Cost. The party is gone, fellow Hector, she | Forbid the smiling courtesy of love, is gone; she is two months on her way. Arm. What meanest thou? Cost. Faith, unless you play the honest Trojan, the poor wench is cast away: she's quick; the child brags in her belly already; 'tis yours. Arm. Dost thou infamonize me among potentates ? thou shalt die. Cost. Then shall Hector be whipp'd, for Jaquenetta that is quick by him; and hang'd, for Pompey that is dead by him. Dum. Most rare Pompey! The holy suit which fain it would convince; Biron. Honest plain words best pierce the ear And by these badges understand the king. Biron. Greater than great, great, great, great Play'd foul play with our oaths; your beauty, ladies, Pompey, Pompey the huge! Dum. Hector trembles. Hath much deforin'd us, fashioning our humours Biron. Pompey is mov'd :-More Ates, more And what in us hath seem'd ridiculous,— Dum. Hector will challenge hitn. Biron. Ay, if he have no more man's blood in's belly than will sup a flea. Arm. By the north pole, I do challenge thee. Dum. Room for the incensed worthies. Dum, Most resolute Pompey! Arm. Gentlemen, and soldiers, pardon me; I will not combat in my shirt. Dum. You may not deny it; Pompey hath made the challenge. Arm. Sweet bloods, I both may and will. Boyet. True, and it was enjoin'd him in Rome for want of linen since when, I'll be sworn, he wore none, but a dish-clout of Jaquenetta's; and that 'a wears next his heart, for a favour. Enter MERCADE. Mer. God save you, madam! But that thou interrupt'st our merriment. Aler. I am sorry, madam; for the news 1 Is heavy in my tongue. The king your father---- Mer. Even so; my tale is told. Arm. For mine own part, I breathe free breath I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier. [Exeunt Worthies. King. How fares your majesty ? For all your fair endeavours; and entreat, King. The extreme parts of time extremely All causes to the purpose of his speed; As love is full of unbefitting strains : Prin. We have receiv'd your letters full o Your favours, the ambassadors of love; And, in our maiden council, rated them | At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy, As bombast, and as lining to the time : But more devout than this, in our respects, Have we not been; and therefore met your loves | In their own fashion, like a merriment. Long. So did our looks. Ros. We did not quote them so. King. Now, at the latest minute of the hour Grant us your loves. Prin. A time methinks, too short To make a world-without-end bargain in ; Change not your offer made in heat of blood: Nip not the gaudy blossoms of our love, King. If this, or more than this, I would deny Ros. You must be purged too, your sins are You are attaint with faults and perjury; Dum. But to what to me, my love? but what Kath. A wife!-A beard, fair health, and honesty ; With three-fold love I wish you all these three. Dum. O shall I say, I thank you, gentle wife? Kath. Not so, my lord;-a twelvemonth and a day I'll mark no words that smooth-fac'd wooers say: Come when the king doth to my lady come, Then, if I have much love, I'll give you some. Dum. I'll serve thee true and faithfully till then. Kath. Yet swear not, lest you be forsworn again. Long. What says Maria? Mar. At the twelvemonth's end, I'll change my black gown for a faithful friend. Long. I'll stay with patience; but the time is long. Mar. The liker you; few taller are so young. Biron. Studies my lady? mistress, look on me, Behold the window of my heart, mine eye. What humble suit attends thy answer there; Impose some service on me for thy love. Ros. Oft have I heard of you, my lord Birón, Before I saw you and the world's large tongue Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks; Full of comparisons and wounding flouts; Which you on all estates will execute, That lie within the mercy of your wit: To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain; And, therewithal, to win me, if you please, (Without the which I am not to be won,) You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day Visit the speechless sick, and still converse With all the fierce endeavour of your wit, Biron. To move wild laughter in the throat of It cannot be; it is impossible : Mirth cannot move a soul in agony. Ros. Why, that's the way to choke a gibing Whose influence is begot of that loose grace, Of him that hears it, never in the tongue King. Come, Sir, it wants a twelvemouth and a day, And then 'twill end. Biron. That's too long for a play. Enter ARMADO. Arm. Sweet majesty, vouchsafe me,Prin. Was not that Hector? Dum. The worthy knight of Troy. Arm. I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave: I am a votary; I have vow'd to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her sweet love three years. But most esteemed greatness, will you hear the dialogue that the two learned men have compiled, in praise of the owl and the cuckoo ? it should have follow'd in the end of our show. King. Call them forth quickly, we will do so. Arm. Holla! approach. Enter HOLOFERNES, NATHANIEL, MOTH, This side is hyems, winter; this Ver, the spring; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the cuckoo. Ver, begin. Then nightly sings the staring owl, To-who; To-whit, to-who, a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel • the pot. IV. When all aloud the wind doth blow. And coughing drowns the parson's saw, And birds sits brooding in the snow, To-whit, to-who, a merry note. way. • Vehement. Immediate. COMEDY OF ERRORS. LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE. THE Menæchmi of Plautus (translated by an anonymous author in 1595,) furnished Shakspeare with the prin cipal incidents of this play. It is one of his earliest productions. Stevens thinks that the piece is not entirely of his writing. The singularity of the plot gives occasion to many amusing perplexities; but they are repeated till they become wearisome, and varied till they become unintelligible. Were it possible to procure in the representation, two Dromios, or two Antipholus's, of whom one should be exactly the counterpart of the other, no powers of perception or of memory, would enable an audience to carry their recollection of each individual beyond the termination of a second act. The very facility of invention with which the re sembling individuals are made to puzzle and to thwart each other, would so confound the senses of a spectator, that he would soon be as much bewildered as the parties themselves: whereas the zest of the entertainment depends upon his being able accurately to retain the personal identity of each; without which, he may be involved in the intricacy, but cannot enjoy the humour, occasioned by similarity of person, and contrariety of purpose. Mr. Stevens has justly observed, that this comedy "exhibits more intricacy of plot than distinction of character; and that attention is not actively engaged, since every one can tell how the denouement will be effected." SCENE 1.-A Hall in the DUKE's Palace Enter DUKE, ÆGEON, Jailer, Officer, and Ege. Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall, Nay, more, If any, born at Ephesus, be seen My woes end likewise with the evening sun. cause Why thou departedst from thy native home; Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable: • Markets. |