ACT IV.

SCENE I.-A public Place.

Enter Second Merchant, ANGELO, and an Officer.

2 Mer. You know since Pentecost the sum is due, And since I have not much impórtuned you ;

Nor now I had not, but that I am bound
To Persia, and want guilders for my voyage:
Therefore make present satisfaction,

Or I'll attach you by this officer.

Ang. Even just the sum that I do owe to you
Is growing to me by Antipholus ;
And in the instant that I met with you
He had of me a chain: at five o'clock

I shall receive the money for the same.
Pleaseth you walk with me down to his house,
I will discharge my bond, and thank you too.

Off. That labour may you save: see where he comes. Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus and DROMIO of Ephesus. Ant. E. While I go to the goldsmith's house, go thou And buy a rope's-end: that will I bestow

Among my wife and her confederates

For locking me out of my doors by day.

But, soft! I see the goldsmith. Get thee gone;

Buy thou a rope, and bring it home to me.

Dro. E. I buy a thousand pound a-year! I buy a rope!

Ant. E. A man is well holp 2 up that trusts to you:

1 Grow was sometimes used in the sense of accrue.

[Exit.

2 Holp or holpen is the old preterite of help. — Of the preceding line, “I buy a thousand pound a-year! I buy a rope!" no satisfactory explanation

You promised your presence and the chain;
But neither chain nor goldsmith came to me.
Belike you thought our love would last too long,
If it were chain'd together, and therefore came not.
Ang. Saving your merry humour, here's the note
How much your chain weighs to the utmost carat,
The fineness of the gold, and chargeful fashion,
Which doth amount to three odd ducats more
Than I stand debted to this gentleman:
I pray you, see him presently discharged,

For he is bound to sea, and stays but for it.

Ant. E. I am not furnish'd with the present money; Besides, I have some business in the town.

Good signior, take the stranger to my house,

And with you take the chain, and bid my wife
Disburse the sum on the receipt thereof:

Perchance I will be there as soon as you.

Ang. Then you will bring the chain to her yourself?
Ant. E. No;

Bear't with you, lest I come not time enough.

Ang. Well, sir, I will. Have you the chain about you? Ant. E. An if I have not, sir, I hope you have;

Or else you may return without your money.

Ang. Nay, come, I pray you, sir, give me the chain:

Both wind and tide stay for this gentleman,

And I, to blame, have held him here too long.

Ant. E. Good Lord, you use this dalliance to excuse Your breach of promise to the Porpentine.

has been given. Staunton notes, "there may have been an allusion well understood at the time; but which, referring merely to some transitory event, or some popular bye-word of the moment, has passed into oblivion." There is no apparent connection between "buying a thousand pound a-year" and "buying a rope." I can make nothing of it, unless, as the rope is to be used in beating, a poor quibble is intended in pound; one of its senses being poundings.

I should have chid you for not bringing it,
But, like a shrew,3 you first begin to brawl.

2 Mer. The hour steals on; I pray you, sir, dispatch. Ang. You hear how he impórtunes me ; the chain! Ant. E. Why, give it to my wife, and fetch your money. Ang. Come, come, you know I gave it you even now. Either send the chain, or send by me some token.

Ant. E. Fie, now you run this humour out of breath.
Come, where's the chain? I pray you, let me see it.
2 Mer. My business cannot brook this dalliance.
Good sir, say whêr you'll answer me or no :
If not, I'll leave him to the officer.

Ant. E. I answer you! what should I answer you?
Ang. The money that you owe me for the chain.
Ant. E. I owe you none till I receive the chain.

Ang. You know I gave't you half an hour since.

Ant. E. You gave me none: you wrong me much to say

So.

Ang. You wrong me more, sir, in denying it:

Consider how it stands upon my credit.1

2 Mer. Well, officer, arrest him at my suit.
Off. I do ;-

And charge you in the Duke's name to obey me.
Ang. This touches me in reputation. -

Either consent to pay this sum for me,

Or I attach you by this officer.

Ant. E. Consent to pay thee that I never had !

Arrest me, foolish fellow, if thou darest.

Ang. Here is thy fee; arrest him, officer.

I would not spare my brother in this case,

3 In old language, a shrew is a scold; from shrewd, sharp-tongued.

4 That is, concerns, or is important to, my credit. The phrase was very common. So Shelton's translation of Don Quixote, 1620: "Tel me your name; for it stands me very much upon to know it."

If he should scorn me so apparently.5

Off. I do arrest you, sir: you hear the suit.
Ant. E. I do obey thee till I give thee bail.
But, sirrah, you shall buy this sport as dear
As all the metal in your shop will answer.

Ang. Sir, sir, I shall have law in Ephesus,
To your notorious shame, I doubt it not.

Enter DROMIO of Syracuse.

Dro. S. Master, there is a bark of Epidamnum
That stays but till her owner comes aboard,
And then she bears away. Our fraughtage, sir,
I have convey'd aboard; and I have bought
The oil, the balsamum, and aqua-vitæ.

The ship is in her trim; the merry wind

Blows fair from land: they stay for nought at all

But for their owner, master, and yourself.

Ant. E. How now! a madman! Why, thou peevish 6

sheep,

What ship of Epidamnum stays for me?

Dro. S. A ship you sent me to, to hire waftage.7

Ant. E. Thou drunken slave, I sent thee for a rope,

And told thee to what purpose and what end.

Dro. S. You sent me, sir, for a rope's-end as soon:

You sent me to the bay, sir, for a bark.

Ant. E. I will debate this matter at more leisure, And teach your ears to list me with more heed.

5 Apparently, here, is evidently. The Poet has apparent repeatedly in that

sense.

& Peevish is foolish or mad. Commonly so in Shakespeare. — A quibble is intended here between sheep and ship, which appear to have been sounded alike.

7 Waftage is passage by water or on the waves.

Hire is here a dissylla

ble; spelt hier in the original. So hour, a little before in this scene: "I gave't you half an hour since."

To Adriana, villain, hie thee straight:
Give her this key, and tell her, in the desk
That's cover'd o'er with Turkish tapestry
There is a purse of ducats; let her send it :

Tell her I am arrested in the street,

And that shall bail me: hie thee, slave, be gone.

On, officer, to prison till it come.

[Exeunt Sec. Merchant, ANGELO, Officer, and ANT. E. Dro. S. To Adriana! that is where we dined, Where Dowsabel did claim me for her husband: She is too big, I hope, for me to compass. Thither I must, although against my will, For servants must their masters' minds fulfil.

[Exit.

SCENE II. A Room in the House of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.

Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA.

Adr. Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?
Mightst thou perceive assuredly in his eye
That he did plead in earnest, yea or no?
Look'd he or red or pale, or sad or merry?
What observation madest thou, in this case,
Of his heart's meteors tilting in his face?1

Luc. First he denied you had in him no right.2
Adr. He meant he did me none; the more my spite.

1 Meteors here probably refers to the Aurora Borealis, which sometimes has the appearance of armies meeting in battle. So in Paradise Lost, ii. 533:

As when, to warn proud cities, war appears
Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush
To battle in the clouds, before each van

Prick forth the aëry knights, and couch their spears,

Till thickest legions close.

2 This double negative had the force of a strong affirmative. So in King Richard the Third, i. 3: "You may deny that you were not the cause of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment."