Promising to bring it to the porcupine, And in his company, that gentleman, There did this perjur'd goldsmith swear me down, I did obey; and sent my peasant home Το go in person with me to my house. By the way we met My wife, her sister, and a rabble more A thread-bare juggler, and a fortune teller; And in a dark and dankish vault at home For these deep shames and great indignities. 17 but as a living death, So ded alive of life he drew the breath.' Sackville's Induction to the Mirror of Magistrates. Ang. My lord, in truth, thus far I witness with him; That he dined not at home, but was lock'd out. Duke. But had he such a chain of thee, or no? Ang. He had, my lord: and when he ran in here, These people saw the chain about his neck. Mer. Besides, I will be sworn, these ears of mine Heard you confess, you had the chain of him, After you first forswore it on the mart, Duke. Why, what an intricate impeach is this! Dro. E. Sir, he dined with her there, at the Porcupine. Cour. He did; and from my finger snatch'd that ring. Ant. E. 'Tis true, my liege, this ring I had of her. Duke. Saw'st thou him enter at the abbey here? Cour. As sure, my liege, as I do see your grace. Duke. Why, this is strange :--Go call the abbess hither; I think, you are all mated 18, or stark mad. [Exit an Attendant. Ege. Most mighty duke, vouchsafe me speak a word; 18 Mated is confounded. See note on Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 1. Haply I see a friend will save my life, Duke. Speak freely, Syracusan, what thou wilt. Ege. Is not your name, sir, call'd Antipholus? And is not your bondman Dromio? Dro. E. Within this hour I was his bondman, sir, But he, I thank him, gnaw'd in two my cords; Now am I Dromio, and his man, unbound. Ege. I am sure, you both of you remember me. Dro. E. Ourselves we do remember, sir, by you; For lately we were bound as you are now. You are not Pinch's patient, are you, sir? Ege. Why look you strange on me? you know me well. Ant. E. I never saw you in my life, till now. Ege. Oh! grief hath chang'd me, since you saw me last; And careful hours, with Time's deformed 19 hand Have written strange defeatures in my face: 20 But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice? Ege. Dromio, nor thou? I am sure, thou dost. Dro. E. No, trust me, sir, nor I. Ege. Dro. E. Ay, sir? but I am sure, I do not; and whatsoever a man denies, you are now bound to believe him 21. Ege. Not know my voice! O, time's extremity! Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue, In seven short years, that here my only son Knows not my feeble key of untun'd cares? 19 Deformed for deforming. 20 See note on Act ii. Sc. 1, p. 144, note 12. 21 Dromio delights in a quibble, and the word bound has before been the subject of his mirth. 22 i. e. the weak and discordant tone of my voice, which is changed by grief. up; Though now this grained 23 face of mine be hid Ant. E. I never saw my father in my life. Ege. But seven years since, in Syracusa, boy, Thou know'st, we parted: but, perhaps, my son, Thou sham'st to acknowledge me in misery. Ant. E. The duke, and all that know me in the city, Can witness with me that it is not so; I ne'er saw Syracusa in my life. Duke. I tell thee, Syracusan, twenty years During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa : Enter the Abbess, with ANTIPHOLUS Syracusan, and DROMIO Syracusan. Abb. Most mighty duke, behold a man much wrong'd. [All gather to see him. Adr. I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me. Duke. One of these men is Genius to the other; And so of these: Which is the natural man, And which the spirit? Who deciphers them? Dro. S. I, sir, am Dromio; command him away. Dro. E. I, sir, am Dromio; pray, let me stay. Ant. S. Ægeon, art thou not? or else his ghost? Dro. S. O, my old master! who hath bound him here? 23 Furrowed, lined. 24 But if my frosty signs and chaps of age, Grave witnesses of true experience.' Titus Andronicus, Sc. ult. Abb. Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds, And gain a husband by his liberty: Speak, old Ægeon, if thou be'st the man That hadst a wife once call'd Æmilia, That bore thee at a burden two fair sons: O, if thou be'st the same Ægeon, speak, 'And speak unto the same Æmilia! Ege. If I dream not, thou art Æmilia 25; Abb. By men of Epidamnum, he, and I, 27 Duke. Why, here begins his morning story right 26; These two Antipholuses, these two so alike, And these two Dromioes, one in semblance 7,Besides her urging of her wreck at sea,These are the parents to these children 28, Which accidentally are met together. Antipholus, thou cam'st from Corinth first. Ant. S. No, sir, not I; I came from Syracuse. 25 In the old copy this speech of Ægeon, and the subsequent one of the abbess, follow the speech of the Duke. It is evident that they were transposed by mistake. 26 The morning story' is what Ægeon tells the Duke in the first scene of this play. 27 Semblance is here a trisyllable. It appears probable that a line has been omitted here, the import of which may have been: 'These circumstances all concur to prove These are the parents,' &c. If it began with the word these as well as the succeeding one, the error would easily happen. 28 Children is here a trisyllable, it is often spelled as it was pronounced then childeren. |