ANT. E. Wherefore? for my dinner; I have not din'd to-day.

DRO. S. Nor to-day here you must not; come again, when you may.

ANT. E. What art thou, that keep'st me out from the house I owe?"

DRO. S. The porter for this time, sir, and my name is Dromio.

DRO. E. O villain, thou hast stolen both mine office and my name;

The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle

blame.

If thou had'st been Dromio to-day in my place, Thou would'st have chang'd thy face for a name, or thy name for an ass.

LUCE. [Within.] What a coil is there! Dromio, who are those at the gate?

DRO. E. Let my master in, Luce.

LUCE.

Faith no; he comes too late;

And so tell your master.

DRO. E.

O Lord, I must laugh :

Have at you with a proverb.-Shall I set in my staff? LUCE. Have at you with another: that's, When? can you tell?

7

DRO. S. If thy name be called Luce, Luce, thou hast answer'd him well.

ANT. E. Do you hear, you minion? you'll let us in, I hope ?s

I owe?] i. e. I own, am owner of. So, in The Four Prentices of London, 1615:

8

I hope?] A line either preceding or following this

LUCE. I thought to have ask'd you.

DRO. S.

And

you said, no.

DRO. E. So, come, help; well struck; there was blow for blow.

ANT. E. Thou baggage, let me in.

LUCE.

Can you tell for whose sake?

Let him knock till it ake.

DRO. E. Master, knock the door hard.

LUCE.

ANT. E. You'll cry for this, minion, if I beat the door down.

LUCE. What needs all that, and a pair of stocks in the town?

ADR. [Within.] Who is that at the door, that keeps all this noise?

DRO. S. By my troth, your town is troubled with unruly boys.

ANT. E. Are you there, wife? you might have come before.

ADR. Your wife, sir knave! go, get you from the door.

DRO. E. If you went in pain, master, this knave go sore.

would

has, I believe, been lost. Mr. Theobald and the subsequent editors read-I trow; but that word, and hope, were not likely to be confounded by either the eye or the ear. MALONE.

The text, I believe, is right, and means-I expect you'll let us in. To hope, in ancient language, has sometimes this signification. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

I cannot hope

"Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together."

Again, in Chaucer's Reve's Tale, v. 4027:

"Our manciple I hope he wol be ded." STEEVENS.

ANG. Here is neither cheer, sir, nor welcome; we would fain have either.

BAL. In debating which was best, we shall part with neither.9

DRO. E. They stand at the door, master; bid them welcome hither.

ANT. E. There is something in the wind, that we cannot get in.

DRO. E. You would say so, master, if your garments were thin.

Your cake here is warm within; you stand here in the cold:

It would make a man mad as a buck, to be so bought and sold.1

ANT. E. Go, fetch me something, I'll break ope the gate.

DRO. S. Break any breaking here, and I'll break your knave's pate.

DRO. E. A man may break a word with you, and words are but wind;

sir;

Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind.

9

we shall part with neither.] In our old language, to part signified to have part. See Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, ver. 9504:

"That no wight with his blisse parten shall.” The French use partir in the same sense. TYRWHITT.

Tyrwhitt mistakes the sense of this passage.

To part does not signify to share or divide, but to depart or go away; and Balthazar means to say, that whilst debating which is best, they should go away without either. M. MASON.

1

bought and sold.] This is a proverbial phrase. "To be bought and sold in a company." See Ray's Collection, p. 179, edit. 1737. STEEVENS.

DRO. S. It seems, thou wantest breaking; Out upon thee, hind!

DRO. E. Here's too much, out upon thee! I pray thee, let me in.

DRO. S. Ay, when fowls have no feathers, and fish have no fin.

ANT. E. Well, I'll break in; Go borrow me a

crow.

DRO. E. A crow without a feather; master, mean you so?

For a fish without a fin, there's a fowl without a

feather:

If a crow help us in, sirrah, we'll pluck a crow to

gether.2

ANT. E. Go, get thee gone, fetch me an iron

crow.

BAL. Have patience, sir; O, let it not be so; Herein you war against your reputation, And draw within the compass of suspect The unviolated honour of your wife.

Once this,3-Your long experience of her wisdom,

we'll pluck a crow together.] We find the same quibble on a like occasion in one of the comedies of Plautus.

The children of distinction among the Greeks and Romans had usually birds of different kinds given them for their amusement. This custom Tyndarus, in The Captives, mentions, and says, that for his part he had

66

·tantum upupam."

Upupa signifies both a lapwing and a mattock, or some instrument of the same kind, employed to dig stones from the quarries. STEEVENS.

Once this,] This expression appears to me so singular, that I cannot help suspecting the passage to be corrupt. MALONE. Once this, may mean, once for all, at once. So, in Sydney's Arcadia, Book I: "Some perchance loving my estate, others my person. But once, I know all of them," &c. Again, ibid.

Her sober virtue, years, and modesty,

Plead on her part some cause to you unknown;
And doubt not, sir, but she will well excuse
Why at this time the doors are made against you."
Be rul'd by me; depart in patience,
And let us to the Tiger all to dinner:
And, about evening, come yourself alone,
To know the reason of this strange restraint.
If by strong hand you offer to break in,
Now in the stirring passage of the day,
A vulgar comment will be made on it;
And that supposed by the common rout
Against your yet ungalled estimation,
That may with foul intrusion enter in,
And dwell upon your grave when you are dead:
For slander lives upon succession;7

6

For ever hous'd, where it once gets possession.

8

B. III: " -She hit him, with his own sworde, such a blowe upon the waste, that she almost cut him asunder: once she sundred his soule from his body, sending it to Proserpina, an angry goddess against ravishers." STEEVENS.

Your long experience of her wisdom,

Plead on her part] The old copy reads-your, in both places. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

5

the doors are made against you.] Thus the old edition. The modern editors read:

6

the doors are barr'd against you.

To make the door, is the expression used to this day in some counties of England, instead of, to bar the door. STEEVENS. supposed by the common rout-] For supposed I once thought it might be more commodious to substitute supported; but there is no need of change: supposed is founded on supposition, made by conjecture. JOHNSON.

7

upon succession ;] Succession is often used as a quadrisyllable by our author, and his contemporaries. So, Act IV, sc. i. line 5, satisfaction composes half a verse:

"Therefore make present satisfaction."

MALONE,

• For ever hous'd, where it once gets possession.] The adverb once is wanting in the first folio. STEEVENS.