Ant. For what reafon ? S. Dro. For two, and found ones too. Ant. Nay, not fure in a thing falfing. Ant. Name them. S. Dro. The one to fave the mony that he fpends in tyring; the other, that at dinner they fhould not drop in his porridge. Ant. You would all this time have prov'd, there is no time for all things. S. Dro. Marry, and did, Sir; namely, no time to recover hair loft by nature. Ant. But your reafon was not fubftantial, why there is no time to recover. S. Dro. Thus I mend it: Time himself is bald, and therefore to the world's end will have bald followers. Ant. I knew, 'twould be a bald conclufion: but, foft! who wafts us yonder? SCENE V. Enter Adriana, and Luciana. Adr. Ay, ay, Antipholis, look ftrange and frown, Some other mistress hath thy fweet aspects: I am not Adriana, nor thy wife. The time was once, when thou, unurg'd, wouldft vow, That never words were mufick to thine ear, That never object pleafing in thine eye, That never touch well welcome to thy hand, That never meat fweet-favour'd in thy tafte, Unless I fpake, or look'd, or touch'd, or carv'd. How comes it now, my husband, oh, how comes it, That thou art thus eftranged from thyself? Thyfelf I call it, being ftrange to me: That, undividable, incorporate, Ain better than thy dear felf's better part. As take from me thyfelf, and not me too. I know thou can'ft; and therefore, fee thou do it. Being ftrumpeted by thy contagion. Keep then fair league, and truce with thy true bed ; I live dif-ftain'd, thou undifhoured 3. Ant. Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not: In Ephefus I am but two hours old, As ftrange unto your town as to your talk. + I am poffefs'd with an adul terate blot; My blood is mingled with the CRIME of luft] Both the integrity of the metaphor, and the word blet, in the preceding line, fhew that we should read; with the GRIME of luft: i. e. the ftain, fmut. So again in this play, A man may go fhoes in the GRIME of it. over WARBURTON. 51 live diftain'd, thou undif honoured.] To diftaine (from the French Word, deftaindre) fignifies, to ftain, defile, pollute. But the Context requires a Senfe quite oppofite. We muft either read, unflain'd; or, by adding an Hyphen, and giving the Prepofition a privative Force, read dif-ftain'd; and then it will mean, unftain'd, undefiled. THEOBALD. Who, Who, every word by all my wit being scann'd, Luc. Fy, brother! how the world is chang'd with you; When were you wont to use my sister thus ? S. Dro. By me? Adr. By thee; and thus thou didst return from him, That he did buffet thee; and in his blows Deny'd my house for his, me for his wife. Ant. Did you converfe, Sir, with this gentlewoman? What is the courfe and drift of your compact? S. Dro. I, Sir? I never faw her 'till this time. Ant. Villain, thou lieft; for even her very words Didst thou deliver to me on the mart. S. Dro. I never spoke with her in all my life. Adr. How ill agrees it with your gravity, Who, all for want of pruning, with intrusion Infect thy fap, and live on thy confufion. Ant. To me the speaks; the moves me for her theam: What, was I marry'd to her in my dream? -you are from me exempt.] Exempt, feparated, parted. The fenfe is, If I am doomed to fuffer the wrong of feparation, yet injure not with contempt me who am already injured. Or Or fleep I now, and think I hear all this? I'll entertain the favour'd fallacy. Luc. Dromio, go bid the fervant spread for dinner. S. Dro. Oh, for my beads! I cross me for a finner. This is the Fairy land: oh, fpight of spights! We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish fprights; If we obey them not, this will enfue, They'll fuck our breath, and pinch us black and blue. Luc. Why prat'ft thou to thyfelf, and anfwer'st not? Dromia, thou drone, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot! S. Dro We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish Sprights;] Here Mr. Theobald calls out in the name of Nonfenfe, the first time he had formally invoked her, to tell him how Owls could fuck their breath, and pinch them black and blue. He, therefore, alters Owls to Ouphs, and dares fay, that his readers will acquiefce in the juftness of his emendation. But, for all this, we must not part with the old reading. He did not know it to be an old popular fuperftition, that the fcretchowl fucked out the breath and blood of infants in the cradle. On this account, the Italians called Witches, who were fup. pofed to be in like manner mifchievously bent against children, Strega, from Strix, the Scretchowl. This fuperftition they had derived from their Pagan anceftors, as appears from this paffage of Ovid, Sunt avide volucres; non quæ genus S. Dro. I am transformed, master, am not I? S. Dro. No; I am an ape. Luc. If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an afs. S. Dro. 'Tis true; fhe rides me, and I long for grafs. 'Tis fo, I am an afs; But I fhould know her, else it could never be, as well as fhe knows me. Adr. Come, come, no longer will I be a fool, To put the finger in the Eye and weep, Whilft man and mafter laugh my woes to fcorn. Ant. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell? S. Dro. Mafter, fhall I porter at the gate ? The Verfe is thus half a Foot tions of Reproach. THEOBALD. 9. And fhrive you-] That is, I will call you to confeffion, and make you tell your tricks. ACT |