Ant. E. Are you there, wife? you might have come before. Adr. [Within.] Your wife, sir knave! go get you from the door.

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

Ang. Here is neither cheer, sir, nor welcome: we would fain have either.

Bal. In debating which was best, we shall part 11 with

neither.

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 is warm within; you stand here in the cold:

It would make a man mad as a buck, to be so bought and sold.12

Ant. E. Go fetch me something: I'll break ope the gate. Dro. S. [Within.] Break any breaking here, and I'll break your knave's pate.

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

Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind. Dro. S. [Within.] It seems thou want'st breaking: out upon thee, hind!

Dro. E. Here's too much out upon thee! I pray thee,

let me in.

Dro. S. [Within.] Ay, when fowls have no feathers, and fish have no fin.

Ant. E. Well, I'll break in. Go borrow me a crow.

11 Part for depart; the two being formerly used indiscriminately.

12 This phrase, now so common, for tricked, taken in, or hoaxed, is here seen to be as old as Shakespeare's time, at least.

Dro. E. A crow without 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 together.13 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 14

Th' unviolated honour of your wife.

Once this,15- your long experience of her wisdom,

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 16 against you.
Be ruled by me: depart in patience,
And let us to the Tiger 17 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 of it;
And that supposed by the common rout
Against your yet ungallèd estimation,
That may with foul intrusion enter in,

And dwell upon your grave when you are dead;
For slander lives upon succession,

For ever housed where it gets possession.

13 This Dromio seems to be in a flux of proverbs. To "pluck a crow together" was a proverbial phrase for having a quarrel or a fight.

14 Another instance like that of dispose. See page 80, note 4.

15 Once this is plainly equivalent, here, to this is enough. So in Much Ado, i. 1: "Look, what will serve, is fit: 'tis once thou lovest; and I will fit thee with the remedy." And in Coriolanus, ii. 3: "Once, if he do require our voices; we ought not to deny him."

16 To "make the doors" is to fasten them. Still so used sometimes. 17 Tiger, like Centaur and Phenix before, for the name of an inn.

Ant. E. You have prevail'd: I will depart in quiet, And, in despite of mirth,18 mean to be merry.

I know a wench of excellent discourse,

Pretty and witty; wild, and yet, too, gentle :
There will we dine. This woman that I mean,

My wife but, I protest, without desert —
Hath oftentimes upbraided me withal:

To her will we to dinner. - Get you home,
And fetch the chain; by this I know 'tis made :
Bring it, I pray you, to the Porpentine ; 19
For there's the house: that chain will I bestow
Be it for nothing but to spite my wife -
Upon mine hostess there: good sir, make haste.
Since mine own doors refuse to entertain me,
I'll knock elsewhere, to see if they'll disdain me.
Ang. I'll meet you at that place some hour hence.
Ant. E. Do so. This jest shall cost me some expense.
[Exeunt.

Enter, from the House, LUCIANA and ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse.

Luc. And may it be that you have quite forgot

A husband's office? shall, Antipholus,

Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs 20 rot?
Shall love, in building, grow so ruinous?

18 One might think this ought to be "in despite of grief." But he probably means that, to spite the mirth his wife is having with another man, he will go and be merry with another woman. Heath explains it thus: "Though mirth hath withdrawn herself from me, and seems determined to avoid me, yet, in despite of her, and whether she will or not, I am resolved to be merry."

19 Porpentine is the old form, always used by Shakespeare, for porcupine. Here it is the name of an inn. - By this, in the line before, is by this time.

20 Love-springs are the buds of love, or rather the young shoots. So in Venus and Adonis: "This canker that eats up love's tender spring." And in Baret's Alvearie: "The spring, or young shoots that grow out of the stems or roots of trees."

If you did wed my sister for her wealth,

Then for her wealth's sake use her with more kindness:

Or if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth;

Muffle your false love with some show of blindness:

Let not my sister read it in your eye;

Be not thy tongue thy own shame's orator;

Look sweet, speak fair, become disloyalty; 21
Apparel vice like virtue's harbinger;

Bear a fair presence, though your heart be tainted;
Teach sin the carriage of a holy saint;

Be secret-false: what need she be acquainted?
What simple thief brags of his own attaint?
'Tis double wrong, to truant with your bed,
And let her read it in thy looks at board:
Shame hath a bastard fame, well managed;
Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.
Alas, poor women! make us but believe,
Being compact of credit,22 that you love us;

Though others have the arm, show us the sleeve;
We in your motion turn, and you may move us.
Then, gentle brother, get you in again;

Comfort my sister, cheer her, call her wife :

'Tis holy sport, to be a little vain,23

When the sweet breath of flattery conquers strife.

Ant. S. Sweet mistress,— what your name is else, I know

not,

Nor by what wonder you do hit of 24 mine,

21 To "become disloyalty" is to make it look becoming.

22 "Compact of credit" is composed, framed, or made up of credulity. So in A Midsummer, v. 1: "The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact."

23 Vain here means light of tongue; speaking falsely or insincerely, as in "the sweet breath of flattery."

24 Of and on were used indifferently in such cases. Shakespeare has many instances.

Less in your knowledge and your grace you show not
Than our earth's wonder; more than earth divine.
Teach me, dear creature, how to think and speak;
Lay open to my earthy-gross conceit,
Smother'd in errors, feeble, shallow, weak,
The folded meaning of your words' deceit.
Against my soul's pure truth why labour you
To make it wander in an unknown field?
Are you a god? would you create me new?
Transform me, then, and to your power I'll yield.
But if that I am I, then well I know
Your weeping sister is no wife of mine,
Nor to her bed no homage do I owe :
Far more, far more to you do I decline.25
O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,
To drown me in thy sister's flood of tears:
Sing, siren, for thyself, and I will dote :
Spread o'er the silver waves thy golden hairs,
And as a bed I'll take them, and there lie;
And, in that glorious supposition, think
He gains by death that hath such means to die :
Let Love be light, being drownèd if she sink ! 26

Luc. What, are you mad, that you do reason so?
Ant. S. Not mad, but mated; 27 how, I do not know.
Luc. It is a fault that springeth from your eye.
Ant. S. For gazing on your beams, fair sun, being by.
Luc. Gaze where you should, and that will clear your sight.

25 It appears that decline was sometimes used in the sense of incline. So Baret: "To decline; to turne, or hang toward some place or thing." 26 Love here means the Queen of love, Venus, not her tow-head son. So in the Poet's Venus and Adonis:

Love is a spirit, all compact of fire,

Not gross to sink, Lat light, and will aspire.

27 A quibble, mated being used in the two senses of matched and confounded or bewildered. Shakespeare has it repeatedly in the latter sense.