If thou hadst been Dromio to-day in my place,

Thou wouldst have changed thy face for a name, or thy name for a face.

Luce. [Within.] What a coil is there, Dromio? who are those at the gate?

Dro. E. Let my master in, Luce.

Luce. [Within.]

And so tell your master.

Dro. E.

'Faith no; he comes too late ;

O Lord! I must laugh!

50

Have at you with a proverb;-Shall I set in my staff? Luce. [Within.] Have at you with another: that's—When?

47. a face] I think we are compelled, from reasons both of sense and rhyme, to adopt Collier's reading. As Grant White remarks: "what Dromio could mean by changing a name for an ass, would pose the Sphinx and Oedipus.' I have little doubt that the corruption is simply an example of that metathesis of letters forming a word which is so common in the Folio. Compare "face" with "affe." Dromio E., it will be remembered, was beaten by Antipholus S. (see 1. ii. 92), and Dromio E. undoubtedly means that if Dromio S. had been in his place then, the latter instead of stealing his

name

would have been glad to change, either his own face or his name, i.e. to have had a different personality with the same name, Dromio, or else to have kept his personality, but with a different name; of course with the object of avoiding the beating.

48. Luce. [Within.]] Dyce says: "Here the Folio has Enter Luce,'

48. coil] uproar, ado: frequent in Shakespeare.

51. set in my staff] proverbial, perhaps, for "make myself at home" (Craig); something perhaps equivalent to the modern expression "hang up my hat."

66

52. When? can you tell?] Another proverbial expression, used apparently by way of counter question for evading an importunate question. Compare 1 Henry IV. II. i. 43: Ay, when? canst tell?" Craig quotes Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea, 1. i. (Pearson, 1874, vol. vi. p. 365): "When? can you tel?"; and Day, Law Trickes (1608), 111. i. 35 (Bullen, p. 36).

Dro. S. [Within.] If thy name be called Luce,--Luce, thou hast answered him well.

Ant. E. Do you hear, you minion? you'll let us in, I trow? Luce. [Within.] I thought to have asked you.

Dro. S. [Within.]

And you said, no. 55

Dro. E. So; come, help: well struck! there was blow for

blow.

Ant. E. Thou baggage, let me in.

Luce. [Within.]

Can you tell for whose sake?

Let him knock till it ache.

Dro. E. Master, knock the door hard.
Luce. [Within.]

Ant. E. You'll cry for this, minion, if I beat the door down.
Luce. [Within.] What needs all that, and a pair of stocks in

the town?

60

Adr. [Within.] Who is that at the door, that keeps all this

noise?

Dro. S. [Within.] By my troth, your town is troubled with unruly boys.

Ant. E. Are you there, wife? you might have come before. Adr. [Within.] Your wife, sir knave? go get you from the

door.

54. trow] Theobald; hope Ff; know Crosby conj.; Malone supposes a line omitted ending with rope. 55. asked you. Dro. S. And] ask'd you, had you brought a rope. Dro. S.; I ask'd you to let us in, and Keightley conj. 61. Adr. [within] Rowe; Enter Adriana Ff. 64. go get] go, get Theobald. 54. trow] Compare Merry Wives of Windsor, 1. iv. 140: "Who's within there? ho!-Who's there, I trow!" I think we must adopt Theobald's reading, as the least of the evils. In the mouth of Antiph. E. "hope" damns itself. It is far too weak. "Trow" here would have the meaning "I feel sure," "I'm pretty certain." I see no objection to making the line form a triplet with lines 55 and 56; the more so that within the

next few lines there occur three trip-
lets, viz. 63-65, 66-68, and 75-77.
There is little or no point, however,
in the triplet as it stands, and there
may be something in Malone's sup-
position that a line has dropped out
of the text, ending, as he suggested,
with "rope." But Malone was too
much given to the assumption that
lines had dropped out.
See e.g.
Henry IV. iv. i. 90.

1

Dro. E. If you went in, i' faith, master, this "knave" would go

sore.

65

Ang. Here is neither cheer, sir, nor welcome: we would fain have either.

Bal. In debating which was best, we shall part with neither. Dro. E. They stand at the door, master: bid them welcome hither.

Ant. E. There is something in the wind, that we cannot get

in.

Dro. E. You would say so, master, if your garments were thin. 70

Your cake there is warm within; you stand here in the cold:

It would make a man mad as a buck to be so bought and sold.

Ant. E. Go fetch me something: I'll break ope the gate. Dro. S. [Within.] Break any breaking here, and I'll break your knave's pate.

65. in, i' faith] Editor; in pain, Ff. 67. part] have part Warburton. 71. cake there] Anon. conj.; cake here Ff; cake Capell. 72. mad] F 1; as mad Ff 2, 3, 4. as a buck] omitted by Capell. 73. Go fetch] Go, fetch

Capell.

65. went in, i' faith] This reading appears to be the best and simplest solution of the somewhat meaningless reading of the Folio. Craig would read "my faith," and with "this knave" he compares Romeo and Juliet, III. i. 130:"Take the villain back again."

67. part with] i.e. depart with. 72. mad as a buck] This probably refers to sexual "madness." See Bartholomew (Berthelet), bk. xviii. §30: "[And in rutting time] the males wax cruel and dig up clods and stones with their feet, and then their snouts

Dro. E. A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind;

75

Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind.

Dro. S. [Within.] It seems, thou wantest breaking. Out upon thee, hind!

Dro. E. Here's too much "out upon thee"! I pray thee,

let me in.

Dro. S. [Within.] Ay, when fowls have no feathers, and fish have no fin.

80

Ant. E. Well, I'll break in. Go borrow me a crow.
Dro. E. A crow without feather? master, mean you so?
For a fish without a fin, there's a fowl without a
feather:

If a crow help us in, sirrah, we'll pluck a crow

together.

Ant. E. Go get thee gone; fetch me an iron crow.

...

so; Ff 1, 2, 3; feather,

75. you, sir] your sir F 1. 78. much] much, Ff 1, 2, 3; much; F 4. 81. feather? so?] Collier; feather, so? F 4. get Ff.

feather] a feather Steevens (1793). 84. Go get] Dyce; Go,

thus rendered by Sugden, Comedies
of T. Maccius Plautus, 1893:—
"When I got there, just as wealthy
fathers oft will give their
boys
Starlings, goslings, quails to play
with in the place of other
toys,

So when I got there, a crow was

given me as plaything pretty! the quibble being on crow and crowbar, just as in the Latin upupa means both hoopoe and a kind of hoe or mattock. A variation of the phrase is "to pull a crow"; for which Craig compares Heywood's Proverbs, 1546 (Sharman, p. 122): “If ye leave it not we have a crow to pull,'

Bal. Have patience, sir; O, let it not be so :
Herein you war against your reputation,

And draw within the compass of suspect

The unviolated honour of your wife.

Once this, your long experience of her wisdom,
Her sober virtue, years, and modesty,

Plead on her part some cause to you unknown ;
And doubt not, sir, but she will well excuse
Why at this time the doors are made against you.
Be ruled by me: depart in patience,

And let us to the Tiger all to dinner;
And, about evening, come yourself, alone,

To know the reason of this strange restraint.
If by strong hand you offer to break in,

89. Once this,-your] Once this your Ff; Once this; your Rowe; Own this; your Malone conj. her] Rowe; your Ff. 91. her] Rowe; your Ff.