Ang. Well, Sir, I will have you the chain about

you?

E. Ant. An if I have not, Sir, I hope, you have: Or else you may return without your mony.

Ang. Nay, come, I pray you, Sir, give me the chain;

Both wind and tide ftay for this gentleman;
And I, to blame, have held him here too long.

E. Ant. Good Lord, you use this dalliance to excufe
Your breach of promife to the Porcupine:
I fhould have chid you for not bringing it;
But, like a fhrew, you first begin to brawl.

Mer. The hour fteals on; I pray you, Sir, dispatch. Ang. You hear, how he importunes me; the chainE. Ant. Why, give it my wife, and fetch your

mony.

Ang. Come, come you know, I gave it you ev'n

now.

Or fend the chain, or fend me by fome token.

E. Ang. Fy, now you run this humour out of breath.

Come, where's the chain? I pray you, let me fee it.
Mer. My bufinefs cannot brook this dalliance:
Good Sir, fay, whe'r you'll answer me or no
If not, I'll leave him to the officer.

E. Ant. I answer you? why should I anfwer you?
Ang. The mony, that you owe me for the chain.
Ang. I owe you none, 'till I receive the chain.
Ang. You know, I gave it you half an hour fince.
E. Ant. You gave me none; you wrong me much
to fay fo.

Ang. You wrong me more, Sir, in denying it;
Confider, how it ftands upon my credit.

Mer. Well, officer, arreft him at my fuit.

Off. I do, and charge you in the Duke's name to obey me.

Ang. This touches me in reputation. Either confent to pay the fum for me,

Or

Ör I attach you by this officer.

E. Ant. Confent to pay for that I never had!
Arreft me, foolish fellow, if thou darʼst.

Ang. Here is thy fee; arreft him, officer;
I would not fpare my brother in this cafe,
If he fhould fcorn me fo apparently.

Offi. I do arreft you, Sir; you hear the fuit.
E. Ant. I do obey thee, 'till I give thee bail.
But, Sirrah, you fhall buy this fport as dear
As all the metal in your fhop will anfwer.

Ang. Sir, Sir, I shall have law in Ephefus,
To your notorious fhame, I doubt it not.

SCENE II.

Enter Dromio of Syracufe, from the Bay.

8. Dro. Mafter, there is a bark of Epidamnum, That stays but till her owner comes aboard; Then, Sir, the bears away. Our fraughtage, Sir, I have convey'd aboard; and I have bought The Oil, the Balfamum, and Aqua-vite.

The ship is in her trim; the merry wind
Blows fair from land; they ftay for nought at all.
But for their owner, mafter, and yourself.

E. Ant. How now ! a mad man! why, thou peevish sheep,

What fhip of Epidamnum ftays for me?

S. Dro. A fhip you fent me to, to hire waftage. E. Ant. Thou drunken flave, I fent thee for a rope;" And told thee to what purpose, and what end.

S. Dro. You fent me for a rope's-end as foon: You fent me to the bay, Sir, for a bark.

E. Ant. I will debate this matter at more leifure And teach your ears to lift me with more heed. To Adriana, villain, hie thee ftrait, Give her this key, and tell her, in the defk That's cover'd o'er with Turkish tapestry,

There

There is a purfe of ducats, let her fend it:

Tell her, I am arrested in the street,

And that fhall bail me; hie thee, flave; be gone : On, officer, to prison 'till it come.

[Exeunt:

S. Dro. To Adriana! that is where we din'd, Where Dowfabel did claim me for her husband; She is too big, I hope, for me to compais. Thither I muft, altho' against my will,

For fervants muft their mafter's minds fulfil.

Changes to E. Antipholis's Houfe.
Enter Adriana and Luciana.

[Exit.

Adr. Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee fo? Might'st thou perceive aufterely in his eye That he did plead in earneft, yea or no? Look'd he or red or pale, or fad or merrily? What obfervation mad'ft thou in this cafe, Of his heart's meteors tilting in his face 2? Luc. First he deny'd. You had in him no right. Adr. He meant, he did me none, the more my fpight.

2

Luc. Then fwore he, that he was a stranger here.
Adr. And true he swore, though yet forfworn he

were.

Luc. Then pleaded I for
Adr. And what faid he?

you.

Luc. That love I begg'd for you, he begg'd of me. Adr. With what perfuafion did he tempt thy love? Luc. With words, that in an honeft fuit might move.

meteors tilting in his face?] Alluding to thofe meteors in the fky which have the appearance of lines of armies meeting in the fhock. To this appearance he compares civil wars in another place.

Which, like the meteors of à

troubled heav'n,

All of one nature of one substance
bred,

Did lately meet in the intestine
Shock

And furious clofe of civil butchery.
WARBURTON.

First,

First, he did praife my beauty, then my speech.
Adr. Did'it fpeak him fair?

Luc. Have patience, I beseech.

Adr. I cannot, nor I will not, hold me ftill ; My tongue, though not my heart, fhall have its will. He is deformed, crooked, old and * fere, Ill-fac'd, worfe-body'd, fhapeless every where ; Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind, +Stigmatical in making, worfe in mind.

Luc. Who would be jealous then of such a one? No evil loft is wail'd, when it is gone.

Adr. Ah! but I think him better than I fay, And yet, would herein others' eyes were worfe: For from her neft the lapwing cries away;

My heart

prays for him, tho' my tongue do curfe.

Enter Dromio of Syracufe.

S. Dro. Here, go: the defk, the purfe; fweet now make haste.

Luc. How haft thou loft thy breath?

S. Dro. By running faft.

Adr. Where is thy mafter, Dromio? is he well?

S. Dro. No, he's in Tartar Limbo, worse than hell; A devil in an everlasting garment hath him, One, whofe hard heart is button'd up with fteel: A fiend, a fairy, pitilefs and rough 3,

A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow' all in buff;

*Sere, that is, dry, withered. + Stigmatical in making] That is, marked or ftigmatized by nature with deformity, as a token of his vicious difpofition.

3 A Fiend, a Fairy, pitiless and rough,] Dromio here bringing word in hafte that his Mafter is arrested, describes the Bailiff by Names proper to raise Horror and Deteftation of fuch

a Creature, fuch as, a Devil, a
Fiend, a Wolf, &c. But how
does Fairy come up to these ter-
rible Ideas? We fhould read.
a Fiend, a Fury, &c. THEOB.

Mr. Theobald feems to have for gotten that there were fairies like hobgoblins, pitilefs and rough, and defcribed as malevolent and mischievous. His emendation is, however, plaufible.

A

A back-friend, a fhoulder-clapper, one that commands The paffages of allies, creeks, and narrow lands;

*

A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well;

One, that before the judgment carries poor fouls to hell. Adr. Why, man, what is the matter?

S. Dro. I do not know the matter; he is 'refted on the cafe.

Adr. What, is he arrested? tell me, at whofe fuit ? S. Dró. I know not at whose suit he is arrefted, well; but he's in a fuit of buff, which 'refted him, that I can tell. Will you fend him, miftrefs, redemption, the mony in his desk?

Adr. Go fetch it, fifter. This I wonder at.

[Exit Luciana. That he, unknown to me, fhould be in debt! Tell me, was he arrefted on a bond?

. S. Dro. Not on a bond, but on a stronger thing, A chain, a chain; do you not hear it ring?

Adr. What, the chain?

S. Dro. No, no, the bell; 'tis time that I were gone, It was two ere I left him, and now the clock ftrikes one. Adr. The hours come back! that I did never hear. S. Dro. O yes, if any hour meet a ferjeant, a' turns back for very fear.

Adr. As if time were in debt! how fondly doft thou reason?

S. Dro. Time is a very bankrout, and owes more

than he's worth, to feafon.

Nay, he's a thief too; have you not heard men fay, That time comes ftealing on by night and day?

*A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well;] To run counter, is to run back ward, by miftaking the courfe of the animal purfued; to draw dry foot is, I believe, to purfue by the track or prick of the foot; to run counter and draw dry foot well are, therefore, inconfiftent.

The jeft confifts in the ambiguity of the word counter, which means the wrong way in the chafe, and a prifon in London. The officer that arrested him was a ferjeant of the counter. For the congruity of this jeft with the Scene of action, let our author an fwer.