Be rul'd by me; depart in patience,
And let us to the Tiger all to dinner:
And, about evening, come yourself alone,
To know the reason of this ftrange restraint.
If by ftrong hand you offer to break in,
Now in the stirring paffage of the day,
A vulgar comment will be made on it;
And that fuppofed by the common rout
Against your yet ungalled eftimation,
That may with foul intrufion enter in,
And dwell upon your grave when you are dead:
For flander lives upon fucceffion; 3

For ever hous'd, where it once gets poffeffion.*

ANT. E. You have prevail'd; I will depart in quiet, And, in defpight of mirth,' mean to be merry.

the doors are barr'd against you.

To make the door, is the expreffion ufed to this day in fome counties of England, instead of, to bar the door. STEEVENS.

2

fuppofed by the common rout] For fuppofed I once thought it might be more commodious to fubftitute Supported; but there is no need of change: fuppofed is founded on fuppofition, made by conjecture. JOHNSON.

3 upon fucceffion;] Succeffion is often used as a quadrifyllable by our author, and his contemporaries. So Act IV. sc. i. line 5. fatisfaction compofes half a verfe:

"Therefore make prefent fatisfaction." MALONE.

4 For ever hous'd, where it once gets poffeffion.] The adverb once is wanting in the firft folio. STEEVENS.

The fecond folio has once; which rather improves the fenfe, and is not inconfiftent with the metre. TYRWHITT.

5 And, in defpight of mirth,] Mr. Theobald does not know what to make of this; and therefore, has put wrath instead of mirth into the text, in which he is followed by the Oxford editor. But the old reading is right; and the meaning is, I will be merry, even out of fpite to mirth, which is, now, of all things, the most unpleafing to me. WARBURTON.

Though mirth hath withdrawn herself from me, and seems determined to avoid me, yet in despight of her, and whether she will or not, I am refolved to be merry. HEATH.

I know a wench of excellent difcourfe,-
Pretty and witty; wild, and, yet too, gentle;-
There will we dine: this woman that I mean,
My wife (but, I proteft, without defert,)
Hath oftentimes upbraided me withal;
To her will we to dinner.-Get you home,
And fetch the chain; by this, I know, 'tis made:
Bring it, I pray you, to the Porcupine;

For there's the house; that chain will I bestow
(Be it for nothing but to spite my wife,)
Upon mine hoftefs there: good fir, make haste :
Since mine own doors refuse to entertain me,
I'll knock elsewhere, to fee if they'll difdain me.
ANG. I'll meet you at that place, fome hour
hence.

ANT. E. Do fo; This jeft shall cost me some expence. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The fame.

Enter LUCIANA and ANTIPHOLUS of Syracufe.

Luc. And may it be that you have quite forgot A husband's office? fhall, Antipholus, hate, Even in the spring of love, thy love-fprings rot? Shall love, in building, grow fo ruinate?'

4 Enter Luciana-] Here, in the old blundering firft folio, we find, * Enter Juliana."-Corrected in the second folio. STEEVENS. that you have quite forgot &c.] In former copies:

And may it be that you have quite forgot

A husband's office? Shall, Antipholus,

Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs rot?

Shall love in buildings grow fo ruinate?

This paffage has hitherto labour'd under a double corruption. What conceit could our editors have of love in buildings growing ruinate? Our poet meant no more than this: Shall thy love-springs rot, even in the fpring of love? and shall thy love grow ruinous, even while 'tis but building up? The next corruption is by an accident at prefs, as I take it. This fcene for fifty-two lines fucceffively is ftrictly in alternate rhymes; and this measure is never broken, but in the fecond and fourth lines of thefe two couplets. "Tis certain, I think, a monofyllable dropt from the tail of the fecond verfe and I have ventured to fupply it by, I hope, a probable conjecture. THEOBALD.

Mr.Theobald's emendations are-the word-hate, fupplied at the end of the fecond line, and, in the fourth, building given instead of buildings. STEEVENS.

Love-Springs are young plants or fhoots of love. Thus in The Faithful Shepherdess of Fletcher:

"The nightingale among the thick-leav'd springs

"That fits alone in forrow."

See a note on the fecond fcene of the fifth act of Coriolanus, and Mr. Malone's edition of our author's works, Vol. X. p. 44. n. 9, where the meaning of this expreffion is more fully dilated.

If you did wed my fifter for her wealth,

Then, for her wealth's fake, use her with more kindness:

Or, if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth;

Muffle your falfe love with some show of blindnefs:

Let not my fifter read it in your eye;

Be not thy tongue thy own fhame's orator; Look fweet, fpeak fair, become disloyalty; Apparel vice like virtue's harbinger:

The rhime which Mr. Theobald would reftore, ftands thus in the old edition:

fhall Antipholus.

:

If therefore instead of ruinate we should read ruinous, the paffage may remain as it was originally written and perhaps, indeed, throughout the play we fhould read Antiphilus, a name which Shakfpeare might have found in fome quotation from Pliny, B. xxxv, and xxxvii. Antiphilus is alfo one of the heroes in Sidney's Arcadia. Ruinous is juftified by a paffage in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act V. fc. iv:

"Left growing ruinous the building fall."

Throughout the firft folio, Antipholus occurs much more often than Antipholis, even where the rhyme is not concerned; and were the rhyme defective here, fuch tranfgreffions are accounted for in other places. STEEVENS:

Antipholis occurs, I think, but thrice in the original copy. I have therefore adhered to the other fpelling. MALONE.

Shall love in building grow fo ruinate?] So, in our author's 119th Sonnet:

"And ruin'd love, when it is built anew—.'

In fupport of Mr. Theobald's firft emendation, a paffage in our author's roth Sonnet may be produced:

thou art fo poffefs'd with murderous hate,

"That 'gainst thyfelf thou ftick'ft not to confpire,
Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate,
"Which to repair fhould be thy chief defire."

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"To ruinate proud buildings with thy hours." Stowe ufes the adjective ruinate in his Annales, p. 892. laft year at the taking down of the old ruinate gate

"The

MALONE.

Bear a fair prefence, though your heart be tainted;
Teach fin the carriage of a holy faint;
Be fecret-falfe: What need fhe be acquainted?
What fimple thief brags of his own attaint?"
'Tis double wrong, to truant with your bed,
And let her read it in thy looks at board:
Shame hath a baftard fame, well managed;
Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.
Alas, poor women! make us but believe,"
Being compact of credit, that you love us;
Though others have the arm, fhow us the fleeve;
We in your motion turn, and you may move us.
Then, gentle brother, get you in again;

8

Comfort my fifter, cheer her, call her wife: 'Tis holy sport, to be a little vain,'

When the sweet breath of flattery conquers ftrife. ANT. S. Sweet mistress, (what your name is else, I know not,

Nor by what wonder you do hit on mine,) Lefs, in your knowledge, and your grace, you show

not,

Than our earth's wonder; more than earth divine.

his own attaint?] The old copy has-attaine. The emendation is Mr. Rowe's. MALONE.

Alas, poor women! make us but believe, &c.] The old copy

not. STEEVENS.

From the whole tenour of the context it is evident, that this negative (not,) got place in the firft copies instead of but. And these two monofyllables have by miftake reciprocally difpoffefs'd one another in many other paffages of our author's works.

THEOBALD.

8 Being compact of credit,] Means, being made altogether of credulity. So, in Heywood's Iron Age, Part II. 1632:

fhe's compact Merely of blood.”

Again, in our author's Venus and Adonis:

"Love is a spirit all compact of fire." STEEVENS.
vain,] Is light of tongue, not veracious. JOHNSON.