And stay there, Dromio, till I come to thee.
Within this hour it will be dinner-time :
Till that, I'll view the manners of the town,
Peruse the traders, gaze upon the buildings,
And then return, and sleep within mine inn;
For with long travel I am stiff and weary.

Get thee away.

Dro. S. Many a man would take you at your word,

And go indeed, having so good a mean.4

Ant. S. A trusty villain, sir; that very oft, When I am dull with care and melancholy, Lightens my humour with his merry jests. What, will you walk with me about the town, And then go to my inn, and dine with me?

1 Mer. I am invited, sir, to certain merchants, Of whom I hope to make much benefit;

5

I crave your pardon. Soon at five o'clock,
Please you, I'll meet with you upon the mart,
And afterward consort you till bed-time:

My present business calls me from you now.

Ant. S. Farewell till then I will go lose myself,

And wander up and down to view the city.

[Exit.

1 Mer. Sir, I commend you to your own content. [Exit. Ant. S. He that commends me to mine own content

Commends me to the thing I cannot get.

8 The Poet often has peruse for mark or observe closely. So in Hamlet, iv. 4: He, being remiss, most generous, and free from all contriving, will not peruse the foils."

4 Mean and means were used indifferently. Here mean refers to the money. And the sense is, "Many a man, having such a purse of money in trust, would run away."

5 Soon at is an old phrase for about. So again in iii. 1, of this play: "And soon at supper-time I'll visit you." Also in The Merchant, ii. 3: “Soon at supper shalt thou see Lorenzo."

6 Consort for accompany or attend. So in Love's Labours Lost, ii. 1: "Sweet health and fair desires consort your Grace!"

I to the world am like a drop of water,
That in the ocean seeks another drop;
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself:
So I, to find a mother and a brother,
In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.
Here comes the almanac of my true date.8.

Enter DROMIO of Ephesus.

What now? how chance thou art return'd so soon?

Dro. E. Return'd so soon! rather approach'd too late : The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit ;9 The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell, My mistress made it one upon my cheek:

She is so hot, because the meat is cold;

The meat is cold, because you come not home;

You come not home, because you have no stomach;10
You have no stomach, having broke your fast;
But we, that know what 'tis to fast and pray,

Are penitent for your default to-day.

Ant. S. Stop in your wind, sir: tell me this, I pray,
Where have you left the money that I gave you?
Dro. E. O, sixpence, that I had o' Wednesday last
the saddler for my mistress' crupper:

To pay

The saddler had it, sir; I kept it not.

Ant. S. I am not in a sportive humour now:

7 To spend, to consume, to destroy are old meanings of to confound. — Forth was often used with the sense of out.

8 The almanac of his true date, because they were both born the same day.

9 A spit was an iron rod, to thrust through a fowl, a pig, or a piece of meat, for roasting. The fowl or pig was then placed before the fire, so as to be kept turning; and the one who turned it was called a turnspit.

10 Stomach for appetite. A frequent usage. Sometimes it means courage; that is, an appetite for fighting.

Tell me, and dally not, where is the money?
We being strangers here, how darest thou trust
So great a charge from thine own custody?

Dro. E. I pray you, jest, sir, as you sit at dinner :
I from my mistress come to you in post ;11

If I return, I shall be post indeed,

For she will score 12 your fault upon my pate.

Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock,

And strike you home without a messenger.

Ant. S. Come, Dromio, come, these jests are out of sea

son;

Reserve them till a merrier hour than this.

Where is the gold I gave in charge to thee?

Dro. E. To me, sir! why, you gave no gold to me.
Ant. S. Come on, sir knave, have done your foolishness,

And tell me how thou hast disposed thy charge.

Dro. E. My charge was but to fetch you from the mart Home to your house, the Phoenix, sir, to dinner :

My mistress and her sister stay for you.

Ant. S. Now, as I am a Christian, answer me,
In what safe place you have bestow'd my money ;
Or I shall break that merry sconce 13 of yours,
That stands on tricks when I am undisposed:
Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me?

Dro. E. I have some marks of yours upon my pate,
Some of my mistress' marks upon my shoulders;
But not a thousand marks 14 between you both.

11 "In post" is in haste; going with the speed of a postman.

12 To score, as the word is here used, is to mark; as accounts were formerly kept by marking the items on a board or a post, or by cutting notches in a stick. Maw, in the next line, is stomach.

13 Sconce is properly a round fortification; and, from the shape of the thing, the word came to be used of the head.

14 A quibble between mark as a denomination of value, and mark in the ordinary sense. The English mark was equal to 13 s. 8 d., or about $3.25.

If I should pay your Worship 15 those again,
Perchance you will not bear them patiently.

Ant. S. Thy mistress' marks! what mistress, slave, hast thou?

Dro. E. Your Worship's wife, my mistress at the Phoenix; She that doth fast till you come home to dinner,

And prays that you will hie you home to dinner.

Ant. S. What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face, Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.

[Beating him.

Dro. E. What mean you, sir? for God's sake, hold your

hands!

Nay, an you will not, sir, I'll take my heels.

Ant. S. Upon my life, by some device or other

The villain is o'er-raught 16 of all my money.
They say this town is full of cozenage;
As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,
Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,
Soul-killing witches that deform the body,
Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many such-like liberties of sin : 17
If it prove so, I will be gone the sooner.
I'll to the Centaur, to go seek this slave:
I greatly fear my money is not safe.

[Exit.

15 "Your Worship" was in common use as a phrase of deference, meaning somewhat less than "your Honour."

16 O'er-raught is an old form of o'er-reached; here meaning cheated or defrauded. To cozen had the same meaning; hence cozenage.- Villain and knave are used here in the old English sense of servant or thrall.

17" Such-like liberties of sin" probably means "such-like persons of sinful liberty," or of wicked license. — A mountebank is what we call a quack; literally one who mounts a bank or a bench, and brags of his wares or his skill.

ACT II.

SCENE I. Before the House of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.

Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA.

Adr. Neither my husband nor the slave return'd, That in such haste I sent to seek his master!

Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock.

Luc. Perhaps some merchant hath invited him, And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner. Good sister, let us dine, and never fret :

A man is master of his liberty:

Time is their master; and when they see time,
They'll go or come : if so, be patient, sister.

Adr. Why should their liberty than ours be more?
Luc. Because their business still lies out o' door.
Adr. Look, when I serve him so, he takes it ill.
Luc. O, know he is the bridle of your will.
Adr. There's none but asses will be bridled so.
Luc. Why, headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe.
There's nothing situate under Heaven's eye
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky:
The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls,
Are their males' subjects and at their controls:
Men, more divine, the masters of all these,
Lords of the wide world and wild watery seas,
Indued with intellectual sense and souls,

1 His for its, the latter not being then an admitted word. Continually so in the Bible; as, "if the salt have lost his savour," and, "giveth to every seed his own body." In fact, its does not once occur in the Bible as printed in 1611.