Ant. E. Who talks within there? ho, open the door. Dro. S. Right, sir, I'll tell you when, an you'll tell

me wherefore.

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 owe1?

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 coil5 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?

Dro. S. If thy name be call'd Luce, Luce, thou hast answer'd him well.

Ant. E. Do you hear, you minion? you'll let us in, I hopeб?

Luce. I thought to have ask'd

4 I own, am owner of.

you.

5 Bustle, tumult.

6 It seems probable that a line following this has been lost; in which Luce might be threatened with a rope; which would have furnished the rhyme now wanting. In a subsequent scene Dromio is ordered to go and buy a rope's end, for the purpose of using it on Adriana and her confederates.

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.
Dro. E. Master, knock the door hard.

Can you

tell for whose sake?

Let him knock till it ake.

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 would go sore.

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

Bal. In debating which was best, we shall part7 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 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 8.

7 Have part.

8

A proverbial phrase, meaning to be so overreached by foul

and secret practices.

VOL. IV.

P

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, sir; and words are but wind;

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

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

Dro. E. Here is 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 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 together9.

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 10 this; your long experience of her wisdom,

9 The same quibble is to be found in one of the comedies of Plautus. Children of distinction among the Greeks and Romans had usually birds given them for their amusement. This custom Tyndarus, in The Captives, mentions, and says that, for his part, he had tantum upupam. Upupa signifies both a lapwing and a mattock, or some instrument with which stone was dug from the quarries.

10 Once this; here means once for all; at once. See Much Ado about Nothing, vol. ii. p. 129, note 35. I see no reason for supposing this passage corrupt, with Malone. Numberless examples may be adduced of the use of once in this sense. It is so used

Her sober virtue, years, and modesty,

Plead on her part some cause to you unknown;
And doubt not, sir, but she will well excuse

11

Why at this time the doors are made 11 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 of 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;

For ever housed, where it gets possession.

Ant. E. You have prevail'd; I will depart in quiet, And, in despite of mirth, 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 12, I know, 'tis made:
Bring it, I pray you, to the Porcupine;

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:

by Massinger and Ben Jonson. Thus also Sir Philip Sydney, in his Arcadia, b. i.: Some perchance loving my estate, others my person. But once, I know all of them.'

11 i.e. made fast. The expression is still in use in some counties.

12 By this time.

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.

SCENE II. The same.

Enter 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 rot?
Shall love, in building, grow so ruinous1?
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:

1 In the old copy the first four lines stand thus :--
And may it be that you have quite forgot

A husband's office? Shall, Antipholus,

Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs rot?
Shall love in buildings grow so ruinate?'

The present émendation was proposed by Steevens, though he admitted Theobald's into his own text. Love-springs are the buds of love, or rather the young shoots. 'The spring, or young shoots that grow out of the stems or roots of trees.' BARET. Again: To branch out, to shoot out young springes.' Shakspeare uses it again in his Venus and Adonis:

'This canker that eats up love's tender spring.' And in The Rape of Lucrece :

To dry the old oak's sap and cherish springs. That love is gradually built up, and that the lover's bosom is the mansion where this sovereign deity resides, was a favourite notion with the poet. Thus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :"O thou that dost inhabit in my breast,

Leave not the mansion so long tenantless,

Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall.' He has similar allusions in Antony and Cleopatra and in Troilus and Cressida.