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I should kick, being kickt; and, being at that país,
You would keep from my heels, and beware of an afs.
E. Ant. Y'are fad, Signior Balthazar. Pray God,
our cheer

May anfwer my good will, and your good welcome here. Bal. I hold your dainties cheap, Sir, and your welcome dear.

E. Ant. Ah, Signior Balthazar, either at flesh or fish, A table-full of welcome makes fcarce one dainty difh. Bal.. Good meat, Sir, is common ; that every churl affords.

E. Ant. And welcome more common; for that's nothing but words."

Bal. Small cheer, and great welcome, makes a merry feast.

E. Ant. Ay, to a niggardly hoft, and more fparing guest:

But tho' my cates be mean, take them in good part; Better cheer may you have, but not with better heart. But, foft; my door is lockt; go bid them let us in.

E. Dro. Maud, Bridget, Marian, Cicely, Gillian, Ginn ! S. Dro. [within.] Mome, malt-horfe, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch!

Either get thee from the door, or fit down at the hatch; Doft thou conjure for wenches, that thou call'ft for such ftore,

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When one is one too many go, get thee from the

door.

E. Dro. What patch is made our porter? my mafter ftays in the street.

S. Dro. Let him walk from whence he came, left he catch cold on's feet.

E. Ant. Who talks within there? hoa, open the

door.

S. Dro. Right, Sir, I'll tell you when, an you'll tell me wherefore.

-E. Ant. Wherefore? for my dinner: I have not din'd to day.

S. Dro. Nor to day here you must not : come again, when you may.

E. Ant.

E. Aut. What art thou, that keep'ft me out from the

house I owe?

S. Dro. The porter for this time, Sir, and my name is
Dromio

E. Dro. O villain, thou haft ftoll'n both mine office
and my name:

The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame. If thou hadst been Dromio to day in a my place, Thou would't have chang'd thy face for a name, or thy name for an afs.

Luce. [within] What a coile is there, Dremio who are thofe at the gate?

E. Dro. Let my mafter in, Luce.

Luce. Faith, no; he comes too late

And fo tell your master..

E. Dro. O ford, I muft laugh;

Have at you with a Proverb.-Shall I fet in my staff Luce. Have at you with another; that's when, canı you tell ?

S. Dro. If thy name be call'd Luce, Luce, thou haft anfwer'd him well.

E. Ant. Do you hear, you minion, you'll let us in,, I trow?

Luce. I thought to have askt you,

S. Dro. And you faid, no.

E.Dro. So, come, help, well ftruck; there was blow for blow.

E. Ant. Thou baggage, let me in.
Luce. Can you tell for whofe fake?
E. Dro. Mafter, knock the door hard.
Euce. Let him knock, 'till it ake..

E. Ant. You'll cry for this, minion, if I beat the door

down.

Luce. What needs all that, and a pair of ftocks in the town?

Adr. [within] Who is that at the door, that keeps all this noife?

S. Dre. By my troth, your town is troubled with up

ruly boys.

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E. Ant. Are you there, wife? you might have come

before.

Adr. Your wife, Sir knave! go, get you from the door.

E. Dro. If you went in pain, master, this knave would go fore.

Ang. Here is neither cheer, Sir, nor welcome; we would fain have either.

Bal. In-debating which was beft, we shall part with neither.

E. Dro. They ftand at the door, mafter; bid them welcome hither.

E. Ant. There's fomething in the wind, that we cannot get in.

E. Dro. You would fay fo, mafter, if your garments were thin.

Your cake here is warm within: you ftand here in the

cold :

It would make a man mad as a buck to be fo bought and

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fold.

E. Ant. Go fetch me fomething, I'll break ope the

gate.

S. Dro. Break any thing here, and I'll break your

knave's pate.

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

Ay, and break it in your face, fo he break it not be

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S. Dro. It feems thou wanteft breaking; out upon

thee, hind!

E. Dro. Here's too much, out upon thee! I pray thee, let me in.

3. Dro. Ay, when fowls have no feathers, and fish have no fin.

E. Ant. Well, I'll break in; go borrow me a crow. E. Dro. A crow without feather, mafter, mean you fo? For a fish without a fin, there's a fowl without a fea

ther:

If a crow help us in, firrah, we'll pluck a crow toge

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E. Ant.

E. Ant. Go, get thee gone, fetch me an iron crow. Bal. Have patience, Sir: oh, let it not be fo. Herein you war against your reputation,

And draw within the compafs of fufpect
Th' inviolated honour of your wife.

Once, this; your long experience of her wisdom,
Her fober virtue, years, and modefty,

Plead on her part fome caufe to you unknown;
And doubt not, Sir, but she will well excufe,
Why at this time the doors are barr'd against you.
-Be rul'd by me, depart in patience,
And let us to the Tyger all to dinner;
And about evening come yourself alone,
To know the reafon of this ftrange restraint.
If by ftrong hand you offer to break in,
Now in the stirring paffage of the day,
A vulgar comment will be made of it;
And that fuppofed by the common rout,
Against your yet ungalled estimation,
That may with foul intrufion enter in,
And dwell upon your grave when you are dead:
For flander lives upon fucceffion;

For ever hous'd, where it once gets poffeffion.

E. Ant. You have prevail'd; I will depart in quiet,
And, in defpight of wrath, (9) mean to be merry.
I know a wench of excellent difcourfe,

Pretty and witty, wild, and, yet too, gentle;
There will we dine: this woman that I mean,
My wife (but, I proteft, without defert,)
Hath oftentimes upbraided me withal;
To her will we to dinner. Get you home,

(9) And, in Defpight of Mirth,] In defpight of what Mirth? We don't find, that it was any Joke, or matter of Mirth, to be shut out of Doors by his Wife. I make no Doubt therefore, but I have reftor'd the true Reading. Antipholis's Paffion is plain enough all thro' this Scene: and, in the next Act, we find him confeffing how angry He was at this Juncture.And did not I in Rage depart from thence? The Circumstances, I think, fufficiently juftify my Emendation,

And

And fetch the chain; by this, I know, 'tis made s
Bring it, I pray you, to the Porcupine;

For there's the houfe: that chain will I bestow,
(Be it for nothing but to spight my wife,)

Upon mine hoftefs there. Good Sir, máke haste ::
Since mine own doors refuse to entertain me,
I'll knock elsewhere, to fee if they'll disdain me.
Ang. I'll meet you at that place, fome hour, Sir,
hence.

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E. Ant. Do fo; this jeft fhall coft me fome expence.

[Exeunt

SCENE, the House of Antipholis of Ephefus.

Enter Luciana, with Antipholis of Syracufe.

Luc. AND may it be, that you have quite forgot

(10)

A husband's office? fhall, Antiphalis, hate,
Ev'n in the fpring of love, thy love-springs rot?
Shall love, in building, grow fo ruinate?

If you did wed my fifter for her wealth,

Then for her wealth's fake ufe her with more kindness;

Or if you like efwhere, do it by flealth;

Muffle your falfe love with fome fhew of blindness;

(10) And may it be, that you have quite forgot

An Husband's Office Shall, Antipholis,

Ev'n in the Spring of Love, thy love-fprings rot &

Shall love in buildings grow fo ruinate 2] This Paffage
What Con-

has hitherto labour'd under a double Corruption.
seit could our Editors, have of Love in Buildings, growing rui-
nate? Our Poet meant no more than this: Shall thy Love-
fprings rot, even in the Spring of Love? and shall thy Love.
grow ruinous, ev'n while it is but building up? The next Cor-
ruption is by an accident at Prefs, as I take it; This Scene for
Fifty two Lines fucceffively is ftri&ly in alternate Rhymes: and
this Measure is. never broken, but in the Second, and Fourth,
Lines of thefe two Couplets. 'Tis certain, I think, a Monofyl
lable dropt from the Tail of the Second Verfe: and I have ven
tur'd to fupply it by, I hope, a probable Conjecture.

Let

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