3... masters... Lords]
21. wild watery] wilde
• fowls] Éi; soul
30. other where]

souls .

conj. Capell.

...

in, when I go to lace a Steevens might also have The Honest Whore, supra, p. ho lives in bondage lives rt some other where?] Com104 of this scene, "I know his homage other where." JohnOposed emendation is acute. "I suspect that says,

has here the power of a noun. ing Lear [1. i. 264], 'Thou ere a better where to find.' se is, How if your husband in pursuit of some other "" See Marlowe's Dido, IV. Bullen): "Mine eye is fixed ncy cannot start," i.e. where not stray off,

Luc. Till he come home again I would forbear.
Adr. Patience unmoved! no marvel though she pause;

They can be meek that have no other cause.
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;
But were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain:
So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me;
But, if thou live to see like right bereft,

This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left.

39. wouldst] Rowe; would Ff.

40. see] be Hanmer.

35

40

right bereft]

right-bereft Hanmer. 41. fool-begg'd] foole-beg'd Ff; fool-bagg'd Staunton conj.; fool-bragg'd Kinnear conj.

Can counsel and speak comfort
to that grief
Which they themselves not
feel," etc.

39. helpless] i.e. which affords not
help or relief. Malone quotes Venus
and Adonis, [604]: "As those poor
birds that helpless berries saw."
Compare also Lucrece, 756: "Upon
my cheeks what helpless shame I
feel"; 1027, This helpless smoke
of words doth me no right"; and
1056, "Poor helpless help, the treasure
stol'n away
; and Richard III. 1. ii.
13: I I pour the helpless balm of my
poor eyes."

41. fool-begg'd patience] may mean foolish or idiotic patience; patience which must be set down as foolish. Johnson explains as "that patience which is so near to idiotic simplicity,

that your next relation would take advantage from it to represent you as a fool, and beg the guardianship of your fortune." This may be, but I am not satisfied that it is, an allusion to the oft-mentioned custom of begging one for a fool; viz. of petitioning the Court of Wards (established by Henry VIII. and suppressed under Charles II.) for the custody of a minor, heiress or idiot, with the object of getting the control of his revenues. Hence also the figurative meaning To beg (anyone) for a fool or idiot: to take him for, set him down as, a fool. See New Eng. Dict. in v. Shakespeare, no doubt, found references in Lyly's Mother Bombie, 1. i. (Fairholt, ii. 74): "Memph. Come, Dromio, it is my griefe to have such a sonne that must inherit my lands. Dro. He needs not, Sir, I'll beg him for a fool"; also in the same play, iv. ii. (p. 124): Memph. Ah, thy sonne will be beg'd for a conceal'd foole." Compare also Love's Labour's Lost, v. ii. 490: "You cannot beg us, Sir"; and Dekker's Honest Whore, 1. ii. (Dodsley, iii. 231): "If I fret not his

66

Luc. Well, I will marry one day, but to t Here comes your man; now is your

Enter DROMIO of Ephes

Adr. Say, is your tardy master now at h Dro. E. Nay, he's at two hands with m

two ears can witness.

Adr. Say, didst thou speak with him?

mind?

Dro. E. Ay, ay; he told his mind upon
Beshrew his hand, I scarce could u
Luc. Spake he so doubtfully thou coul
meaning?

Dro. E. Nay, he struck so plainly, I
feel his blows; and withal so do
could scarce understand them.
Adr. But say, I pr'ythee, is he coming
It seems he hath great care to plea
Dro. E. Why, mistress, sure my master
Adr. Horn-mad, thou villain!

44. SCENE II. Pope.

45. Nay,] At hand? no

45, 46. two 53. withal] th

at me). and] omitted by Capell.

50, 53. doubtfully] doubly Collier.

omitted by Capell (who prints lines 50-54 as four

them. therewithal.

"It was an early form

be, "patie tinued beg exemplary

note on de

guts, beg me for a fool." The custom
is frequently referred to in the other
dramatists.
54. und
of the private lunatic asylum abuse on
a limited scale," says Marshall. I am
by no means certain, however, that quibble.
the phrase is not equivalent to fool- Two Gent
57. hor
begging, i.e. an example of Shake- "my staff
speare's free and somewhat indefinite
use of the passive for the active horned bea
participle. The meaning would then ference to

try.

Dro. E.

I mean not cuckold-mad;

r husband nigh.

But, sure, he is stark mad.

60

When I desired him to come home to dinner,
He ask'd me for a thousand marks in gold:
"'Tis dinner-time," quoth I; "My gold!" quoth he:
"Your meat doth burn," quoth I; "My gold!" quoth he:
"Will you come home?" quoth I; "My gold!" quoth
he:

"Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain ?" 65
"The pig," quoth I, “is burn'd; ""My gold!" quoth he:
"My mistress, sir," quoth I; "Hang up thy mistress!
I know thy mistress not: out on thy mistress!"

Luc. Quoth who?

Dro. E. Quoth my master:

70

"I know," quoth he, "no house, no wife, no mistress." So that my errand, due unto my tongue,

I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders;

For, in conclusion, he did beat me there.

58, 59. not . . stark mad] one line in Collier (ed. 2). 59. he is] he's Pope, reading I mean stark mad as one line; omitted by Hanmer. 61. a thousand] F 4; a hundred F 1; a 1000 Ff 2, 3. 64. home] Hanmer; omitted in Ff. 68. I know thy mistress not; mistress !] Seymour conj.; I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress. F 1; out upon thy mistress! Steevens conj. 72. errand] F 4; arrant Ff 1, 2, 3. 73. bare] bear my] thy F 2. 74. there] thence Capell conj.

I know no mistress;
Pope; prose in Ff.
Steevens (1773).

68. I know. mistress] I think we are driven to adopt Seymour's simple conjecture, viz. the transposition of the negative from before to after "thy mistress." There are, apparently, some fifteen passages in this play in which the word mistress occurs, viz. I. ii. 46, 56, 63, 76, 83; II. i. 57, 67 (twice), 68 (twice), 71; II. ii. 10, 18, III; III. ii. 29; IV. iii. 49; v. i. 168 (twice); and in no single instance

71-74. As in

is the word accented on the second syllable. I believe that in all the numerous passages in the plays where the word is used it is uniformly accented on the first syllable. Marshall instances Pericles, II. vi. 18, to the contrary, but this passage is not Shakespeare's. It seems to me therefore simple nonsense to say that we must put the accent on the second syllable,

Adr. Go back again, thou slave, and fet Dro. E. Go back again, and be new bea

For God's sake, send some other m Adr. Back, slave, or I will break thy pa Dro. E. And he will bless that cross wit Between you I shall have a holy h Adr. Hence, prating peasant! fetch thy Dro. E. Am I so round with you as you That like a football you do spurn n You spurn me hence, and he will s If I last in this service, you must ca

Luc. Fie, how impatience loureth in you Adr. His company must do his minions Whilst I at home starve for a merr

Hath homely age the alluring beau 83. thus?] F 4; thus: Ff 1, 2, 3. 86. SCENE III. Pope. loureth] lowreth Ff.

85. [Exi

87. mini pleasing, ki Dict., sugg word with probably b mignone," dilling, a m But the tra The word Iv. iv. 59 of elsewhere, Honest Wh p. 136): Her minnion lap."

88. starv compares S mine eye is there is an in Sonnet clean starv

ions] Cotgrave, "Minion : kind, gentle." Skeat, Ety. gests that the use of the a sinister meaning was borrowed from the Italian

"a minion, a favorite, a minikin, a darling” (Florio). Tansition was not difficult. also occurs in III. i. 54, 59, of this play, and frequently e.g. compare Dekker's hore, pt. ii. (Pearson, 1873, Say the world made thee on, that thy head lay in her

ve for a merry look] Malone "When that Sonnet xlvii.: is famish'd for a look"; but nequally pointed reference lxxv.: "And by-and-by ved for a look."

From my poor cheek? then he hath wasted it:
Are my discourses dull? barren my wit?
If voluble and sharp discourse be marr'd,
Unkindness blunts it more than marble hard:
Do their gay vestments his affections bait?
That's not my fault; he's master of my state:
What ruins are in me that can be found
By him not ruin'd? then is he the ground
Of my defeatures. My decayed fair
A sunny look of his would soon repair:
But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale,
And feeds from home; poor I am but his stale.
91. wit?] F 4; wit, Ff 1, 2, 3.
98. defeatures] defeature Collier.

90

95

100

93. blunts] F 1; blots Ff 2, 3, 4.

α

to all. (1) A decoy or bait, a term in
fowling, says Dyce, either a real bird,
or the form of a bird set up as a lure.
Cotgrave gives "Estalon:
stale (as a Larke, etc.) wherewith
Fowlers traine sillie birds vnto their
destruction." "Originally the form
of a bird set up to allure a hawk"
(Nares). This seems to be the mean-
ing in Lyly's The Woman in the
Moone, III. ii. (Fairholt, ii. 187):
"Lear. Shall I sit here thus to be
made a stale?"; (p. 190): "Melos. Or
that swaine blest, that she makes but
a stale? Stes. My love? No, shep-
heards, this is but a stale"; and also
in Greene's Never too Late (Dyce, 1831,
vol. i. p. xx.): "for she thought that
Francesco was such a tame foole that
he would be brought to strike at any
stale." And in his Groatsworth of
Wit (ib. p. xxvi.): "Suppose (to make
you my stale to catch the Woodcock
your brother) that," etc. And in his
Looking Glass for London, etc. (ib. p.
100): "You stales of impudence," and
(p. 129) "Stales of temptation." Com-
pare also Taming of the Shrew, III. i.
go:
"To cast thy wandering eyes on