these blows long, I must get a sconce for my head, and insconce it too; or else I shall seek my wit in shoulders. But, I pray, sir, why am I beaten? Ant. S. Dost thou not know? my Dro. S. Nothing, sir; but that I am beaten. Dro. S. Ay, sir, and wherefore; for, they say, every why hath a wherefore. Ant. Why, first,-for flouting me; and then, wherefore,― For urging it the second time to me. Dro. S. Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season? When, in the why, and the wherefore, is neither rhyme nor reason? Well, sir, I thank you. Ant. S. Thank me, sir? for what? Dro. S. Marry, sir, for this something that you gave me for nothing. Ant. I'll make you amends next, to give you nothing for something. But, say, sir, is it dinner time? Dro. S. No, sir; I think, the meat wants that I have. Ant. S. In good time, sir, what's that? Dro. S. Basting. Ant. S. Well, sir, then 'twill be dry. Dro. S. If it be, sir, I pray you eat none of it. Dro. S. Lest it make you cholerick, and purchase me another dry basting. Ant. S. Well, sir, learn to jest in good time; There's a time for all things. Dro. S. I durst have denied that, before you were so cholerick. 8 and insconce it too;] A sconce was a petty fortification. Ant. S. By what rule, sir? Dro. S. Marry, sir, by a rule as plain as the plain bald pate of father Time himself. Ant. S. Let's hear it. Dro. S. There's no time for a man to recover his hair, that grows bald by nature. Ant. S. May he not do it by fine and re covery?9 Dro. S. Yes, to pay a fine for a peruke, and recover the lost hair of another man. Ant. S. Why is Time such a niggard of hair, being, as it is, so plentiful an excrement? Dro. S. Because it is a blessing that he bestows on beasts: and what he hath scanted men in hair, he hath given them in wit. Ant. S. Why, but there's many a man hath more hair than wit. Dro. S. Not a man of those, but he hath the wit to lose his hair. Ant. S. Why, thou didst conclude hairy men plain dealers without wit. Dro. S. The plainer dealer, the sooner lost: Yet he loseth it in a kind of jollity. 9 Ant. S. For what reason? Dro. S. For two; and sound ones too. Dro. S. Sure ones then. Ant. S. Nay, not sure, in a thing falsing.' Dro. S. Certain ones then. Ant. S. Name them. Dro. S. The one, to save the money that he by fine and recovery?] This attempt at pleasantry must have originated from our author's clerkship to an attorney. He has other jokes of the same school. STEEVENS. 1 Spenser and - falsing.] This word is now obsolete. Chaucer often use the verb to false. Mr. Heath would read falling. STEEVENS. spends in tiring; the other, that at dinner they should not drop in his porridge. Ant. S. You would all this time have proved, there is no time for all things. Dro. S. Marry, and did, sir; namely, no time to recover hair lost by nature. Ant. S. But your reason was not substantial, why there is no time to recover. Dro. S. Thus I mend it: Time himself is bald, and therefore, to the world's end, will have bald followers. Ant. S. I knew, 'twould be a bald conclusion: But soft! who wafts us2 yonder? Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA. Adr. Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange, and frown; Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects, I am not Adriana, nor thy wife. The time was once, when thou unurg'd would'st vow Unless I spake, look'd, touch'd, or carv'd to thee. Am better than thy dear self's better part. 2 3 wafts us -] i. e. beckons us. may'st thou fall-] To fall is here a verb active. Without addition, or diminishing, As take from me thyself, and not me too. I know thou canst; and therefore, see, thou do it. My blood is mingled with the crime of lust: Being strumpeted by thy contagion. Keep then fair league and truce with thy true bed; I live dis-stain'd, thou undishonoured. Ant. S. Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not: In Ephesus I am but two hours old, As strange unto your town, as to your talk; Luc. Fye, brother! how the world is chang'd with you: When were you wont to use my sister thus ? Dro. S. By me? Adr. By thee; and this thou didst return from him, That he did buffet thee, and, in his blows Denied my house for his, me for his wife. Ant. S. Did you converse, sir, with this gentlewoman? What is the course and drift of your compact? Dro. S. I, sir? I never saw her till this time. Ant. S. Villain, thou liest; for even her very words Didst thou deliver to me on the mart. Dro. S. I never spake with her in all my life. names, Unless it be by inspiration? Adr. How ill agrees it with your gravity, Come, I will fasten on this sleeve of thine: Who, all for want of pruning, with intrusion Ant. S. To me she speaks; she moves me for her theme: What, was I married to her in my dream? you are from me exempt,] Johnson says that exempt means separated, parted; yet I think that Adriana does not use the word exempt in that sense, but means to say, that as he was her husband she had no power over him, and that he was privileged to do her wrong. M. MASON. idle moss;] That is, moss that produces no fruit, but being unfertile is useless. |