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.

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

Off. I do; and charge you, in the duke's name, to

obey me.

Ang. This touches me in reputation :

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 dar'st.

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

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

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.

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† "And then, sir, she bears away:" - MALONE.

thou peevish sheep, Peevish is silly.

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, sir, for a rope's end as soont: You sent me to the bay, sir, for a bark.

Ant. E. I will debate this matter at more leisure,
And teach your ears to listen ‡ 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;
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 Merchant, ANGELO, Officer, and ANT. E.

Dro. S. To Adriana! that is where we din'd,
Where Dowsabel did claim me for her husband:
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 same.

Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA.

Adr. Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?
Might'st thou perceive austerely in his eye

That he did plead in carnest, yea or no?
Look'd he or red, or pale; or sad, or merrily ?
What observation mad'st thou in this case,
Of his heart's meteors tilting in his face?

† "You sent me for a rope's end as soon:" MALONE. ‡ "list me"-MALONE.

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meteors tilting in his face? Alluding to those meteors in the sky, which have the appearance of lines of armies meeting in the shock.

Luc. First, he denied you had in him no right.
Adr. He meant, he did me none; the more my spite †.
Luc. Then swore he, that he was a stranger here.
Adr. And true he swore, though yet forsworn he were.

Luc. Then pleaded I for you.

Adr.

And what said he?

Luc. That love I begg'd for you, he begg'd of me. Adr. With what persuasion did he tempt thy love? Luc. With words, that in an honest suit might move.

First, he did praise my beauty; then, my speech.

Adr. Did'st speak him fair?

Luc.

Have patience, I beseech.

Adr. I cannot, nor I will not, hold me still ; My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will. He is deformed, crooked, old, and sereo, Ill-fac'd, worse-bodied, shapeless every where ; Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind; Stigmatical in making1, worse in mind.

Luc. Who would be jealous then of such a one?
No evil lost is wail'd when it is gone.

Adr. Ah! but I think him better than I say,
And yet would herein others' eyes were worse:

Far from her nest the lapwing cries away2;

My heart prays for him, though my tongue do

curse.

Enter DROMIO of Syracuse.

Dro. S. Here, go; the desk, the purse; sweet now, make haste.

Luc. How hast thou lost thy breath?

† Mr. Malone, in this play, constantly reads spight, a word not to be found in our dictionaries.

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sere,] That is, dry, withered. JOHNSON.

Dro. S.

By running fast.

Adr. Where is thy master, Dromio? is he well?
Dro. S. No, he's in Tartar limbo, worse than hell.

A devil in an everlasting garment hath him,
One, whose hard heart is button'd up with steel;
A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough;

A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff;
A back-friend, a shoulder-clapper, one that countermands
The passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands*;
A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot wells;
One that, before the judgment, carries poor souls to

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hell 6.

an everlasting garment - The sergeants, in those days, were clad in buff, as Dromio tells us the man was who arrested Antipholus. Buff is also a cant expression for a man's skin, a covering which lasts him as long as his life. Dromio therefore calls buff an everlasting garment: and in pursuance of this quibble on the word buff, he calls the sergeant, in the next scene, the "Picture of old Adam;" that is, of Adam before his fall, whilst he remained unclad. "-What, have you got the picture of old Adam new apparelled?"

4

and narrow lands;] Lands, in the present instance, may mean, what we now call landing-places at the water-side.

5 A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well;] To run counter is to run backward, by mistaking the course of the animal pursued; to draw dry-foot, is, I believe, to pursue by the track or prick of the foot; to run counter and draw dry-foot well are, therefore, inconsistent. The jest consists in the ambiguity of the word counter, which means the wrong way in the chace, and a prison in London. The officer that arrested him was a sergeant of the counter. For the congruity of this jest with the scene of action, let our author answer. JOHNSON.

A hound that draws dry-foot, means what is usually called a blood-hound, trained to follow men by the scent.

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poor souls to hell.] Hell was the cant term for an obscure dungeon in any of our prisons.

There was likewise a place of this name under the Exchequer Chamber, where the king's debtors were confined till they had "paid the uttermost farthing." STEEVENS.

An account of the local situation of HELL may be found in the Journals of the House of Commons, Vol. X. p. 83, as the Commons passed through it to King William and Queen Mary's Coronation, and gave directions concerning it. In Queen ElizaAdr. Why, man, what is the matter?

Dro. S. I do not know the matter; he is 'rested on

the case.

Adr. What, is he arrested? tell me, at whose suit. Dro. S. I know not at whose suit he is arrested, well; But he's in a suit of buff†, which 'rested him, that can I tell:

Will you send him, mistress, redemption, the money in

the desk?

Adr. Go fetch it, sister. - This I wonder at,

[Exit LUCIANA.

That he unknown to me, should be in debt :-
Tell me, was he arrested on a band1?

Dro. S. Not on a band, but on a stronger thing;
A chain, a chain: do you not hear it ring?

Adr. What, the chain?

Dro. S. No, no, the bell: 'tis time, that I were gone. It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes one.