The Comedy of Errors Part 3

So that my errand, due unto my tongue, I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders; For, in conclusion, he did beat me there.

_Adr._ Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him home. 75

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

For G.o.d'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. 80

_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._ 85

_Luc._ Fie, how impatience lowereth 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: 90 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: 95 What ruins are in me that can be found, By him not ruin'd? then is he the ground Of my defeatures. My decayed fair A sunny look of his would soon repair: But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale, 100 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 dispense.

I know his eye doth homage otherwhere; Or else what lets it but he would be here? 105 Sister, you know he promised 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 Will lose his beauty; yet the gold bides still, 110 That others touch, and often touching will Wear gold: and no man that hath a name, By falsehood and corruption doth it shame.

Since that my beauty cannot please his eye, I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die. 115

_Luc._ How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!

[_Exeunt._

NOTES: II, 1.

The house ... Ephesus.] Pope. The same (i.e. A publick place).

Capell, and pa.s.sim.

11: _o' door_] Capell. _adore_ F1 F2 F3. _adoor_ F4.

12: _ill_] F2 F3 F4. _thus_ F1.

15: _lash'd_] _leashed_ "a learned lady" conj. ap. Steevens.

_lach'd_ or _lac'd_ Becket conj.

17: _bound, ... sky:_] _bound: ... sky,_ Anon. conj.

19: _subjects_] _subject_ Capell.

20, 21: _Men ... masters ... Lords_] Hanmer. _Man ... master ... Lord_ Ff.

21: _wild watery_] _wilde watry_ F1. _wide watry_ F2 F3 F4.

22, 23: _souls ... fowls_] F1. _soul ... fowl_ F2 F3 F4.

30: _husband start_] _husband's heart's_ Jackson conj.

_other where_] _other hare_ Johnson conj. See note (III).

31: _home_] om. Boswell (ed. 1821).

39: _wouldst_] Rowe. _would_ Ff.

40: _see_] _be_ Hanmer.

41: _fool-begg'd_] _fool-egg'd_ Jackson conj. _fool-bagg'd_ Staunton conj. _fool-badged_ Id. conj.

44: SCENE II. Pope.

_now_] _yet_ Capell.

45: _Nay_] _At hand? Nay_ Capell.

_and_] om. Capell.

45, 46: _two ... two_] _too ... two_ F1.

50-53: _doubtfully_] _doubly_ Collier MS.

53: _withal_] _therewithal_ Capell.

_that_] om. Capell, who prints lines 50-54 as four verses ending _feel ... I ... therewithal ... them._ 59: _he is_] _he's_ Pope. om. Hanmer.

61: _a thousand_] F4. _a hundred_ F1 _a 1000_ F2 F3.

64: _home_] Hanmer. om. Ff.

68: _I know not thy mistress_] _Thy mistress I know not_ Hanmer.

_I know not of thy mistress_ Capell. _I know thy mistress not_ Seymour conj.

_out on thy mistress_] F1 F4. _out on my mistress_ F2 F3.

_'out on thy mistress,' Quoth he_ Capell. _I know no mistress; out upon thy mistress_ Steevens conj.

70: _Quoth_] _Why, quoth_ Hanmer.

71-74: Printed as prose in Ff. Corrected by Pope.

73: _bare_] _bear_ Steevens.

_my_] _thy_ F2.

74: _there_] _thence_ Capell conj.

85: _I last_] _I'm to last_ Anon. conj.

[Exit.] F2.

87: SCENE III. Pope.

93: _blunts_] F1. _blots_ F2 F3 F4.

107: _alone, alone_] F2 F3 F4. _alone, a love_ F1.

_alone, alas!_ Hanmer. _alone, O love,_ Capell conj.

_alone a lone_ Nicholson conj.

110: _yet the_] Ff. _and the_ Theobald. _and tho'_ Hanmer.

_yet though_ Collier.

111: _That others touch_] _The tester's touch_ Anon. (Fras. Mag.) conj. _The triers' touch_ Singer.

_and_] Ff. _yet_ Theobald. _an_ Collier. _though_ Heath conj.

111, 112: _will Wear_] Theobald (Warburton). _will, Where_] F1.

112, 113: F2 F3 F4 omit these two lines. See note (IV).

112: _and no man_] F1. _and so no man_ Theobald.

_and e'en so man_ Capell. _and so a man_ Heath conj.

113: _By_] F1. _But_ Theobald.

115: _what's left away_] _(what's left away)_ F1.

_(what's left) away_ F2 F3 F4.

_SCENE II. A public place._

_Enter _ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse_._

_Ant. S._ The gold I gave to Dromio is laid up Safe at the Centaur; and the heedful slave Is wander'd forth, in care to seek me out By computation and mine host's report.

I could not speak with Dromio since at first 5 I sent him from the mart. See, here he comes.