of cozenage;] This was the character the ancients give of it. Hence 'Epecia à λeğipapuana was proverbial amongst them. Thus Menander uses it, and 'Epeola ypaμuara, in the same sense.--WARBURTON. liberties of sin:] By liberties of sin, I believe Shakspeare means licensed offenders, such as mountebanks, fortune-tellers, &c. who cheat with impunity. STEEVENS.

ACT II.

SCENE I-A public Place.

Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA.

Adr. Neither my husband, nor the slave return'd, 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:

Time is their master; and, when they see time,
They'll go, or come: If so, be patient, sister.

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 lash'd 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' subject, and at their controls:
Men, more divine, the masters of all these,
Lords of the wide world, and wild wat'ry seas,
Indued 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.

Adr. This servitude makes you to keep unwed.

1 Adr. There's none but asses will be bridled so.

Luc. Why headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe.] Should it not rather be leash'd, i. e. coupled like a headstrong 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 as leash; the mariner lashes his guns, the sportsman leashes his dogs.-STEEVENS.

Luc. Not this, but troubles of the marriage-bed.
Adr. But, were you wedded, you would bear some 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, unmov'd, no marvel though she pause;"
They can be meek, that have no other cause."
A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;

But were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain:
So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience would'st relieve me :
But, if thou live to see like right bereft,

This fool-begg'do patience in thee will be left.

Luc. Well, I will marry one day, but to try ;Here comes your man, now is your husband nigh. 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 could'st 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."

m

start some other where?] I suspect that where has here the power of a noun. The sense is, How if your husband fly off in pursuit of some other woman? Other where signifies in other places.--STEEVENS.

n

though she pause ;] To pause is to rest, to be in quiet.-JOHNSON. They can be meek, that have no other cause.] That is, who have no cause to be otherwise.-M. Mason.

p - fool-begg'd—] i. e. Abused. She means by fool-begg'd patience, that patience which is so near to idiotical simplicity, that your next relation would take advantage from it to represent you as a fool, and beg the guardianship of your fortune.-JOHNSON.

that I could scarce understand them.] i. e. That I could scarce stand under them. This quibble, poor as it is, seems to have been a favourite with Shakspeare.-STEEVENS.

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 horn-mad. Adr. Horn-mad, thou villain?

[mad:

Dro. E. I mean not cuckold-mad; but, sure, he's stark When I desir'd him to come home to dinner, He ask'd me for a thousand marks in gold: 'Tis dinner time, quoth I; My gold, quoth he: Your meat doth burn, quoth I; My gold, quoth he: Will you come home? quoth I; My gold, quoth he: Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain? The pig, quoth I, is burn'd; My gold, quoth he: My mistress, sir, quoth I; Hang up thy mistress; I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress! Luc. Quoth who?

Dro. E. Quoth my master:

I know, quoth he, no house, no wife, no mistress ;-
So that my errand, due unto my tongue,

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. 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. 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: If I last in this service, you must case me in leather."

Luc. Fye, how impatience lowreth in your face! Adr. His company must do his minions grace, Whilst I at home starve for a merry look.

Hath homely age the alluring beauty took

[Exit.

Am I so round with you, as you with me,] He plays upon the word round, which signifies spherical, applied to himself, and unrestrained, or free in speech or action spoken of his mistress.-JOHNSON.

case me in leather.] Still alluding to a football, the bladder of which is always covered with leather.-STEEVENS.