That floated with thee on the fatal raft. Abb. By men of Epidamnum, he and I, Duke. Antipholis, thou cam'st from Corinth first. Lord. E. Dro. And I with him. E. Ant. Brought to this town by that most famous warrior, Duke Menaphon, your most renowned uncle. Adr. Which of you two did dine with me to-day? S. Ant. I, gentle mistress.. Adr. And are not you my husband? E. Ant. No, I say Nay to that. S. Ant. And so do I, yet she did call me so; And this fair gentlewoman, her fifter here, Ang. That is the chain, Sir, which you had of me. S. Ant. This purse of ducats I receiv'd from you, And Dromio my man did bring them me; E Ant. These ducats pawn I for my father here. E. Ant. There, take it; and much thanks for my good cheer. Abb. Renowned Duke, vouchsafe to take the paine To go with us into the abbey here, Twenty-five years have I but gone in travel The Duke, my husband, and my children both, After so long grief such nativity ! Duke. With all my heart, I'll gossip at this feaft. [Exeunt. Manent the two Antipholis's, and two Dromio's. board? E. Ant. Dromio, what stuff of mine haft thou imbark'd? S. Dro. Your goods, that lay at host, Sir, in the Centaur. S. Ant. He speaks to me; I am your master, Dromio. Come, go with us, we'll look to that anon: Embrace thy brother there, rejoice with him. [Exeunt Antipholis S. and E. S. Dro. There is a fat friend at your mafter's house, That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner. She now shall be my fifter, not my wife. E. Dro. Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother. I fee by you I am a sweet-fac'd youth : S. Dro. Not I, Sir; you're my elder, How shall I try it? S. Dro. We'll draw cuts for the senior. Till then, lead thou first. E. Dro. Nay, then thus We came into the world, like brother and brother; And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another. [Exeunt. [Embracing. The WINTER'S TALE *. DRAMATIS PERSONA. LEONTES, King of Sicilia. Polixenes King of Bithynia †. Florizel, Prince of Bithynia. A Mariner. Goaler. Servant to the old shepherd. Hermione, Queen to Leontes. Paulina, wife to Antigonus. SCENE, fometimes in Sicilia, fometimes in Bithynia. ACTI. SCENEI. Arch. An antichamber in Leontes's palace. Enter Camillo and Archidamus. F you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bithynia on the like occafion whereon my services are now on foot; you shall fee, as I have faid, great difference betwixt our Bithynia and your Sicilia. * The plot taken from the old story-book of Doraftus and Faunia. + The country here called Bithynia, hath in former editions been printed Bohemia, an inland kingdom situated nearly in the centre - of Europe; whereas many of the great incidents of the play turn wpon its being a maritime country, of which Polixenes was the King. Cam. I think this coming summer the King of Sicilia means to pay Bithynia the visitation which he juftly owes him. Arch. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us, we will be juftified in our loves; for, indeed, Cam. 'Beseech you Arch. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge; we cannot with such magnificence in so rare-I know not what to fay-we will give you fleepy drinks, that your fenfes (unintelligent of our infufficience) may, though they cannot praise us, as little accufe us. Cam. You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely. Arch. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me, and as mine honesty puts it to utterance. Cam. Sicilia cannot shew himself over-kind to Bithynia; they were train'd together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection, which cannot chuse but branch now. Since their more mature dignities and royal necessities made feparation of their society, their encounters, though not personal, have been royally attornied with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embaffies, that they have feem'd to be together, though absent; fhook hands, as over a vast; and embrac'd, as it were, from the ends of oppofed winds. The heav'ns continue their loves! Arch. I think there is not in the world either malice or matter to alter it. You have an unspeakable comfort of your young Prince Mamillius: it is a gentleman of the greatest promife that ever came into my note. Cam. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him: it is a gallant child; one that indeed physics the fubject, This is a blunder and an abfurdity of which Shakespear in justice ought not to be thought capable: and as he hath turn'd quite anew the ftory contain'd in the old paltry book of Doraftus and Faunia, changing most of the main circumstances, and all the names of the perfons; it is probable he removed this impropriety, and placed the Icene in Bithynia, which the ignorance and negligence of the first tranfcribers or printers might corrupt, and bring back again to Bokemia, by a less variation in the letters than they have been guilty of in numberless other places of this work, VOL. III. S |