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Alone, it was the subject of my theme;

In company, I often glancéd it:

Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.

Abb. And therefore came it that the man was mad.
The venom clamours of a jealous woman

Poisons more deadly than a mad dog's tooth.

65

It seems, his sleeps were hinder'd by thy railing :
And thereof comes it that his head is light.
Thou say'st his meat was sauced by thy upbraidings:
Unquiet meals make ill digestions;

Thereof the raging fire of fever bred;

And what's a fever but a fit of madness?

Thou say'st his sports were hinder'd by thy brawls:
Sweet recreation barred, what doth ensue

But moody, heavy and dull melancholy,
Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair;

66. it] at it, Pope. 67. vile] Rowe; vilde Ff 1, 2, 3; vild F 4. venom] venome Ff1, 2; venomous Ff 3, 4; venom'd Pope.

...

...

70

75

80

69.

79.

69, 70. clamours Poisons] clamours. Poison Pope; clamour Poisons Capell. 74. make] F 1; makes Ff 2, 3, 4. 77. brawls] bralles F 1. moody, heavy] Editor; cloudy Ed. conj.; moodie F 1; muddy Ff 2, 3, 4; moody, moping Hanmer; moodie moping Heath conj.; moody madness Singer conj. (ed. 1); moody sadness Singer conj. (ed. 2); moody musing S. Walker conj.; only moody Keightley conj. 80. Kinsman] Kins-woman Capell, ending line 79 at Kins-; A'kin Hanmer; Kinsmen Singer conj.; Steevens puts the line in a parenthesis.

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79. But moody, .. melancholy] This line is clearly defective in metre, a dissyllable having dropped out. I think line 45 supra gives us the key to the missing word; which also occurs as an epithet or concomitant of "melancholy in the two plays nearest to The Errors in point of date, viz., Love's Labour's Lost, v. ii. 14: "He made her melancholy, sad and heavy"; and Two Gentlemen of Verona, III. ii. 62: "She is lumpish, heavy, melancholy." In Lucrece, 1602, we find "this moody heavi

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ness.' Cloudy" is perhaps quite as suitable. It is an epithet of melancholy in Titus Andronicus, II. iii. 33.

80. Kinsman] Used generically, I think, without reference to gender; hence there is no primâ facie necessity for the change of "her" to "their" in the next line; although "their" may be correct. If any confusion of genders there be, Ritson quotes a good example from the Merchant of Venice, III. ii. 169, where Portia says:

"But now I was the lord

And at her heels a huge infectious troop
Of pale distemperatures and foes to life?
In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest
To be disturb'd, would mad or man or beast:
The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
Hath scar'd thy husband from the use of wits.

Luc. She never reprehended him but mildly,

When he demean'd himself rough, rude, and wildly.
Why bear you these rebukes and answer not?

Good people, enter, and lay hold on him.

85

90

Adr. She did betray me to my own reproof.

Abb. No; not a creature enters in my house.

Adr. Then let your servants bring my husband forth.

Abb. Neither: he took this place for sanctuary,

95

And it shall privilege him from your hands
Till I have brought him to his wits again,
Or lose my labour in assaying it.

Adr. I will attend my husband, be his nurse,
Diet his sickness, for it is my office,

And will have no attorney but myself;

100

And therefore let me have him home with me.

Abb. Be patient; for I will not let him stir

Till I have used the approvéd means I have,
With wholesome syrups, drugs, and holy prayers,

81. her] their Malone (Heath conj.); his Collier, ed. 2 (S. Walker conj.). 86. Hath] F 1; Have Ff 2, 3, 4.

conj.

88. rough, rude] rough-rude S. Walker

wildly] wild Capell. 89. these] Ff 1, 2; those Ff 3, 4.

Of this fair mansion, master of
my servants,
Queen o'er myself."

disorders.

82. distemperatures]
Compare Midsummer-Night's Dream,
II. i. 106, note in Arden ed.; and
Greene's Never too Late (Dyce, 1831,

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vol. i. p. xvii.): distemperature of her bodie."

94. took] Compare "take," line 36 ante.

100. attorney] A proof, however slight, of Shakespeare's knowledge of and ingrained fondness for legal terms.

To make of him a formal man again.

105

It is a branch and parcel of mine oath,

A charitable duty of my order:

Therefore depart, and leave him here with me. Adr. I will not hence, and leave my husband here;

And ill it doth beseem your holiness

To separate the husband and the wife.

IIO

Abb. Be quiet, and depart: thou shalt not have him. [Exit.

Luc. Complain unto the duke of this indignity.

Adr. Come, go: I will fall prostrate at his feet,
And never rise until my tears and prayers
Have won his grace to come in person hither,

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And take perforce my husband from the abbess.

Sec. Mer. By this, I think, the dial points at five:
Anon, I'm sure, the duke himself in person
Comes this way to the melancholy vale,
The place of death and sorry execution,
Behind the ditches of the abbey here.
Ang. Upon what cause?

112. [Exit.] Theobald. F 2.

115

I 20

117. [Exeunt. Enter Merchant and Goldsmith] sorry] solemn Collier (ed. 2).

121. "death] Ff 3, 4; depth Ff 1, 2.

105. formal man] i.e. in his regular or normal state. Compare Twelfth Night, II. v. 127: "This is evident to any formal capacity." Steevens refers to Measure for Measure [v. i. 236], "These poor informal women," "for just the contrary." Craig compares the use of the word" formal" in the old stage-direction to one of T. Heywood's dialogues, Jupiter and Io": "Enter Mercury, like a yong formal Shepheard," i.e. a shepherd in

his habit as he lived.

66

106. parcel] i.e. part: apparently another legal reminiscence.

121. Sorry] sad, pitiful. Steevens observes this word "had anciently a stronger meaning than at present; and he quotes Chaucer's Prologue to the Sompnoures Tale (1700, Pollard) :

"This Frere, whan he hadde looked al his fille,

Upon the tormentz of this sory place";

and the Knightes Tale, where the Temple of Mars is described (Pollard, 2004): "Al ful of chirkying [i.e. chirping, twittering] was that sory place."

Sec. Mer. To see a reverend Syracusian merchant,
Who put unluckily into this bay

Against the laws and statutes of this town,
Beheaded publicly for his offence.

Ang. See, where they come; we will behold his death.
Luc. Kneel to the duke before he pass the abbey.

125

Enter DUKE, attended; ÆGEON bareheaded; with the Headsman and other Officers.

Duke. Yet once again proclaim it publicly,

If any friend will pay the sum for him,

He shall not die, so much we tender him.
Adr. Justice, most sacred duke, against the abbess!
Duke. She is a virtuous and a reverend lady:

It cannot be that she hath done thee wrong.

130

135

Adr. May it please your grace, Antipholus, my husband,— Whom I made lord of me and all I had,

At your important letters,—this ill day

130. SCENE

124. reverend] Ff 3, 4; reuerent Ff 1, 2. 128. Enter Adriana and Lucio] F 2. Enter bareheaded .] Enter the Duke of Ephesus, and the Merchant of Siracuse, bareheaded (bare head F 1) . . . Ff. III. Pope. 132. Enter Adriana] F 2. 134. reverend] Ff. 137, 138. Whom . letters, this] (Whom ... letters) this Theobald; Who.. Letters this F1; Whom ... had (At important] F 1; all-potent Rowe.

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Letters) this Ff 2, 3, 4. letters] letter F 4.

138.

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A most outrageous fit of madness took him;

That desperately he hurried through the street-
With him his bondman all as mad as he,—

140

Doing displeasure to the citizens

By rushing in their houses, bearing thence
Rings, jewels, anything his rage did like.

Once did I get him bound, and sent him home,
Whilst to take order for the wrongs I went,

145

That here and there his fury had committed.

Anon, I wot not by what strong escape,

He broke from those that had the guard of him;

And with his mad attendant and himself,

150

Each one with ireful passion, with drawn swords,

Met us again, and, madly bent on us,

Chased us away; till, raising of more aid,

We came again to bind them. Then they fled

Into this abbey, whither we pursued them;
And here the abbess shuts the gates on us,

155

And will not suffer us to fetch him out,

Nor send him forth, that we may bear him hence.

148. strong] strange Dyce, ed. 2 (Malone conj.). F 1. 158. hence] Ff 1, 2; thence Ff 3, 4. Court of wards was always considered as a grievous oppression. It is glanced at as early as the old morality of Hycke Scorner:

'these ryche men ben unkinde:
Wydowes do curse lordes and
gentyllmen,

For they contrayne them to marry
with their men;

Ye, wheder they wyll or no."" 146. take order for] take measures for settling. Compare Richard II. v. i. 53: "There is order ta'en for you"; Othello, v. ii. 72: "Honest

155. whither] whether

Iago hath ta'en order for 't"; and other passages.

148. strong escape] "I suppose, means an escape effected by strength or violence" (Steevens). It is by no means certain, however, that strange, the conjecture of Malone, and which has been adopted by Dyce (ed. 2), is not the correct reading. "I wot not" rather points to it. It is noteworthy that in II. ii. 175, Folios I, 2 and 3 read stranger, while Folio 4 has stronger, obviously the correct reading.

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