Are masters to their females, and their lords:
Then let your will attend on their accords.

ADR. This fervitude makes you to keep unwed.
Luc. Not this, but troubles of the marriage bed.
ADR. But, were you wedded, you would bear fome
fway.

Luc. Ere I learn love, I'll practife to obey.

ADR. How if your husband start some other

where? 3

Luc. Till he come home again, I would forbear. ADR. Patience, unmov'd, no marvel though fhe paufe; +

They can be meek, that have no other caufe."

3

-ftart fome other where?] I cannot but think, that our author wrote:

fart fome other hare?

So, in Much ado about Nothing, Cupid is faid to be a good barefinder. JOHNSON.

I fufpect that where has here the power of a noun.

Lear:

"Thou lofeft here, a better where to find."

So, in King

Again, in Tho. Drant's tranflation of Horace's Satires, 1567: they ranged in eatche where,

"No fpoufailes knowne," &c.

The fenfe is, How, if your husband fly off in pursuit of fome other woman? The expreffion is ufed again, fcene iii:

his eye doth homage otherubere."

Again, in Romeo and Juliet, A&t I:

"This is not Romeo, he's fome otherwhere." Otherwhere fignifies-in other places. So, in King Henry VIII.

A&t II. fc. ii:

"The king hath fent me otherwhere." STEEVENS.

though the paufe;] To panje is to reft, to be in quiet. JOHNSON.

5 They can be meek, that have no other caufe.] That is, who have no caufe to be ather wife. M. Mason.

A wretched foul, bruis'd with adverfity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;
But were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we fhould ourfelves complain:
So thou, that haft no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience would't relieve me:
But, if thou live to fee like right bereft,
This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left."

Luc. Well, I will marry one day, but to try ;Here comes your man, now is your husband nigh.

Enter DROMIO of Ephefus.

ADR. Say, is your tardy master now at hand? DRO. E. Nay, he is at two hands with me, and that my two ears can witnefs.

ADR. Say, didft thou speak with him? know'ft thou his mind?

DRO. E. Ay, ay, he told his mind upon mine ear: Befhrew his hand, I fcarce could understand it.

6 A wretched foul, bruis'd with adverfity,

We bid be quiet, &c.] Shakspeare has the fame featiment in Much ado about Nothing, where Leonato fays

men

"Can counfel, & fpeak comfort to that grief
"Which they themfelves not feel."

And again,

'tis all men's office to speak patience

"To thofe that wring under the load of forrrow."

DOUCE.

With urging helplefs patience-] By exhorting me to patience, which affords no help. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis :

8

66 As thofe poor birds that helpless berries faw." MALONE. fool-begg'd] She feems to mean, by fool-begg'd patience, that patience which is fo near to idiotical fimplicity, that your next relation would take advantage from it to reprefent you as a fool, and beg the guardianfhip of your fortune. JoHNSON.

Luc. Spake he fo doubtfully, thou couldst not feel his meaning?

DRO. E. Nay, he ftruck fo plainly, I could too well feel his blows; and withal fo doubtfully, that I could fearce understand them.8

ADR. But fay, I pr'ythee, is he coming home? It seems, he hath great care to please his wife. DRO. E. Why, miftrefs, fure my master is hornmad.

ADR. Horn-mad, thou villain?

DRO. E. I mean not cuckold-mad; but, fure, he's ftark mad:

2

When I defir'd him to come home to dinner,
He afk'd me for a thousand marks in gold:"
'Tis dinner-time, quoth I; My gold, quoth he:
Your meat doth burn, quoth I; My gold, quoth he
Will you come home? quoth I; My gold, quoth he:
Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?
The pig, quoth I, is burn'd; My gold, quoth he:
My mistress, fir, quoth I; Hang up thy mistress;
I know not thy miflrefs; out on thy mistress!"

8

Luc. Quoth who?

DRO. E. Quoth my master:

that I could fcarce understand them.] i. e. that I could fcarce ftand under them. This quibble, poor as it is, seems to have been a favourite with Shak fpeare. It has been already introduced in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

- my ftaff understands me." STEEVENS.

9 ---- a thousand marks in gold:] The old copy reads—a hundred marks. The correction was made in the fecond folio.

MALONE.

2 will you come home? quoth I;] The word home, which the metre requires, but is not in the authentick copy of this play, was fuggefted by Mr. Capell. MALONE.

3 I know not thy mistress; out on thy mijtrejs !] I suppose this diffonant line originally ftood thus:

kuow 20 miftrefs; out on thy mistress! STEEVENS.

I know, quoth he, no house, no wife, no mistress ;-
So that my errand, due unto my tongue,

I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders;
For, in conclufion, he did beat me there.

ADR. Go back again, thou flave, and fetch him home.

DRO. E. Go back again, and be new beaten home? For God's fake, fend fome other meffenger.

ADR. Back, flave, or I will break thy pate acrofs. DRO. E. And he will blefs that crofs with other beating:

Between you I fhall have a holy head.

ADR. Hence, prating peafant; fetch thy master home.

DRO. E. Am I fo round with you, as you with me,* That like a football you do fpurn me thus? You fpurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither: If I laft in this fervice, you must cafe me in leather.' [Exit.

Luc. Fie, how impatience lowreth in your face! ADR. His company must do his minions grace, Whilft I at home ftarve for a merry look." Hath homely age the alluring beauty took From my poor cheek? then he hath wafted it: Are my difcourfes dull? barren my wit? If voluble and fharp difcourfe be marr'd, Unkindness blunts it, more than marble hard.

4 Am I fo round with you, as you with me,] He plays upon the word round, which fignified spherical applied to himfelf, and unreftrained, or free in fpeech or action, fpoken of his miftrefs. So the king, in Hamlet, bids the queen be round with her fon. JOHNSON. 5-cafe me in leather.] Still alluding to a football, the bladder of which is always covered with leather. STEEVENS.

6 Whilft I at home ftarve for a merry look.] So, in our poet's 47th Sonnet:

"When that mine eye is famifh'd for a look." MALONE.

Do their gay vestments his affections bait?
That's not my fault, he's mafter of my state:
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 funny look of his would foon repair:
But, too unruly deer," he breaks the pale,
And feeds from home; poor I am but his ftale.

7 Of my defeatures: By defeatures is here meant alteration of features. At the end of this play the fame word is ufed with a fomewhat different fignification. STEEVENS.

8 My decayed fair-] Shakspeare ufes the adjective gilt, as a fubftantive, for avhat is gilt, and in this inftance fair for fairness. To us xanov, is a fimilar expreffion. In A Midfummer-Night's Dream, the old quartos read:

Demetrius loves your fair.” Again, in Shakspeare's 68th Sonnet:

"Before these baftard figns of fair were born."

Again, in his 83d Sonnet:

"And therefore to your fair no painting fet." Pure is likewife used as a substantive in The Shepherd to the Flowers, a fong in England's Helicon, 1614:

"Do pluck your pure, ere Phoebus view the land."

STEEVENS.

Fair is frequently ufed fubftantively by the writers of Shakspeare's time. So Marfton in one of his fatires:

"As the greene meads, whose native outward faire
"Breathes fweet perfumes into the neighbour air."

FARMER.

9too unruly deer,] The ambiguity of deer and dear is borrowed, poor as it is, by Waller, in his poem on The Ladies Girdle: This was my heaven's extremeft fphere,

"The pale that held my lovely deer." JOHNSON.

Shakspeare has played upon this word in the fame manner in his Venus and Adonis :

66

Fondling, faith fhe, fince I have hemm'd thee here,
"Within the circuit of this ivory pale,

"I'll be thy park, and thou shalt be my deer,

"Feed where thou wilt on mountain or on dale." The lines of Waller feem to have been immediately copied from thefe. MALONE.

2

poor I am but his fiale.] The word tale, in our author,