For lately we were bound, as you are now.
You are not Pinch's patient, are you, sir?

Ege. Why look you strange on me? you know me well.
Ant. E. I never saw you in my life till now.

Ege. O, grief hath chang'd me since you saw me last, And careful hours with Time's deformèd hand

Have written strange defeatures in my face:

But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?
Ant. E. Neither.

Ege. Dromio, nor thou?

Dro. E.

Ege. I am sure thou dost.

No, trust me, sir, nor I.

Dro. E. Ay, sir, but I am sure I do not; and whatsoever a man denies, you are now bound to believe him.

Ege. Not know my voice! O time's extremity,
Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue
In seven short years, that here my only son
Knows not my feeble key of untun'd cares ?(100)
Though now this grainèd face of mine be hid
In sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow,
And all the conduits of my blood froze up,
Yet hath my night of life some memory,
My wasting lamp(101) some fading glimmer left,
My dull deaf ears a little use to hear:
All these old witnesses-I cannot err-
Tell me thou art my son Antipholus.

Ant. E. I never saw my father in my life.

Ege. But seven years since, in Syracusa, boy, Thou know'st we parted: but perhaps, my son, Thou sham'st t' acknowledge me in misery.

Ant. E. The duke, and all that know me in the city, Can witness with me that it is not so:

I ne'er saw Syracusa in my life.

Duke. I tell thee, Syracusian, twenty years

Have I been patron to Antipholus,

During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa :
I see thy age and dangers make thee dote.

Re-enter Abbess, with ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse and DROMIO of

Syracuse.

Abb. Most mighty duke, behold a man much wrong'd.
[All gather to see them.

Adr. I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me.
Duke. One of these men is Genius to the other;
And so of these. Which is the natural man,
And which the spirit? who deciphers them?

Dro. S. I, sir, am Dromio: command him away.
Dro. E. I, sir, am Dromio: pray, let me stay.
Ant. S. Egeon art thou not? or else his ghost?
Dro. S. O, my old master! who hath bound him here?
Abb. Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds,

And gain a husband by his liberty.

Speak, old Ægeon, if thou be'st the man
That hadst a wife once call'd Æmilia,
That bore thee at a burden two fair sons:
O, if thou be'st the same Ægeon, speak,
And speak unto the same Emilia !

Ege. If I dream not, (102) thou art Æmilia:
If thou art she, tell me where is that son
That floated with thee on the fatal raft?

Abb. By men of Epidamnum he and I
And the twin Dromio, all were taken up;
But by and by rude fishermen of Corinth
By force took Dromio and my son from them,
And me they left with those of Epidamnum.
What then became of them I cannot tell;

I to this fortune that you see me in.

Duke. Why, here begins his morning story right: These two Antipholus', these two so like,

And these two Dromios, one in semblance,

Besides her urging of her wreck at sea,—

(103)

These are the parents to these children,
Which accidentally are met together.-
Antipholus, thou cam'st from Corinth first?

Ant. S. No, sir, not I; I came from Syracuse.
Duke. Stay, stand apart; I know not which is which.
Ant. E. I came from Corinth, my most gracious lord,—
Dro. E. And I with him.

Ant. E. Brought to this town by that most famous war

rior,

Duke Menaphon, your most renowned uncle.

Adr. Which of you two did dine with me to-day?
Ant. S. I, gentle mistress.

Adr.

And are not you my husband?

Ant. E. No; I say nay to that.

Ant. S. And so do I; yet did she call me so:

And this fair gentlewoman, her sister here,

Did call me brother.-[To Luc.] What I told you then,
I hope I shall have leisure to make good;

If this be not a dream I see and hear.

Ang. That is the chain, sir, which you had of me.
Ant. S. I think it be, sir; I deny it not.

Ant. E. And you, sir, for this chain arrested me.
Ang. I think I did, sir; I deny it not.

Adr. I sent you money, sir, to be your bail,

By Dromio; but I think he brought it not.

Dro. E. No, none by me.

Ant. S. This purse of ducats I receiv'd from you,
And Dromio my man did bring them me.
I see we still did meet each other's man;
And I was ta'en for him, and he for me;
And thereupon these errors all arose. (104)

Ant. E. These ducats pawn I for my father here.
Duke. It shall not need; thy father hath his life.
Cour. Sir, I must have that diamond from you.

Ant. E. There, take it; and much thanks for my good

cheer.

Abb. Renowned duke, vouchsafe to take the pains

To go with us into the abbey here,

And hear at large discoursed all our fortunes ;

And all that are assembled in this place,
That by this sympathizèd one day's error
Have suffer'd wrong, go keep us company,
And we shall make full satisfaction.-
Twenty-five years have I but gone in travail
Of you, my sons; and, till this present hour,
My heavy burden ne'er deliverèd.—(105)

The duke, my husband, and my children both,

And you the calendars of their nativity,
Go to a gossips' feast, and joy with me;
After so long grief, such felicity !(106)

Duke. With all my heart, I'll gossip at this feast.

[Exeunt Duke, Abbess, Egeon, Courtezan, Sec. Merchant, Angelo, and Attendants.

Dro. S. Master, shall I go fetch(107) your stuff from ship

board?

Ant. E. Dromio, what stuff of mine hast thou embark'd? Dro. S. Your goods that lay at host, sir, in the Centaur. Ant. S. 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 Ant. S. and Ant. E., Adr. and Luc. Dro. S. There is a fat friend at your master's house,

That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner:

She now shall be my sister, not my wife.

Dro. E. Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother:

I see by you I am a sweet-fac'd youth.

Will you walk in to see their gossiping?

Dro. S. Not I, sir; you are my elder.

Dro. E. That's a question: how shall we try it?

Dro. S. We'll draw cuts for the senior: till then lead thou first.

Dro. E. 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.

In the second of these lines the folio has " Be seene at any Siracusian," &c. (the "any" having been inserted by a mistake of the transcriber or compositor, whose eye had caught it in the preceding or in the following line); and so Malone and others, though the passage had been long ago set right.—To my surprise, I find that Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 269) would read and arrange thus ;

Here perhaps, as is suggested by Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 85), “this” ought to be printed "this'," the contraction for "this is"; which the folio has in Measure for Measure, act v. sc. 1.

P. 6. (5)

"And the great care of goods at random left,"

So Theobald (a correction which Malone gives as his own).-The folio has “And he great care of goods at randone left.”—The editor of the second folio substituted "And he great store of goods at randone leaving." (Though here the folio has the old form "randone," it has in The Two Gent. of Verona, act ii. sc. 2, "I writ at randome," &c.)

P. 6. (6)

་

"A meaner woman"

The folio has "A meane woman."-The second folio has "A poor meane woman."- The word 'poor' was added to complete the metre in the second folio. It is manifest that some word was omitted by the compositor of the original copy; but the word supplied by the second folio can hardly be the author's word, for in the next line but one we have 'for their parents were exceeding poor'." MALONE.-"Read ‘A meaner woman'; one of a lower rank than my wife." Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. ii. p. 54.