Doing difpleasure to the citizens

By rushing in their houses, bearing thence
Rings, jewels, any thing his rage did like.
Once did I get him bound, and fent him home,
Whilft to take order for the wrongs I went,
That here and there his fury had committed.
Anon, I wot not by what ftrong escape,*

He broke from those that had the guard of him;
And, with his mad attendant and himself,'
Each one with ireful paffion, with drawn fwords,
Met us again, and, madly bent on us,
Chafed us away; till, raifing of more aid,
We came again to bind them: then they fled
Into this abbey, whither we pursued them;
And here the abbefs fhuts the gates on us,
And will not fuffer us to fetch him out,
Nor fend him forth, that we may bear him hence.
Therefore, moft gracious duke, with thy command,
Let him be brought forth, and borne hence for help.
DUKE. Long fince, thy husband ferv'd me in my

wars;

-to take order-] i. e. to take measures. So, in Othello, A& V. "Honeft Iago hath ta'en order for it." STEEVENS.

by what strong efcape,] Though ftrong is not unintelligible, I fufpect we fhould read-frange. The two words are often confounded in the old copies. MALONE.

A frong efcape, I fuppofe, means an escape effected by ftrength or violence. STEEVENS.

And, with his mad attendant and himself,] We fhould read: mad himself. WARBURTON.

We might read:

And here his mad attendant and himself.

Yet, as Mr. Ritfon obferves, the meeting to which Adriana alludes, not having happened before the abbey, we may more properly fuppofe our author wrote

And then his mad attendant and himself. STEEVENS.

I fufpect, Shakspeare is himself anfwerable for this inaccuracy.

And I to thee engag'd a prince's word,
When thou didst make him mafter of thy bed,
To do him all the grace and good I could.—
Go, fome of you, knock at the abbey-gate,
And bid the lady abbefs come to me;

I will determine this, before I ftir.

Enter a Servant.

SERV. O mistress, mistress, shift and fave yourfelf!

4

My mafter and his man are both broke loose, Beaten the maids a-row, and bound the doctor, Whofe beard they have finged off with brands of

fire; s 5

And ever as it blazed, they threw on him
Great pails of puddled mire to quench the hair:

4 Beaten the maids a-row,] i. e. fucceffively, one after another. So, in Chaucer's Wife of Bathes Tale, v. 6836, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit:

"A thousand time a-row he gan hire kiffe." STEEVENS. Again, in Hormanni Vulgaria, p. 288:

"I fhall tell thee arowe all that I fawe."

"Ordine tibi vifa omnia exponam." DOUCE.

5 Whofe beard they have finged off with brands of fire;] Such a ludicrous circumftance is not unworthy of the farce in which we find it introduced; but it is rather out of place in an epic poem, amidst all the horrors and carnage of a battle:

"Obvius ambuftum torrem Corinaus ab ara

Corripit, et venienti Ebufo, plagamque ferenti, "Occupat os flammis: Illi ingens barba reluxit,

Nidoremque ambufta dedit." Virg. Æneis, Lib. XII.

STEEVENS.

Shakspeare was a great reader of Plutarch, where he might have feen this method of having in the life of Dion, p. 167, 4to. See North's tranflation, in which aviganes may be tranflated brands.

S. W.

North gives it thus-" with a hot burning cole to burne his goodly bush of heare rounde about." STEEVENS,

6

My mafter preaches patience to him, while
His man with fciffars nicks him like a fool: 7
And, fure, unless you fend fome prefent help,
Between them they will kill the conjurer.

ADR. Peace, fool, thy master and his man are here;

And that is falfe, thou doft report to us.

SERV. Miftrefs, upon my life, I tell you true; I have not breath'd almost, fince I did fee it. He cries for you, and vows, if he can take you, To fcorch your face, and to disfigure you:

8

[Cry within. Hark, hark, I hear him, mistress; fly, be gone. DUKE. Come, ftand by me, fear nothing: Guard with halberds.

6 My mafter preaches patience to him, while-] The old copy redundantly reads and the while. I have followed Sir T. Hanmer, by omitting the unneceffary fyllables. STEEVENS.

7 His man with fciffars nicks him like a fool:] The force of this allufion I am unable to explain with certainty. Perhaps it was once the custom to cut the hair of idiots close to their heads. There is a proverbial fimile-" Like crop the conjurer;" which might have been ironically applied to thefe unfortunate beings.

STEEVENS.

There is a penalty of ten fhillings in one of king Alfred's ecclefiaftical laws, if one opprobriously have a common man like a fool, TOLLET.

Fools undoubtedly were fhaved and nick'd in a particular manner, in our author's time, as is afcertained by the following paffage in The Choice of Change, containing the triplicitie of Divinitie, Philofophie, and Poetrie, by S. R. Gent. 4to. 1598: "Three things ufed by monks, which provoke other men to laugh at their follies. They are haven and notched on the head, like fooles."

I.

See alfo Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, in v. "Zuccone. A fhaven pate, a notted poule; a poule-pate; a gull, a ninnie."

MALONE.

The hair of idiots is ftill cut clofe to their heads, to prevent the confequences of uncleanlinefs. RITSON.

*To fcorch your face,] We fhould read fcotch, i.e. hack, cut.

ADR. Ah me, it is my husband! Witnefs you, That he is borne about invifible:

Even now we hous'd him in the abbey here;
And now he's there, paft thought of human reason.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS and DROMIO of Ephefus.

ANT. E. Justice, moft gracious duke, oh, grant
me justice!

Even for the service that long fince I did thee,
When I beftrid thee in the wars, and took
Deep fears to fave thy life; even for the blood
That then I loft for thee, now grant me justice.
EGE. Unless the fear of death doth make me
dote,

I fee my fon Antipholus, and Dromio.

ANT. E. Juftice, fweet prince, against that woman

there.

She whom thou gav'ft to me to be my wife;
That hath abused and dishonour'd me,
Even in the ftrength and height of injury!
Beyond imagination is the wrong,

That the this day hath fhameless thrown on me.
DUKE. Discover how, and thou fhalt find me

just.

ANT. E. This day, great duke, fhe fhut the doors upon me,

8

While the with harlots feasted in my house.

To fcorch, I believe, is right. He would have punished her as he had punished the conjurer before. STEEVENS.

8 with harlots-] Antipholus did not fufpect his wife of having entertained courtezans, but of having been confederate with cheats to impofe on him and abufe him. Therefore, he fays to her A& IV. fc. iv:

DUKE. A grievous fault: Say, woman, didst thou

fo?

ADR. No, my good lord;-myfelf, he, and my fifter,

To-day did dine together: So befal my soul,
As this is falfe, he burdens me withal!

Luc. Ne'er may I look on day, nor fleep on night, But fhe tells to your highness fimple truth!

ANG. Operjur'd woman! They are both forfworn. In this the madman juftly chargeth them.

ANT. E. My liege, I am advised what I fay; Neither disturb'd with the effect of wine, Nor heady-rash, provok'd with raging ire,

are these your customers?

"Did this companion with the faffron face
"Revel and feaft it at my houfe to day?"

By this defcription he points out Pinch and his followers. Harlot was a term of reproach applied to cheats among men as well as to wantons among women. Thus, in the Fox, Corbacchio fays to Volpone:

Out harlot !"

Again, in The Winter's Tale:

for the harlot king

"Is quite beyond mine arm.

Again, in the ancient mystery of Candlemas-Day, 1512. Herod fays to Watkin:

66

Nay, harlott, abyde ftylle with my knyghts I warne the."The fearned editor of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 5 vols. 8vo. 1775, obferves, that in The Romaunt of the Rofe, v. 6068, King of Harlots is Chaucer's tranflation of Roy des ribaulx. Chaucer ufes the word more than once:

"A fturdy harlot went hem ay behind,

"That was hir hofts man," &c. Sompnoures Tale, v. 7336. Again, in the Dyers' Play, among the Chester Collection in the Museum, Antichrift fays to the male characters on the stage:

"Out on ye harlots, whence come ye?" STEEVENS. 9 — I am advised —] i. e. I am not going to speak precipitately or rafhly, but on reflexion and confideration. STEEVENS.