8 Men, more divine, the masters of all these, ADR. This servitude makes you to keep unwed. 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 ?9 Luc. Till he come home again, I would forbear. Men,-the_masters &c.] The old copy has Man,-the master &c. and in the next line-Lord. Corrected by Sir T. Hanmer. MALONE. 9 · start some other where?] I cannot but think, that our author wrote: start some other hare? So, in Much Ado about Nothing, Cupid is said to be a good hare-finder. JOHNSON. I suspect that where has here the power of a noun. So, in King Lear: "Thou losest here, a better where to find." Again, in Tho. Drant's translation of Horace's Satires, 1567: they ranged in eatche where, "No spousailes knowne," &c. The sense is, How, if your husband fly off in pursuit of some other woman? The expression is used again, scene iii: 66 - his eye doth homage otherwhere." Again, in Romeo and Juliet, Act I: "This is not Romeo, he's some otherwhere." Otherwhere signifies-in other places. So, in King Henry VIII. Act II. sc. ii: "The king hath sent me otherwhere." ADR. Patience, unmov'd, no marvel though she pause; They can be meek, that have no other cause.2 But were we burden'd with like weight of pain, This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left.5 Again, in Chapman's version of the second Book of Homer's Odyssey: "For we will never go, where lies our good, 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. 3 A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity, We bid be quiet, &c.] Shakspeare has the same sentiment in Much Ado about Nothing, where Leonato says— "Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief And again: 66 'tis all men's office to speak patience "To those that wring under the load of sorrow." DOUCE. With urging helpless patience-] By exhorting me to patience, which affords no help. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis: "As those poor birds that helpless berries saw." MALONE. -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. JOHNSON. 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 couldst 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-mąd; but, sure, he's stark mad: When I desir'd him to come home to dinner, 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. It has been already introduced in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: 7 66 my staff understands me." STEEVENS. a thousand marks in gold:] The old copy reads hundred marks. The correction was made in the second folio. MALONE. VOL. XX. 2 B 8 '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 ;- I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders; ADR. Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him 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,1 • Will you come home? quoth I;] The word home, which the metre requires, but is not in the authentick copy of this play, was suggested by Mr. Capell. MALONE. 9 I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress!] I suppose. this dissonant line originally stood thus: I know no mistress; out upon thy mistress! STEEVENS. 1 Am I so round with you, as you with me,] He plays upon the word round, which signified spherical, applied to himself, 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.2 Luc. Fye, how impatience lowreth in [Exit. your face! ADR. His company must do his minions grace, Whilst I at home starve for a merry look.3 Hath homely age the alluring beauty took From my poor cheek? then he hath wasted it: Are my discourses dull? barren my wit? If voluble and sharp discourse be marr'd, Unkindness blunts it, more than marble hard. Do their gay vestments his affections bait? That's not my fault, he's master of my state: What ruins are in me, that can be found By him not ruin'd? then is he the ground Of my defeatures: My decayed fair5 A sunny look of his would soon repair: and unrestrained, or free in speech or action, spoken of his mistress. So the King, in Hamlet, bids the Queen be round with her son. JOHNSON. 2 case me in leather.] Still alluding to a football, the bladder of which is always covered with leather. STEEVENS. 3 Whilst I at home starve for a merry look.] So, in our poet's 47th Sonnet: 4 "When that mine eye is famish'd for a look.” MALONE. Of my defeatures:] By defeatures is here meant alteration of features. At the end of this play the same word is used with a somewhat different signification. STEEVENS. 5 My decayed fair-] Shakspeare uses the adjective gilt, as a substantive, for what is gilt, and in this instance fair for fairness. To μe naλov, is a similar expression. In A Midsummer-Night's Dream, the old quartos read: "Demetrius loves your fair." Again, in Shakspeare's 68th Sonnet: "Before these bastard signs of fair were born.” |