Therefore, most gracious duke, with thy command, Duke. Long since thy husband served me in my wars; To do him all the grace and good I could. I will determine this, before I stir. Enter a Servant. Serv. O mistress, mistress! shift and save yourself. 160 165 Beaten the maids a-row, and bound the doctor, 170 Whose beard they have singed off with brands of fire; Great pails of puddled mire to quench the hair : My master preaches patience to him, the while 175 168. SCENE IV. Pope. Enter a Servant] Capell; Enter a Messenger Ff. Serv.] Capell; Mess. Ff 2, 3, 4; omitted in F 1. 174. to him] omitted by Capell. the] Hanmer; and the Ff; omitted by Steevens. Cizers F 1. 175. scissors] And gone the stations all a-row !" 171. beard... fire]" Shakespeare was a great reader of Plutarch, where he might have seen this method of shaving in the Life of Dion, p. 167, 4to. See North's translation, in which veрakes may be translated brands" (S. W.). "North gives it thus-'with a hot burning cole to burne his goodly bush of heare round about'" (Steevens). 175. nicks . . . fool] Malone says: "Fools, undoubtedly, were shaved And, sure, unless you send some present help, Adr. Peace, fool! thy master and his man are here; 180 I have not breath'd almost, since I did see it. He cries for you, and vows, if he can take you, To scotch your face and to disfigure you. [Cry within. Hark, hark, I hear him, mistress: fly, be gone! Duke. Come, stand by me, fear nothing. Guard with halberds! 176. some] F 1; some other Ff 2, 3, 4. 183. scotch] Warburton, Dyce; scorch Ff. and nicked in a particular manner, in our author's time, as is ascertained by the following passage in The Choice of Change, containing the Triplicitie of Divinitie, Philosophie, and Poetrie, by S. R., Gent., 4to, 1598: Three things used by monks, which provoke other men to laugh at their follies. 1. They are shaven and notched on the head, like fooles.' See also Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, in v. 'Zuccone: a shaven pate, a notted poule; a poule-pate; a gull, a ninnie. Craig compares Malory, Morte Darthur [ed. Wright, 1865], pt. ii. ch. 59 [ed. Strachey, 1868, bk. 9, ch. 18 ad fin.]: "So they clipped him with sheares, and made him like a foole." The meaning may however be clips or shaves closely; as "the cutting of the hair close," as Wright remarks in his note, "was a particular characteristic of the court fool in former times.' 185 179. to] Ff 1, 3, 4; of F 2. burning it is scarcely probable that master and man would carry "flaming brands" for this purpose. Dyce points out that the Folio has the very same misprint in Macbeth, III. ii. 13: "We have scorch'd the snake"; as also the old editions of Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, III. iv.: "See here another wretch whom this foul beast Hath scorcht and scor'd." It is noteworthy, however, that the word "scotch" is only used by Shakespeare in later plays, such as Macbeth and Coriolanus ; "scorch" in early plays, as in 3 Henry VI., King John, etc. Steevens prefers the Folio reading on the ground that "he would have punished her as he had punished the conjurer before" but surely not by singeing off her beard, as Dyce points out. "Scotch" is of course etymologically connected with, if indeed it is not the same word as, the provincial English scutch, to strike or beat slightly, to cleanse flax. (Halliwell). Adr. Ay me, it is my husband! Witness you, That he is borne about invisible: Even now we hous'd him in the abbey here; And now he's there, past thought of human reason. Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus and DROMIO of Ephesus. Ant. E. Justice, most gracious duke! O, grant me justice, 190 Even for the service that long since I did thee, Æge. Unless the fear of death doth make me dote, 195 I see my son Antipholus, and Dromio! Ant. E. Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there! She whom thou gav'st to me to be my wife, That hath abused and dishonour'd me Even in the strength and height of injury: Beyond imagination is the wrong That she this day hath shameless thrown on me. Duke. Discover how, and thou shalt find me just. 200 Ant. E. This day, great duke, she shut the doors upon me, While she with harlots feasted in my house. 205 186. Ay] Ah Capell. Enter...] Enter Antipholus, and E. Dromio of Ephesus F 1; Enter Antipholis, and E. Dromio of Ephesus F 2; Enter E. Antipholis, and E. Dromio of Ephesus Ff 3, 4. 195, 196. Unless . . Dromio] As in Rowe (ed. 2); prose in Ff. 2, 3, 4. 192. bestrid] Compare 2 Henry VI. v. iii. 9" Three times bestrid him"; and Coriolanus, 11. ii. 96: “He bestrid an o'er-pressed Roman"; referring to which Craig quotes North's Plutarch, Life of Coriolanus, ed. 1595, p. 236: 205. While] F 1; Whilst Ff "A Romaine souldier being thrown to the ground even harde by him, Martius straight bestrid him, and slew the enemie with his own handes." 205. harlots] "lewd fellows of the baser sort." "Harlot," a term origin Duke. A grievous fault. Say, woman, didst thou so? So befall] So fall Capell. 212, 213. To Mer. Capell. 208. To-day] omitted by Hanmer. burdens] Johnson; burthens Ff. pentine] Porcupine Rowe. ally applied to a low depraved class of society, the ribalds, and having no relation to sex. "Salle never harlott have happe, thorowe helpe of my lorde, To kylle a crownde kyng with krysome enoynttede (Morte Arthure, MS. Lincoln, f. 79). Ant. E. refers to the "customers and "companion with the saffron face" of iv. iv, 59, 60, and the "damned pack" with which he accused Adriana of being confederate, (IV. iv. 101) i.e. Pinch and his followers. Steevens quotes the ancient mystery of Candle-mas Day, 1512, when Herod says to Watkin, Nay, harlott, abyde stylle with my 210 215 220 209. 222. Por knyghts I warne the "; and observes that in The Romaunt of the Rose, v. 6068, King of Harlots is Chaucer's translation of Royde ribaulx. See also his Summoner's Tale, line 1754 (ed. Pollard):— "A sturdy harlot wente ay hem bihynde That was hir hostes man, and bar a sak." We have the expression "the harlot king" in Winter's Tale, 11. iii, 4. 208. To-day... my soul] This line is not an Alexandrine. "Together" is a dissyllable, just as in Iv. i. 26. 214. advised.. say] I am speaking with due deliberation. 219. pack'd] in league. Where Balthazar and I did dine together. I went to seek him: in the street I met him, 225 There did this perjured goldsmith swear me down, Which, God he knows, I saw not; for the which He did arrest me with an officer. 230 I did obey, and sent my peasant home For certain ducats; he with none return'd. Το go in person with me to my house. by the way we met 235 My wife, her sister, and a rabble more Of vile confederates; along with them They brought one Pinch, a hungry lean-faced villain, A mere anatomy, a mountebank, A threadbare juggler and a fortune-teller, A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch, A living dead man: this pernicious slave 240 228. of] F 1; from Ff 2, 3, 4. 235. He did consent, and by the way] Editor; By the way Ff; To which he yielded; by the way Capell, making two lines of 236, 237; Pope ends these lines and . confederates. vile] Rowe (ed. 2); vilde Ff 1, 2, 3; vild F 4. along with them] omitted by Pope. 235. ] Some words of the character given in the textual notes must have dropped out of the text. The use of "did" appears to be warranted by its frequent use above, namely in lines 227, 230, 231. 239. anatomy] a subject for dissection, a "body.' Compare Romeo and Juliet, III. iii. 106; King John, III. iv. 40; Twelfth Night, . ii. 67; Marston's Insatiate Countess, I. i. 237. 176: "I would leave thee as bare as "but as a lyuing death, So ded alive of life hee drew the breath'" (Steevens). |
