I'll to the Centaur, to go seek this slave:
I greatly fear my money is not safe.

[Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I. A public Place.

Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA.

Adr. Neither my husband, nor the slave return'd, That in such haste I sent to seek his master!

Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock.

Luc. Perhaps some merchant hath invited him, And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner. Good sister, let us dine, and never fret ·

A man is master of his liberty :

Time is their master; and, when they see time,
They'll go, or come:

If so,

be patient, sister. Adr. Why should their liberty than ours be more ? Luc. Because their business still lies out o'door. Adr. Look, when I serve him so, he takes it ill. Luc. O! know he is the bridle of your will. Adr. There's none but asses will be bridled so. Luc. Why, headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe.' There's nothing, situate under Heaven's eye, But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky: The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls, Are their males' subjects, and at their controls: Men, more divine, the masters of all these, Lords of the wide world, and wild watery seas,

The meaning of this passage may be, that those who refuse the bridle must bear the lash, and that woe is the punishment of headstrong liberty.

Indued with intellectual sense and souls,

Of more pre-eminence than fish and fowls,
Are masters to their females, and their lords:
Then, let your will attend on their accords.

Adr. This servitude makes you to keep unwed. Luc. Not this, but troubles of the marriage bed. Adr. But, were you wedded, you would bear some sway.

Luc. Ere I learn love, I'll practise to obey.

Adr. How if your husband start some other where ??

2

Luc. Till he come home again, I would forbear.
Adr. Patience unmov'd, no marvel though she

They can be meek, that have no other cause.'
A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity,

We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;

But were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain .
So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience would'st relieve me
But, if thou live to see like right bereft,

6

5

This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left.

Luc. Well, I will marry one day, but to try. Here comes your man; now is your husband nigh.

2 That is, somewhere else. The sense is,- How if your hus band fly off in pursuit of some other woman?

3 To pause is to rest, to be quiet.

4 That is, no cause to be otherwise.

5 Helpless in the sense of useless, unhelping.

• Probably meaning a patience so foolish as to cause one to be begged for a fool; referring to the old custom of soliciting the guardianship of fools and idiotic persons with a view to come at their revenues. The king, being the legal guardian of such persous, might make over the trust to whom he pleased; and relatives or other interested parties would beg the office, and, no doubt often made or imagined the folly they wanted to have the care of See Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. sc. 2, note 31

a.

Enter DROMIO of Ephesus.

Adr. Say, is your tardy master now at hand? Dro. E. Nay, he's at two hands with me, and that my two ears can witness.

Adr. Say, didst thou speak with him? know'st thou his mind?

Dro. E. Ay, ay; he told his mind upon mine ear: Beshrew his hand! I scarce could understand it.'

Luc. Spake he so doubtfully, thou could'st not feel his meaning?

Dro. E. Nay, he struck so plainly, I could too well feel his blows; and withal so doubtfully, that I could scarce understand them.

Adr. But say, I pr'ythee, is he coming home? It seems he hath great care to please his wife. Dro. E. Why, mistress, sure my master is horn mad.

Adr. Horn-mad, thou villain?

Dro. E. I mean not cuckold-mad; but, sure, he is stark mad.

When I desir'd him to come home to dinner,
He ask'd me for a thousand marks in gold:
'Tis dinner-time, quoth I; my gold, quoth he:
Your meat doth burn, quoth I; my gold, quoth he.
Will you come? quoth I; my gold, quoth he:
Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?
The pig, quoth I, is burn'd; my gold, quoth he:
My mistress, sir, quoth I; hang up thy mistress;
I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress!
Luc. Quoth who?

Dro. E. Quoth my master:

I know, quoth he, no house, no wife, no mistress.

A porr quibble between understand and stand under. curs again in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. sc. 5.

It oc H.

So that my errand, due unto my tongue,
I thank him, I bear home upon my

shoulders;

For, in conclusion, he did beat me there.

Adr. Go back, again, thou slave, and fetch hin home.

Dro. E. Go back again, and be new beaten home?

For God's sake, send some other messenger.

Adr. Back, slave, or I will break thy pate across. Dro. E. And he will bless that cross with other beating:

Between you I shall have a holy head.

Adr. Hence, prating peasant; fetch thy master home.

Dro. E. Am I so round with you, as you with

me,

That like a football you do spurn me thus ?

You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither:
If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.
[Exit.
Luc. Fie, how impatience loureth in your face!
Adr. His company must do his minions grace,
Whilst I at home starve for a merry look.
Hath homely age the alluring beauty took
From my poor cheek? then, he hath wasted it.
Are my discourses dull? barren my wit?
If voluble and sharp discourse be marr'd,
Unkindness blunts it, more than marble hard.
Do their gay vestments his affections bait ?
That's not my fault; he's master of my state.
What ruins are in me, that can be found

By him not ruin'd? then is he the ground

8 He plays upon the word round, which signifies spherical, as applied to himself; and free in speech, as regards his mistress. To be round with any one is to be plain spoken.

Of my defeatures.

My decayed fair 10 A sunny look of his would soon repair; But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale, And feeds from home: poor I am but his stale." Luc. Self-harming jealousy !—fie! beat it hence. Adr. Unfeeling fools can with such wrongs dis

pense.

I know his eye doth homage otherwhere;

Or else, what lets 12 it but he would be here?
Sister, you know he promis'd me a chain:
'Would that alone, alone he would detain,
So he would keep fair quarter with his bed!
I see, the jewel best enamelled

13

Will lose his beauty; and though gold 'bides still
The triers' touch, yet often touching will
Wear gold; and so no man that hath a name,
But falsehood and corruption doth it shame.'
Since that my beauty cannot please his eye,
I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die.
Luc. How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!

[Exeunt.

• Defeat and defeature were used for disfigurement or alteration of features. Cotgrave has "Un visage desfaict: Growne very leane, pale, wan, or decayed in feature and colour." It occurs again in the last act; and is also used by the Poet in Venus and Adonis :

"To mingle beauty with deformity,

And pure perfection with impure defeature."

10 Fair is used here for fairness, beauty. Shakespeare often has it in this sense.

11 Probably she means she is thrown aside, forgotten, cast off. become stale to him.

12 Hinders.

13 We give this passage as it is commonly received. The original reads literatim as follows:

"I see the Jewell best enameled

Will lose his beautie: yet the gold bides still
That others touch, and often touching will,
Where gold and no man that hath a name,
By falsehood and corruption doth it shame."

H.