warus Meu. 20 THE COMEDY OF ERRORS Soul-killing witches that deform the body, killing" may have been displaced is [ACT I 100 [Exit. 105 102. liberties] Ff; libertines 66 [The Schole-master, bk. i. ad fin., ed. Aldis Wright, 1904, p. 234]: "I was once in Italie myselfe; but I thanke God my abode there was but nine days; and yet I sawe in that little tyme in one citie [Venice] more libertie to sinne, than ever I heard tell of in our noble citie of London in nine yeare.' Malone explains it as "licentious actions"; " sinful liberties"; and Marshall suggests there may be a reference to the peculiar use of the word in such a phrase as "the liberties of the Fleet." Johnson's reasoning in favour of Hanmer's correction, libertines, as the author has been enumerating not acts but persons," is powerful and is supported by "such-like"; but it is not, I think, quite conclusive against the Folio reading. The latter may perhaps be supported by the personified expression in Measure for Measure, 1. iii. 29: Liberty plucks Justice by the nose"; but the chief argument in favour of the Folio is, I think, Shakespeare's use of "cozenage "-abstract for concrete-in line 97. If "cozen102. liberties of sin] Steevens thinks age" may take the place of "Cozenthis expression "licensed ers," means "liberties" may well be used offenders," and he quotes-I think for "libertines." with considerable effect-Ascham, They charge her, that she did 66 ACT II SCENE I.-The House of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus. Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA. Adr. Neither my husband nor the slave return'd, Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock. Luc. Perhaps some merchant hath invited him, And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner. 5 A man is master of his liberty: Time is their master; and, when they see time, Adr. Why should their liberty than ours be more? 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 F 4. 12. ill] Ff 2, 3, 4; thus F 1. 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 with woe. There's nothing situate under heaven's eye Adr. But, were you wedded, you would bear some sway. Adr. How if your husband start some other where? 19. subjects] subject Capell. Hanmer; Man . Master watry F 1; wide watry Ff 2, 3, 4. fowl Ff 2, 3, 4. 20, 21. Men Lord Ff. 21. 22, 23. souls 25. your] our Capell conj. other hare Hudson (Johnson conj.); otherwhere Capell. 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 lashe 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 15 20 25 30 be lac'd in, when I go to lace a rascal."" Steevens might also have quoted The Honest Whore, supra, p. 390, "who lives in bondage lives lac'd." 6 30. start some other where ?] Compare line 104 of this scene, "I know his eye doth homage other where." Johnson's proposed emendation is acute. Steevens says, "I suspect that 'where' has here the power of a noun. So in King Lear [1. i. 264], Thou losest here a better where to find.' The sense is, How if your husband fly off in pursuit of some other woman?" See Marlowe's Dido, iv. ii. 37 (Bullen): "Mine eye is fixed where fancy cannot start," i.e. where love cannot stray off, Luc. Till he come home again I would forbear. But were we burden'd with like weight of pain, 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 39. helpless] i.e. which affords not 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, I. ii. (Dodsley, iii. 231): "If I fret not his 66 Luc. Well, I will marry one day, but to try. Here comes your man; now is your husband nigh. Enter DROMIO of Ephesus. Adr. Say, is your tardy master now at hand? Dro. E. Nay, he's at two hands with me, and that my 45 two ears can witness. Adr. Say, didst thou speak with him? Know'st thou his mind? Dro. E. Ay, ay; he told his mind upon mine ear: Beshrew his hand, I scarce could understand it. Luc. Spake he so doubtfully thou couldst not feel his 50 meaning? Dro. E. Nay, he struck so plainly, I could too well feel his blows; and withal so doubtfully, that I Adr. But say, I pr'ythee, is he coming home? It seems he hath great care to please his wife. Dro. E. Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad. Adr. Horn-mad, thou villain! 55 44. SCENE II. Pope. 45. Nay,] At hand? nay Capell (ending the line at me). and] omitted by Capell. 50, 53. doubtfully] doubly Collier. omitted by Capell (who prints lines therewithal. them. ... guts, beg me for a fool." The custom is frequently referred to in the other dramatists. "It was an early form of the private lunatic asylum abuse on a limited scale," says Marshall. I am by no means certain, however, that the phrase is not equivalent to foolbegging, i.e. an example of Shakespeare's free and somewhat indefinite use of the passive for the active participle. The meaning would then 45, 46. two... two] too... two F 1. 53. withal] therewithal Capell. 50-54 as four verses ending feel that] I |