If we obey them not, this will enfue,

They'll fuck our breath, or pinch us black and blue. LUCE. Why prat'ft thou to thyfelf, and answer'st

not?

Dromio, thou drone, thou fnail, thou flug, thou fot!'

Sunt avide volucres; non quæ Phineia menfis
Guttura fraudabant; fed genus inde trahunt.
Grande caput; ftantes oculi; roftra apta rapine;
Canities pennis, unguibus hamus ineft.

Notte volant, puerofque petunt nutricis egentes,
Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta fuis.
Carpere dicuntur luctantia vifcera roftris,

Et plenum poto fanguine guttur habent.

Eft illis ftrigibus nomen :— -Lib. vi. Faft. WARBURTON. Ghaftly owls accompany elvish ghofts in Spenfer's Shepherd's Calendar for June. So, in Sherringham's Difcerptatio de Anglorum Gentis Origine, p. 333. "Lares, Lemures, Stryges, Lamiæ, Manes (Gaftæ dicti) et fimiles monftrorum Greges, Elvarum Chorea dicebatur." Much the fame is faid in Olaus Magnus de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, p. 112, 113. TOLLET.

Owls are also mentioned in Cornucopiæ, or Pafquil's Night-cap, er Antidote for the Headach, 1623, p. 38:

"Dreading no dangers of the dark fome night,

"No oules, hobgoblins, ghosts, nor water-spright."

STEEVENS. How, it is objected, fhould Shakspeare know that friges or fcrietch-owls were confidered by the Romans as witches? The notes of Mr. Tollet and Mr. Steevens, as well as the following paffage in The London Prodigal, a comedy, 1605, afford the belt anfwer to this question: 'Soul, I think, I am fure crofs'd or witch'd with an owl." MALONE.

The epithet elvish is not in the first folio, but the fecond haselves, which certainly was meant for elvish. STEEVENS.

All the emendations made in the fecond folio having been merely arbitrary, any other fuitable epithet of two fyllables may have been the poet's word. Mr. Rowe first introduced-clvib. MALONE.

I am fatisfied with the epithet-elvish. It was probably inferted in the fecond folio on fome authority which cannot now be afcertained. It occurs again, in King Richard III:

"Thou elvish-mark'd abortive, rooting hog."

Why should a book which has often judicioufly filled fuch vacuities, and rectified fuch errors, as difgrace the folio 1623, be fo perpetually diftrufted? STEEVENS.

DRO. S. I am transformed, master, am not I?4 ANT. S. I think, thou art, in mind, and so am I. DRO. S. Nay, master, both in mind, and in my shape.

ANT. S. Thou haft thine own form.

DRO. S.

No, I am an ape.

Luc. If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an afs. DRO. S. 'Tis true; fhe rides me, and I long for grafs.

'Tis fo, I am an afs; else it could never be, But I fhould know her as well as fhe knows me. ADR. Come, come, no longer will I be a fool, the finger in the eye and weep,

To put

Whilft man, and mafter, laugh my woes to fcorn.-
Come, fir, to dinner; Dromio, keep the gate:-
Husband, I'll dine above with you to-day,
And fhrive you of a thousand idle pranks :
Sirrah, if any afk you for your master,

Say, he dines forth, and let no creature enter.-
Come, fifter:-Dromio, play the porter well.
ANT. S. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?

3 Dromio, thou drone, &c.] The old copy reads

Dromio, thou Dromio, fnail, thou flug, thou fot! STBEVENS. This verfe is half a foot too long; my correction cures that fault: befides drone correfponds with the other appellations of reproach. THEOBALD.

Drone is alfo a term of reproach applied by Shylock to Launcelot in The Merchant of Venice:

"More than the wild cat; drones hive not with me."

Theobald.

STEEVENS,

am not I?] Old copy-am I not. Corrected by Mr. MALONE.

5 And frive you] That is, I will call you to confefion, and make you tell your tricks. JOHNSON.

Sleeping or waking? mad, or well-advis'd?
Known unto these, and to myself difguis'd!
I'll fay as they fay, and perféver so,
And in this mift at all adventures go.

DRO. S. Mafter, fhall I be porter at the gate?

ADR. Ay; and let none enter, left I break your

pate.

Luc. Come, come, Antipholus, we dine too late. [Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I.

The fame.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephefus, DROMIO of Ephefus, ANGELO, and BALTHAZAR.

ANT. E. Good fignior Angelo, you must excuse us all; s

My wife is fhrewith, when I keep not hours:
Say, that I linger'd with you at your shop,
To fee the making of her carkanet,"

5 Good fignior Angelo, you must excufe us all ;] I fuppofe, the word -all, which overloads the meafure, without improvement of the fenfe, might be fafely omitted, as an interpolation. STEEVENS.

6 -carkanet,] Seems to have been a necklace or rather chain, perhaps hanging down double from the neck. So Lovelace in his poem :

"The empress spreads her carcanets." JOHNSON. Quarquan, ornement d'or qu'on mit au col des damoifelles." Le grand Diet, de Nicot.

A Carkanet feems to have been a necklace fet with ftones, or ftrung with pearls. Thus in Partheneia Sacra, &c. 1633: "Seeke not vermillion or cerufe in the face, bracelets of oriental pearls on the wrift, rubie carkanets on the neck, and a moft exquifite fan of feathers in the hand."

And that to-morrow you will bring it home.
But here's a villain, that would face me down
He met me on the mart; and that I beat him,
And charg'd him with a thousand marks in gold;
And that I did deny my wife and house:-

Thou drunkard, thou, what didst thou mean by this?

DRO. E. Say what you will, fir, but I know what I know:

That you beat me at the mart, I have your hand to

fhow:

If the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave

were ink,

Your own handwriting would tell you what I

think.

ANT. E. I think, thou art an afs.

DRO. E.

Marry, fo it doth appear

By the wrongs I fuffer, and the blows I bear.

Again, in Hiftrismoftix, or the Player Whipt, 1610:

Nay, I'll be matchlefs for a carcanet,

"Whofe pearls and diamonds plac'd with ruby rocks
"Shall circle this fair neck to fet it forth."

Again, in Sir W. Davenant's comedy of the Wits, 1636:
fhe fat on a rich Perfian quilt

66

Threading a carkanet of pure round pearl
Bigger than pigeons eggs."

Again, in The Changes, or Love in a Maze, 1632:

the drops

"Shew like a carkanet of pearl upon it."

In the play of Soliman and Perfeda, 1599, the word carcanet occurs eight or nine times.

7 Marry, fo it doth appear

STEEVENS.

By the wrongs I fuffer, and the blows I bear.] Thus all the printed copies; but certainly, this is cross-purposes in reasoning. It appears, Dromio is an afs by his making no refiftance; becaufe an afs, being kick'd, kicks again. Our author never argues at this wild rate, where his text is genuine. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald, instead of doth, reads-don't. MALONE.

I should kick, being kick'd; and, being at that

pafs,

You would keep from my heels, and beware of an

ass.

ANT. E. You are fad, fignior Balthazar: 'Pray god, our cheer

May answer my good will, and your good welcome here.

BAL. I hold your dainties cheap, fir, and your welcome dear.

ANT. E. O, fignior Balthazar, either at flesh or

fish,

A table full of welcome makes scarce one dainty

dish.

BAL. Good meat, fir, is common;

churl affords.

that every

ANT. E. And welcome more common; for that's' nothing but words.

BAL. Small cheer, and great welcome, makes a merry feaft.

ANT. E. Ay, to a niggardly hoft, and more spar

ing guest:

But though my cates be mean, take them in good

part;

Better cheer may you have, but not with better

heart.

But, foft; my door is lock'd; Go bid them let us in. DRO. E. Maud, Bridget, Marian, Cicely, Gillian,

Jen'!

I do not think this emendation neceffary. He firft fays, that his wrongs and blows prove him an afs; but immediately, with a correction of his former fentiment, fuch as may be hourly observed in converfation, he obferves that, if he had been an afs, he should, when he was kicked, have kicked again. JOHNSON..