fault upon m

Methinks, your maw, like mine, shou And strike you home without a mes Ant. S. Come, Dromio, come, these jests Reserve them till a merrier hour tha Where is the gold I gave in charge Dro. E. To me, sir? why, you gave no g Ant. S. Come on, sir knave; have done

And tell me how thou hast disposed Dro. E. My charge was but to fetch you Home to your house, the Phoenix, s

My mistress and her sister stays for Ant. S. Now, as I am a Christian, answe In what safe place you have bestow Or I shall break that merry sconce That stands on tricks when I am u Where is the thousand marks thou Dro. E. I have some marks of yours up Some of my mistress' marks upon

65. score] Rowe; scoure Ff 1, 2, 3; scour F 4.
your cooke F 1; yon cooke F 2; your cook Ff 3, 4.
81. is] are Pope.

kiss'd, unless they would have kiss'd
the post in the middle of the ware-
house,' etc." Malone quotes the
anonymous play, Every Woman in
her Humour, 1609: "out of my
doors, Knave; thou enterest not my
doors; I have no chalk in my house;
my posts shall not be guarded with a
little sing-song."

sconce"; a
v. i. 110:
"my unba
the sense of
V. III. vi.
sconce";
helmet-in
must get a

81. mar
Conquest t

to an oun

putation; mark beca 13s. 4d., or Dict.).

you both.

85

But not a thousand marks between

If I should pay your worship those again,

Perchance, you will not bear them patiently.

Ant. S. Thy mistress' marks? what mistress, slave, hast

thou?

90

Dro. E. Your worship's wife, my mistress at the Phoenix;
She that doth fast till you come home to dinner,
And prays that you will hie you home to dinner.
Ant. S. What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face,
Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.
Dro. E. What mean you, sir? for God's sake, hold your
hands!

Nay, an you will not, sir, I'll take my heels.
Ant. S. Upon my life, by some device or other
The villain is o'er-raught of all my money.
They say this town is full of cozenage;
As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,
Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,

[Exit. 95

86. will] would Collier (ed. 2). 93. God's] Hanmer; God Ff. 94. an] Pope; and Ff. [Exit] Exeunt Dromio Ep. F1; Exit Dromio Ep. Ff 2, 3, 4. 96. o'er-raught] Hanmer; ore-wrought Ff. 99. Dark-working] Drugworking Warburton. 99, 100. Dark-working Soul-killing] Soulkilling Dark-working Johnson conj.

...

гемо

warus

20

THE COMEDY OF E

Soul-killing witches that deform the
Disguised cheaters, prating mounte
And many such-like liberties of sin
If it prove so, I will be gone the so
I'll to the Centaur, to go seek this
I greatly fear my money is not safe
100. Soul-killing] Soul-selling Hanmer.
Hanmer.

killing" may have been displaced is
ingenious but unconvincing. By
"soul-killing" he understands "de-
stroying the rational faculties by such
means as make men fancy them-
selves beasts." Marshall says the
expression "Soul-killing witches" is
found also in Christopher Middleton's
Legend of Humphrey Duke of Glo-
cester, 1600:-

"They charge her, that she did
maintaine and feede
Soul-killing witches, and con-
versed with devils."

102

[The Schol once in Ita Aldis Wrig God my a days; and tyme in libertie to tell of in o nine year

as

"licen

there may liberties"; peculiar u phrase as Johnson's Hanmer's acts but p the author supported not, I thin the Folio perhaps b I. iii. 29: fied expres the nose

The source of this enumeration of
cheats, etc., is, no doubt, the follow-
ing extract from W. W.'s translation
of the Menaecmi, above mentioned:
"For this assure yourselfe this towne
Epidamnum is a place of outrageous
expences, exceeding in all ryot and
lasciviousnesse; and (I heare) as full
of Ribaulds, Parasites, Drunkards,
Cony-catchers,
Catchpoles,
Sycophants as it can hold: then for
Curtizans, why here's the currantest
stamp of them in the world." See
Introduction and Appendix II.
102. liberties of sin] Steevens thinks
"licensed ers,
this expression
offenders," and he quotes-I think
with considerable effect-Ascham,

means

and

favour of
for concre
speare's u

age

"" may

66 lil for "liber

e-master, bk. i. ad fin., ed. ght, 1904, p. 234]: "I was lie myselfe; but I thanke abode there was but nine yet I sawe in that little one citie [Venice] more sinne, than ever I heard ur noble citie of London in e." Malone explains it mtious actions"; "sinful ; and Marshall suggests y be a reference to the use of the word in such a "the liberties of the Fleet." reasoning in favour of correction, libertines, "as r has been enumerating not persons," is powerful and is by "such-like"; but it is nk, quite conclusive against reading.

The latter may e supported by the personission in Measure for Measure, Liberty plucks Justice by '; but the chief argument in the Folio is, I think, Shakeuse of "cozenage "-abstract ete-in line 97. It "cozeny take the place of "Cozenberties" may well be used rtines."

ACT II

SCENE I.-The House of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.
Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA.

Adr. Neither my husband nor the slave return'd,
That in such haste I sent to seek his master!
Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock.

Luc. Perhaps some merchant hath invited him,

And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner.
Good sister, let us dine, and never fret:

5

A man is master of his liberty:

Time is their master; and, when they see time,
They'll go or come: if so, be patient, sister.
Adr. Why should their liberty than ours be more?
Luc. Because their business still lies out o' door.
Adr. Look, when I serve him so he takes it ill.
Luc. O, know he is the bridle of your will.

Adr. There's none but asses will be bridled so.

and elsewhere.

ΙΟ

ACT 11. SCENE 1.] Actus Secundus Ff 1, 4; Actus Secunda Ff 2, 3. The house Ephesus] Pope; The same (i.e. a publick place) Capell, Enter . .] Enter Adriana, wife to Antipholis Sereptus with Luciana, her Sister Ff. II. o' door] Capell; adore Ff 1, 2, 3; adoor 12. ill] Ff 2, 3, 4; thus F 1.

F 4.

14, 15. There's none . . .. lash'd with woe] If we are to retain the form lash'd, I think Shakespeare must have used it in the sense of leash'd, deriving his metaphor from the coupling of hounds. "The meaning of

this passage may be, that those who refuse the bridle must bear the lash, and that woe is the punishment of headstrong liberty," says Steevens; who also observes "that seamen still use lash in the same sense as leash,

Luc. Why, headstrong liberty is lash'd w
There's nothing situate under heav
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea
The beasts, the fishes, and the wing
Are their males' subjects and at th
Men, more divine, the masters of a
Lords of the wide world, and wild
Indued with intellectual sense and
Of more pre-eminence than fish an
Are masters to their females, and t

Then, let your will attend on their
Adr. This servitude makes you to keep
Luc. Not this, but troubles of the marr
Adr. But, were you wedded, you would
Luc. Ere I learn love I 'll practise to ob
Adr. How if your husband start some

19. subjects] subject Capell. Master Hanmer; Man .

watry F1; wide watry Ff 2, 3, 4.

20, 21. Men

22, 23. S

25. your] our Capell c

other hare Hudson (Johnson conj.); otherwhere C

be lac'd rascal.'" quoted T 390, "wh lac'd." 30. star pare line eye doth h son's prop Steevens where 'h So in Kin losest her The sens fly off i woman? ii. 37 (B where far

as does Greene in his Mamillia, 1593,
Thou didst counsel me to beware of
love, and I was before in the lash.'
Again, in George Whetstone's Castle
of Delight, 1576, Yet both in las he
at length this Cressid leaves.' Lace
was the old English word for a cord,
so in Promos and Cassandra,
1578, To thee, Cassandra, which
dost hold my freedom in a lace.'. . .
To lace likewise signified to bestow
correction with a cord, or rope's end.
So in the second part of Dekker's
Honest Whore, 1630, 3 Dodsley, p.
408, the lazy lowne Gets here hard
hands, or lac'd correction.' Again in
[Porter's] Two Angry Women of
Abingdon, 1599, 'So, now my back
has room to reach; I do not love to love cann