Immagini della pagina
PDF
ePub

ONÆ

thers and Sons to and Æmilia.

ers and Attendants on vo Antipholuses.

s of Syracuse. a debtor.

= at Ephesus. Shesus.

Attendants.

5.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

ACT I

SCENE I.—A Hall in the Duke's Palace.

Enter DUKE, ÆGEON, Gaoler, Officers and other
Attendants.

Ægeon. Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall,
And by the doom of death end woes and all.
Duke. Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more;

I am not partial to infringe our laws:
The enmity and discord which of late

Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke
To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,

Who, wanting guilders to redeem their lives,

[ocr errors]

5

A hall palace] Malone; The Duke's palace Theobald; A publick Place Capell. Duke] the Duke of Ephesus Ff. Egeon] Rowe; with the Merchant of Siracusa Ff. Officers] Capell; Officer Staunton; omitted in Ff. 1. Solinus] F 1; Salinus Ff 2, 3, 4.

1. Solinus] The Duke's name is
not mentioned elsewhere in the play.
2. doom]judgment, sentence. The
exact phrase occurs also in Henry V.
III. vi. 46:-

"Exeter hath given the doom of
death

For pax of little price";
and in Titus Andronicus, III. i. 24:
"Unbind my sons, reverse the doom
of death." We also find in 2 Henry

VI. IV. ix. 12: "Expect your high-
ness' doom of life or death." Shake-
speare uses it for the day of judgment
in the well-known passages in Ham-
let, I. iv. 50: As against the
doom"; and Macbeth, 11. iii. 83:
"The great doom's image"; and iv.
i. 117:
"What, will the line stretch
out to the crack of doom?"
8. guilders] The " guilder" was
(a) a gold coin formerly current in the

[graphic]

Have seal'd his rigorous statutes wi
Excludes all pity from our threate
For, since the mortal and intestine
'Twixt thy seditious countrymen an
It hath in solemn synods been dec
Both by the Syracusians and ourse
To admit no traffic to our adverse
Nay, more, if any, born at Ephesus
Be seen at Syracusian marts and fa
Again, if any Syracusian born
Come to the bay of Ephesus, he di
His goods confiscate to the duke's
Unless a thousand marks be levied

To quit the penalty, and to ranson

22. and

Folios, wh

"a revere

14. Syracusians] F 4; Siracusians Ff 1, 2, 3; S Nay more, if... Ephesus Be seene at any] Ff; At any Malone; any omitted by Pope. Netherlands and parts of Germany; (b) a Dutch silver coin worth about Is. 8d. English (New Eng. Dict.). Valued from one shilling and sixpence to two shillings, says Steevens. Used here and in IV. i. 4 in a general sense for money. So in Marlowe, Faustus, sc. iv. line 34 (Bullen, i. 229): "WagHold, take these guilders"; where the stage-direction following is "gives him money."

Marshall Syracusia Anatomy p. 345: tempest,' MacFleck [i.e. puns] 15. ad Night, v. this adver

16, 17. Globe an as three li

“Nay,

If any
At a

fai

but there "any" of has been the prece right in o

[blocks in formation]

25

Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;
Therefore, by law thou art condemn'd to die.
Age. Yet this my comfort; when your words are done,
My woes end likewise with the evening sun.
Duke. Well, Syracusian; say, in brief, the cause
Why thou departedst from thy native home,
And for what cause thou cam 'st to Ephesus.
Ege. A heavier task could not have been imposed
Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable;
Yet, that the world may witness that my end
Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence,
I'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave.
In Syracusa was I born; and wed
Unto a woman, happy but for me,

30

35

[blocks in formation]

And by me too, had not our hap been bad.
With her I lived in joy; our wealth increased

40

hich also occurs in v. i. 124: end Syracusian merchant." points out that the form an is found in Burton's of Melancholy (ed. 1676),

or as that Syracusian in a 'etc. Similarly, Dryden in his knoe, 83, has "Pure clinches the suburbian muse affords." tverse] Compare Twelfth . i. 87: "Into the danger of erse town." Nay, more, nd Cambridge editions print lines, thus:

v, more,

fairs] The

my born at Ephesus be seen any Syracusian marts and airs";

e can be little doubt that the of the Folios in the last line n caught up by mistake from ceding line, and that Pope was omitting it.

By prosperous voyages I often made

To Epidamnum; till my factor's death,

29. home,] Home; Rowe; home? Ff. 32. griefs] F 1; griefe F 2; grief Ff 3, 4. 38. And by me too,] Ff 2, 3, 4; And by me; F 1. 41, 62. Epidamnum] Pope; Epidamium Ff, Marshall; Epidamnium Rowe. Epidamnum; . . . death] Theobald; Epidamium, . . death F 1; Epidamium, death; Ff 2, 3, 4.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
[graphic]

And the great care of goods at rand
Drew me from kind embracements
From whom my absence was not s
Before herself, almost at fainting un
The pleasing punishment that wom
Had made provision for her follow
And soon and safe arrived where I
There had she not been long but s
A joyful mother of two goodly son
And, which was strange, the one so
As could not be distinguish'd but h
That very hour, and in the self-san
A meaner woman was delivered
Of such a burden, male twins, both
Those, for their parents were exce
I bought, and brought up to attend

42. the... care... left] Theobald; he.. leaving Ff 2, 3, 4; he, great random] Ff 3, 4; randone Ff 1, (S. Walker conj.); meane F1; poor meane F 2; burden, male twins,] burthen Male, twins F 1.

"Choked
sort"; Ri
it [hope]
creatures
Shrew, I.
or meaner
and The
1. vi. 27:
66 Thou a
meaner m

Compare
Scourge
"Our E
Shakespe

"Thou

for

me

6

[blocks in formation]

left F1; he left Steevens

54. meaner] Delius

; poor mean Ff 3, 4.

. i. 210:

66

11

55.

1

d with ambition of the meaner Richard III. v. ii. 24: "Kings ] makes gods and meaner s Kings"; Taming of the "Some Neapolitan, er man of Pisa"; Coriolanus, From every meaner man Tempest, m. iii. 87: "My ministers"; and Iv. i. 35: and thy meaner fellows.' e also John Davies in his of Folly, 1607, addressing English Terence, Mr. Will Deare":

ou hadst been a companion
or a King

d been a King among the
neaner sort."

And left the ship, then sinking-ripe, to us.

[ocr errors]

60, 61. Unwilling . . . aboard. .] As in Pope; one line in the Ff. 60. soon] soon! Pope; soon. Capell. 61. aboard.] aboard and put to sea, but scarce Editor conj. 68. doubtful] dreadful Theobald conj. weepings] F 1; weeping Ff 2, 3, 4. 75. this] thus Hudson (Collier).

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

70.

68. doubtful] Hardly, as Craig says, "awful," "dreadful"; but rather implying the great probability of the truth of the statement, like the Latin phrases haud scio an, dubito an, etc. Compare King Lear, v. i. 12:

"I am doubtful that you have been conjunct

And bosom'd with her."

77. sinking-ripe] Compare Love's Labour's Lost, v. ii. 274: "weepingripe"; and The Tempest, v. i. 279: "reeling-ripe."

« IndietroContinua »