Which doth amount to three odd ducats more

30

Than I stand debted to this gentleman:
I pray you, see him presently discharged,
For he is bound to sea, and stays but for it.
Ant. E. I am not furnish'd with the present money;
Besides, I have some business in the town.
Good signior, take the stranger to my house,

35

And with you take the chain, and bid my wife
Disburse the sum on the receipt thereof:

Perchance, I will be there as soon as you.

Ang. Then you will bring the chain to her yourself?

40

Ant. E. No; bear it with you, lest I come not time enough. Ang. Well, sir, I will. Have you the chain about you?

Ant. E. An if I have not, sir, I hope you have,

Or else you may return without your money.

Ang. Nay, come, I pray you, sir, give me the chain :
Both wind and tide stays for this gentleman,
And I, to blame, have held him here too long.
Ant. E. Good Lord! you use this dalliance to excuse
Your breach of promise to the Porpentine.
I should have chid you for not bringing it,
But, like a shrew, you first begin to brawl.
Sec. Mer. The hour steals on; I pray you, sir, dispatch.
Ang. You hear how he importunes me :-the chain!
Ant. E. Why, give it to my wife, and fetch your money.

45

50

33. but] omitted by Rowe. 41. No; bear it] No; Bear 't S. Walker conj., reading Bear't . . . enough as one line. time enough] in time Hanmer. 43. An] Theobald; And Ff. 46. stays] stay Rowe (ed. 2). this] FI; the Ff 2, 3, 4. 47. to blame] F3; too blame Ff 1, 2, 4. 49. Porpentine] Porcupine Rowe. 53. the chain !] Dyce; the chain. Ff; the chain— Johnson.

48. dalliance] Compare line 59 infra.

Ang. Come, come, you know, I gave it you even now.
Either send the chain, or send me by some token.
Ant. E. Fie! now you run this humour out of breath.
Come, where's the chain? I pray you, let me see it.
Sec. Mer. My business cannot brook this dalliance.

Good sir, say, whether you'll answer me or no:
If not, I'll leave him to the officer.

55

60

Ant. E. I answer you! what should I answer you?
Ang. The money that you owe me for the chain.

Ant. E. I owe you none till I receive the chain.

Ang. You know I gave it you half an hour since.
Ant. E. You gave me none: you wrong me much to

say so.

Ang. You wrong me more, sir, in denying it :

Consider how it stands upon my credit.

Sec. Mer. Well, officer, arrest him at my suit.

Off.

I do;

65

And charge you in the duke's name to obey me. 70 Ang. This touches me in reputation.

56. Either] Or Pope.

me by] by me Singer (Heath conj.). 58. chain?]

F 4; chaine, Ff 1, 2, 3. 60. whether] whe'r Ff; where Rowe; if Pope.

62. what] F 1; why Ff 2, 3, 4.
67. more] F 1; omitted in Ff 2, 3, 4.

56. Either] monosyllabic. pare "whether," line 60 infra.

Com

56. send . . . token] i.e. send me with some sign or attestation showing my right to receive it. There is no necessity for Heath's conjecture. Very similar expressions are found in Shakespeare himself: e.g. in Richard III. IV. ii. 80: "Go, by this token; rise, and lend thine ear"; All's Well that Ends Well, 1. iii. 204 :

"I follow him not

65. gave it] gave 't S. Walker conj. 69, 70. So arranged by Hanmer.

and Julius Cæsar, 1. iii. 55:

"When the most mighty Gods by tokens send

Such dreadful heralds." See also Marston's Dutch Courtezan, III. iii. 40 (Bullen, vol. ii.): "Mrs. Mulligrub. By what token are you sent? by no token? Nay, I have wit. Cocledemoy. He sent me by the same token, that he was dry shaved this morning." 60. whether] monosyllabic.

By any token of presumptuous prints whêr.
suit";

ante.

Dyce Compare line 26

Either consent to pay this sum for me,

Or I attach you by this officer.

Ant. E. Consent to pay thee that I never had!

Arrest me, foolish fellow, if thou darest.

Ang. Here is thy fee; arrest him, officer.

75

I would not spare my brother in this case,
If he should scorn me so apparently.
Off. I do arrest you, sir. You hear the suit.
Ant. E. I do obey thee till I give thee bail.

But, sirrah, you shall buy this sport as dear
As all the metal in your shop will answer.
Ang. Sir, sir, I shall have law in Ephesus,

To your notorious shame; I doubt it not.

Enter DROMIO of Syracuse, from the bay.

Dro. S. Master, there is a bark of Epidamnum
That stays but till her owner comes aboard,
And then she bears away. Our fraughtage, sir,
I have conveyed aboard; and I have bought
The oil, the balsamum, and aqua-vitæ.
The ship is in her trim; the merry wind

80

85

90

74. thee] F 1; omitted in Ff 2, 3, 4; for there is] Pope; there's Ff. 87. And Then, sir, Ff 2, 3, 4. she] omitted by F 2. 88. bought] F 1; brought

73. this] F 1; the Ff 2, 3, 4. Rowe. 85. SCENE 11. Pope. then] Capell; And then, sir, F 1; Steevens. fraughtage] faughtage Ff 2, 3, 4.

errors. . .

78. apparently] openly, evidently. So "apparent cruelty" in Merchant of Venice, IV. i. 21. Compare Bacon, Adv. of Learning, 11. viii. 5 : “popular such as... are nevertheless apparently detected." 89. balsamum] In this form only in this passage. In Timon of Athens, III. V. IIO, we find: "Is this the balsam that the usuring senate Pours

into captains' wounds?" Another form is balsamo, which occurs in Greene's Looking-Glass for London and England (Dyce, 1831, vol. i. p. 78): "Fetch balsamo, the kind preserve of life."

90. in her trim] in her rig, ready to sail. Cotgrave has "Galefreté: rigged, or trimmed up, as a ship."

Blows fair from land; they stay for nought at all,

But for their owner, master, and yourself.

Ant. E. How now! a madman! Why, thou peevish sheep,
What ship of Epidamnum stays for me?

Dro. S. A ship you sent me to, to hire waftage.
Ant. E. Thou drunken slave, I sent thee for a rope,
And told thee to what purpose and what end.
Dro. S. You sent me for a rope's end, sir, as soon.
You sent me to the bay, sir, for a bark.

95

94. me?] me. F 1. 95. hire] F 4; hier Ff 1, 2, 3. 98. You sent me] A rope! You sent me Capell; You sent me, Sir, Steevens (1793).

a rope's]

a rope! rope's Perring conj.; a rope's end, sir] Editor; a rope's end Ff.

92. master] "The master of a ship was in our poet's time an officer under the captain. The master and his mate,' writes Smith (Accidence for Young Seamen, 1626), 'is to direct the course, command all the Saylors, for steering, trimming, and sayling the ship. The Captaine's charge is to command all, and tell the Maister to what port he will go, or to what height [latitude]"" (Craig).

93. peevish] childish, perverse, foolish, silly in many passages of Shakespeare. Compare Romeo and Juliet, IV. ii. 14: "a peevish selfwilled harlotry"; and Lyly's Endimion, I. i. (ed. Fairholt, vol. i. p. 6): "There never was any so peevish as to imagine the moone either capable of affection or shape of a mistris"; also his Gallathea, v. 3 (vol. i. pp. 269, 275).

93. sheep] Pronounced short, almost ship"; hence the quibble on "ship in the next line; just as in Love's Labour's Lost, II. i. 220: "Two hot sheeps, marry.-And wherefore not ships?" The same mild quibble occurs in Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1. i. 72, 73.

95. waftage] passage by sea. Compare Troilus and Cressida, III. ii. 11:

"Like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks,

Staying for waftage."

98. rope's end, sir] I am convinced that "sir" has fallen out of the text in this line, and chiefly owing to its occurrence in the next line; and this is confirmed by Iv. iv.16,17. Steevens, followed by Dyce, prefers to insert "sir" after "sent me. "" "Rope" is a pure monosyllable in Shakespeare; and in the face of such passages as IV. i. 15, 16 :—

66

"Go thou

L

And buy a rope's end: that will I bestow," etc., Iv. i. 20, Buy thou a rope," and IV. iv. 16, "To a rope's end, sir," it is mere foolishness to say, as some editors do, that the word is "pronounced as a dissyllable," or that "the inflexion -es was still often sounded in early Elizabethan drama." The present genitive is toto calo different from the inflected genitive of A Midsummer Night's Dream, II. i. 7, "moonës sphere," or IV. i. 107,

nightës shade," which are clearly reminiscences of Shakespeare's reading in Chaucer. "A Saxon genitive case accords better with one of Puck's lyrical effusions," says Steevens.

Ant. E. I will debate this matter at more leisure,

100

And teach your ears to list me with more heed.

To Adriana, villain, hie thee straight;
Give her this key, and tell her, in the desk
That's cover'd o'er with Turkish tapestry,

There is a purse of ducats: let her send it:

105

Tell her, I am arrested in the street,

And that shall bail me: Hie thee, slave, be gone!

On, officer, to prison till it come.

[Exeunt Sec. Merchant, Angelo, Officer, and Ant. E.

Dro. S. To Adriana! that is where we dined,

Where Dowsabel did claim me for her husband:

IIO

She is too big, I hope, for me to compass.

Thither I must, although against my will,

For servants must their masters' minds fulfil.

[Exit.

SCENE II.-The House of Antipholus of Ephesus.

Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA.

Adr. Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?

Mightst thou perceive austerely in his eye
That he did plead in earnest? yea or no?

108. [Exeunt. . .] Dyce; Exeunt Mer., Gol., Officer, and Antiphilus Capell ; Exeunt Ff.