Adr. There's none, but asses, will be bridled so. Adr. This servitude makes you to keep unwed. 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, 2 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? Or perhaps 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. Mr. M. Mason inclines to leashed. 3 start some other where?] Probably where has here the power of a noun. The sense is, How if your husband fly off in pursuit of some other woman? 4 though she pause ;] To pause is to rest, to be in quiet. 5 They can be meek, that have no other cause.] That is, who have no cause to be otherwise. 6 So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee, This fool-begg'd' patience in thee will be left. 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, did'st 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 ". 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? Dro. E. I mean not cuckold-mad; but, sure, he's stark mad: When I desir'd him to come home to dinner, He asked me for a thousand marks in gold: - 6 With urging helpless patience ] By exhorting me to patience, which affords no help. 7 - fool-begg'd -] She seems to mean, 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. 8 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. 'Tis dinner time, quoth I; My gold, quoth he: Your meat doth burn, quoth I; My gold, quoth he: Dro. E. Quoth my master: I know, quoth he, no house, no wife, no mistress ;- I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders; 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! [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. 1 case me in leather.] Still alluding to a football, the bladder of which is always covered with leather. VOL. IV. C Do their gay vestments his affections bait? And feeds from home; poor I am but his stale". Luc. Self-harming jealousy !-fye, beat it hence. Or else, what lets it but he would be here? Will lose his beauty; and though gold 'bides still, [Exeunt. Of my defeatures:] By defeatures is here meant alteration of features for the worse. At the end of this play the same word is used with a somewhat different signification. 66 3 4 My decayed fair -] Fair for fairness. poor I am but his stale.] i. e. his pretence. + "and no man,"-MALONE. 5 I see, the jewel, best enamelled, Will lose his beauty; and though gold 'bides still, That others touch, yet often touching will Wear gold; and so no man, that hath a name, But falsehood and corruption doth it shame.] The sense is this: 'Gold, indeed, will long bear the handling; however, often touching will wear even gold; just so the greatest character, though as pure as gold itself, may, in time, be injured, by the repeated attacks of falsehood and corruption." WARBURTON. SCENE II. The same. Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse. Ant. S. The gold, I gave to Dromio, is laid up Enter DROMIO of Syracuse. How now, sir? is your merry humour alter'd? Dro. S. What answer, sir? when spake I such a word? Ant. S. Even now, even here, not half an hour since. Dro. S. I did not see you since you sent me hence, Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me. Ant. S. Villain, thou did'st deny the gold's receipt ; And told'st me of a mistress, and a dinner; For which, I hope, thou felt'st I was displeas'd. Dro. S. I am glad to see you in this merry vein: What means this jest? I pray you, master, tell me. Ant. S. Yea, dost thou jeer, and flout me in the teeth? Think'st thou, I jest? Hold, take thou that, and that. [Beating him. Dro. S. Hold, sir, for God's sake: now your jest is earnest : Upon what bargain do you give it me? Ant. S. Because that I familiarly sometimes |