Duke. Why, this is ftrange; go call the Abbefs

hither;

I think, you are all mated, or stark mad.

[Exit one to the Abbefs.

SCENE VI

Egeon. Moft mighty Duke, vouchsafe me speak a word :

Haply, I fee a friend, will fave my life ;
And pay the fum that may deliver me.

Duke. Speak freely, Syracufan, what thou wilt. Ægeon. Is not your name, Sir, call'd Antipholis ? And is not that your bond-man Dromio?

E. Dro. Within this hour I was his bond-man, Sir, But he, I thank him, gnaw'd in two my cords; Now am I Dromio, and his man unbound.

Egeon. I am fure, you both of you remember me. E. Dro. Ourselves we do remember, Sir, by you;' For lately we were bound, as you are now. You are not Pinch's patient; are you, Sir?

Ægeon, Why look you ftrange on me? you know me well.

E. Ant. I never faw you in my life, 'till now. Egeon. Oh! grief hath changed me, fince you saw me last;

And careful hours with time's deformed hand

2

Have written ftrange defeatures in my face;
But tell me yet, doft thou not know my voice?
E. Ant. Neither.

Egeon. Dromio, nor thou?

E. Dro. No, truft me, Sir, nor I.

Egeon. I am fure, thou doft.

E. Dro. I, Sir? but I am fure, I do not: and whatfoever a man denies, you are now bound to believe him.

2

Strange defeatures. Defea- The meaning is, time hath canture is the privative of feature.

celled my features.

Egeon. Not know my voice! oh, time's extremity! Haft thou fo crack'd and splitted my poor tongue In feven fhort years, that here my only fon Knows not my feeble key untun'd care? Tho' now this grained face of mine be hid In fap-confuming winter's drizled fnow, And all the conduits of my blood froze up; Yet hath my night of life fome memory; My wafting lamp fome fading glimmer left, My dull deaf ears a little ufe to hear: 3 All these old witneffes, I cannot err, Tell me thou art my son Antipholis.

E. Ant. I never faw my father in my life. Egeon. But feven years fince, in Syracufa bay, Thou know'ft, we parted; but, perhaps, my fon, Thou fham'ft t'acknowledge me in mifery.

E. Ant. The Duke, and all that know me in the city, Can witness with me that it is not fo:

I ne'er faw Syracufa in my life.

Duke. I tell thee, Syracufan, twenty years
Have I been Patron to Antipholis,

During which time he ne'er faw Syracufa:
I fee, thy age and dangers make thee doat.

SCENE VII.

Enter the Abbefs, with Antipholis Syracufan, and
Dromio Syracufan.

And fo of these which is the natural man,
And which the fpirit? who deciphers them?

S. Dro. I, Sir, am Dromio; command him away.
E. Dro. I, Sir, am Dromio; pray let me ftay.
S. Ant. Ægeon, art thou not? or else his ghoft?
S. Dro. Oh, my old master! who hath bound him
here?

Abb. Whoever bound him, I will loofe his bonds; And gain a husband by his liberty.

Speak, old geon, if thou be'ft the man,
That hadft a wife once call'd Æmilia,

That bore thee at a burden two fair fons?
Oh, if thou be'ft the fame Egeon, speak;
And speak unto the fame Æmilia.

Duke. Why, here begins his morning ftory right:
These two Antipholis's, these two fo like,
And thofe two Dromio's, one in femblance;
Besides her urging of her wreck at sea,
These plainly are the parents of these children,
Which accidentally are met together.

Ageon. If I dream not, thou art Æmilia;
If thou art fhe, tell me where is that fon
That floated with thee on the fatal raft.

Abb. By men of Epidamnum, he and I,
And the twin Dromio, all were taken up;
But, by and by, rude fifhermen of Corinth
By force took Dromio, and my fon from them,
And me they left with thofe of Epidamnum.
What then became of them, I cannot tell ;
I, to this fortune that you fee me in.

Duke. Antipholis, thou cam'ft from Corinth first.
S. Ant. No, Sir, not I; I came from Syracufe.
Duk. Stay, ftand apart; I know not which is which.
E. Ant. I came from Corinth, my most gacious
Lord.

E. Dro. And I with him.

E. Ant. Brought to this town by that most famous

warrior,

Duke Menaphon, your most renowned uncle.
Adr. Which of you two did dine with me to day?
S. Ant. I, gentle miftrefs.

Adr. And are not you my hufband?
E. Ant. No, I fay nay to that.

S. Ant. And fo do 1, yet fhe did call me fo:
And this fair gentlewoman, her fifter here,
Did call me brother. What I told you then,
I hope, I shall have leisure to make good,
If this be not a dream, I fee and hear.

Ang. That is the chain, Sir, which you had of me.
S. Ant. I think it be, Sir, I deny it not.

E. Ant. And you, Sir, for this chain arrested me. Ang. I think, I did, Sir, I deny it not. Adr. I fent you mony, Sir, to be your bail, By Dromio; but, I think, he brought it not. E. Dro. No, none by me.

S. Ant. This purse of ducats I receiv'd from you,
And Dromio my man did bring them me;
I fee, we ftill did meet each other's man,
And I was ta'en for him, and he for me,
And thereupon thefe Errors all arose.

E. Ant. Thefe Ducats pawn I for my father here.
Duke. It shall not need, thy father hath his life.
Cour. Sir, I must have that diamond from you.
E. Ant. There, take it; and much thanks for my
good cheer.

Abb. Renowned Duke, vouchfafe to take the pains To go with us into the abbey here,

And hear at large discoursed all our fortunes:

And all that are affembled in this place,
That by this fympathized one day's Error
Have fuffer'd wrong; go, keep us company,
And ye fhall have full fatisfaction.

* Twenty-five years have I but gone in travel

Of

4 In former Editions: impoffible the Poet could be fo Thirty-three years.] "Tis forgetful, as to defign this Num

ber

Of you my fons; nor, 'till this prefent hour,
My heavy burdens are delivered:

The Duke, my hufband, and my children both,
And you the calendars of their nativity,

Go to a goffip's feast and go with me:
Afte fo long grief fuch nativity!

Duke. With all my heart, I'll goffip at this feaft.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VIII.

Manent the two Antipholis's, and two Dromio's.

S. Dro. Mafter, fhall I fetch your stuff from fhip.

boad?

E. Ant. Dromio, what ftuff of mine haft thou imbark'd?

S. Dro. Your goods, that lay at hoft, Sir, in the

Centaur.
S. Ant. He speaks

Dromio.

to me; I am your mafter,

ber here: and therefore I have
ventur❜d to alter it to twenty-five,
upon a Proof, that, I think, a-
mounts to demonftration. The
Number, I prefume, was at firft
wrote in figures, and, perhaps,
blindly; and thence the Miftake
might arife. Egeon, in the firft
Scene of the first Act, is precife
as to the Time his Son left him,
in Queft of his Brother:
My youngest Boy, and yet my eldest
Care,

At eighteen years became inqui-
fitive

After his Brother, &c.
And how long it was from the
Son's thus parting from his Fa-
ther, to their meeting again at
Ephefus, where Egeon, mifta-
kenly, recognizes the Twin bro-