There's nothing, situate under Heaven's eye, Adr. This servitude makes you to keep unwed. some sway. Luc. Ere I learn love, I'll practise to obey. pause3; They can be meek, that have no other cause 4. But were we burden'd with like weight of pain, 2 Elsewhere, other where; in another place, alibi,' says Baret. The sense is, 'How if your husband fly off in pursuit of some other woman?' 3 To pause is to rest, to be quiet. 4 i. e. no cause to be otherwise. 5 That is, by urging me to patience which affords no help. So in Venus and Adonis: ' As those poor birds that helpless berries saw.' 6 Fool-begg'd patience' is that patience which is so near to idiotical simplicity, that you might be represented to be a fool, and your guardianship begg'd accordingly. 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 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 them7. 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, 7 i. e. scarce stand under them. This quibble is repeated in the Two Gentlemen of Verona: - My staff understands me.' 8 Home is not in the old copy: it was supplied to complete the verse by Capell. 9 We have an equally unmetrical line in the first Act:Therefore, merchant, I'll limit thee this day.' Luc. Quoth who? Dro. E. Quoth my master: I know, quoth he, no house, no wife, no mistress ;So that my errand, due unto my tongue, I thank him, I bear home upon my shoulders; For, in conclusion, he did beat me there. 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 10 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. [Exit. Luc. Fie, how impatience loureth in your face! Adr. His company must do his minions grace, Whilst I at home starve for a merry look 11. 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. 10 He plays upon the word round, which signifies spherical, as applied to himself; and unrestrained, or free in speech or action, as regards his mistress. The King in Hamlet desires the Queen to be round with her son. 11 So in Shakspeare's Sonnets, the forty-seventh and seventyfifth: When that mine eye is famish'd for a look.' Do their gay vestments his affections bait? I know his eye doth homage otherwhere; 12 Defeat and defeature were used for disfigurement or alteration of features. Cotgrave has Un visage desfaict: Growne very leane, pale, wan, or decayed in feature and colour.' It occurs again in the last act; and is also used by the poet in his Venus and Adonis : 'To mingle beauty with deformity, And pure perfection with impure defeature.' The word is so expressive, that it is surprising that it has fallen into disuse. It is, I believe, peculiar to Shakspeare in this sense; though defeature is used for discomfiture, defeat, overthrow, by others. 13 Fair, strictly speaking, is not used here for fairness, as Steevens supposed; but for beauty. Shakspeare has often employed it in this sense, without any relation to whiteness of skin or complexion. The use of the substantive instead of the adjective, in this instance, is not peculiar to him; but the common practice of his contemporaries. Marston, in one of his Satires, says: 'As the greene meads, whose native outward faire 14 Though Shakspeare sometimes uses stale for a decoy or bait, I do not think that he meant it here; or that Adriana can mean to call herself his stalking horse. Probably she means she is thrown aside, forgotten, cast off, become stale to him. The dictionaries, in voce Exoletus, countenance this explanation. 15 Hinders. So he would keep fair quarter with his bed! 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 no man, that hath a name, Luc. How many fond fools serve mad jealousy! SCENE II. The same. Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse. [Exeunt. Ant. S. The gold, I gave to Dromio, is laid up Safe at the Centaur; and the heedful slave Is wander'd forth, in care to seek me out. By computation, and mine host's report, I could not speak with Dromio, since at first I sent him from the mart: See, here he comes. Enter DROMIO of Syracuse. How now, sir? is your merry humour alter'd? Dro. S. What answer, sir? when spake I such 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 didst 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. VOL. IV. 0 |