These are the parents to these children, 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 warrior, 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.-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 received 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 are arose. And all that are assembled in this place, The Duke, my husband, and my children both, Duke. With all my heart, I'll gossip at this feast. Ant. E. Dromio, what stuff of mine hast thou embarked? Dro. S. Your goods, that lay at host, sir, in Ant. S. He speaks to me. I am your master, Come, go with us; we'll look to that anon: That kitchened me for you to-day at dinner: Dro. E. Methinks you are my glass, and not I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth. 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 NOTES. "My youngest boy, and yet my eldest care, At eighteen years became inquisitive This appears to be a lapse of memory in the poet. Egeon says previously, in his account of the shipwreck: "My wife, more careful for the latter-born, “I from my mistress come to you in post; A kind of rough reckoning seems to have been generally kept in a merchant's warehouse, by means of a post. In Ben Jonson's "EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR," Kitely makes jealous inquiries of Cob concerning his wife; to which the servant replies, "If I saw anybody to be kissed, unless they would have kissed the post in the middle of the warehouse," &c. So, also, in "EVERY WOMAN IN HER HUMOUR," we find: "Host. Out of my doors, knave, thou enterest not my doors. I have no chalk in my house; my posts shall not be guarded with a little sing-song." "Be it my wrong you are from me exempt, But wrong not that wrong with a more contempt." Exempt is here probably used in the sense of separated or parted. In the first part of "HENRY VI.," there is a similar use of the word: "And by his treason stand'st thou not attainted, "This is the fairy land: 0, spite of spites ! We talk with goblins, owls, and elvish sprites : They'll suck our breath, or pinch us black and blue." The striges, or screech-owls, are here meant. In the Cambridge Latin Dictionary (1594), we find:-"Strix, a scritcheowl; an unluckie kind of bird (as they of old time said), which sucked out the blood of infants lying in their cradles. A witch, that changeth the favour of children; an hagge, or fairie." "THE LONDON PRODIGAL," a comedy (1605), also has:-"'Soul, I think I am sure crossed or witched with an owl." "But if thou live to see like right bereft, This fool-begged patience in thee will be left." Act II., Scene 1. Allusion is here made to an old prerogative of the crown. Adriana appears to mean that sort of patience which is so near to idiotical simplicity, that some relation would take advantage from it to represent the possessor as a fool, and beg the guardianship of her fortune. "His company must do his minions grace, Whilst I at home starve for a merry look!"-Act II., Scene 1. In Shakspere's 47th Sonnet, there is a similar phrase:"When that mine eye is famished for a look." Also in the 75th : "Sometimes all full with feeding on his sight, And, by and by, clean starvéd for a look." -“ My decayéd fair A sunny look of his would soon repair."-Aet II, Scene 1. Fair is here used substantively, meaning beauty. Shakspere has several times employed the word in a similar sense; and in one of Marston's Satires we find : "As the green meads, whose native outward fair "That never words were music to thine ear."-Act II., Scene 2 This passage appears to be imitated by Pope, in his "SAPPHO TO PHAON:" "My music then you could for ever hear. "Mome, malt-horse, capon," &c.-Act III., Scene 1. Mome signifies a dull, stupid blockhead, a stock, a post. This owes its original to the French word momon, which signifies the gaming at dice in masquerade; the custom and rule of which is, that a strict silence is to be observed: whatever sum one stakes another covers, but not a word is to be spoken. From hence, also, comes our word "Mum" for silence.-HAWKINS. "And doubt not, sir, but she will well excuse Why at this time the doors are made against you." Act III., Scene 1. To make the door is still a provincial phrase, signifying to bar the door. "You have prevailed: I will depart in quiet; That is, though mirth has withdrawn herself from me, and seems determined to avoid me, yet, in despite of her, and whether she will or not, I am resolved to be merry.HEATH. "Let Love, being light, be drowned if she sink!" Act III., Scene 2. Love here means the queen of love. As in "ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA :"— "Now for the love of Love and her soft hours." And, more appositely, in "VENUS AND ADONIS," Venus says, speaking of herself: "Love is a spirit all compact of fire, Not gross to sink, but light, and will aspire." "ANT. S. Where France? DRO. S. In her forehead; armed and reverted, making war against her hair."-Act III., Scene 2. Allusion is here supposed to be made to the war of the League against Henry IV. of France, which was terminated, in 1593, by Henry's renunciation of the Protestant faith. In 1591, Elizabeth sent over four thousand men to his assistance, under the Earl of Essex. The present play was probably written about the same period. "And, I think, if my breast had not been made of faith, and my heart of steel, She had transformed me to a curtail-dog, and made me turn i' the wheel."-Act III., Scene 2. It was a popular belief that a great share of faith was a protection from witchcraft. These lines are usually printed as prose; but we adopt the opinion of a contemporary, that they were intended for doggerel rhyme. "Where Dowsabel did claim me for her husband." Act IV., Scene 1. This name occurs in one of Drayton's Pastorals:"He had, as antique stories tell, A daughter clepéd Dowsabel." 'What observation mad'st thou in this case, Of his heart's meteors tilting in his face." Act IV., Scene 2. This is an allusion to those meteors which, in more superstitious times, were sometimes thought to resemble armies meeting in the shock of battle. The same thought occurs in "HENRY IV.," Part I., speaking of civil wars : "Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, Milton also finely employs similar imagery in the second book of "PARADISE LOST:" "A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough."-Act IV., Scene 2. There were faries, like hobgoblins, pitiless and rough, and described as malevolent and mischievous. As in Milton's "COMUS:" "No goblin, or swart fairy of the mine, "A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well.” Act IV., Scene 2. To run counter, is to run backward, by mistaking the course of the animal pursued. To draw dry-foot, is when the dog pursues the game by the scent of the foot, for which the bloodhound is famed. The jest consists in the ambiguity of the word counter, which means the wrong way in the chase, and a prison in London. In "EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR," Brainworm says, "Well, the truth is, my old master intends to follow my young master, dry-foot, over Moorfields to London this morning." "One that, before the judgment, carries poor souls to hell.” Act IV., Scene 2. The arrest here spoken of is that upon mesne process, now abolished. Hell appears to have been the cant term for a dungeon in any of our prisons. It is also said to have been the designation of a place of confinement under the Exchequer Chamber, for debtors of the crown. "I do not know the matter; he is 'rested on the case." Act IV., Scene 2. An action upon the case is a general action given for the redress of a wrong done any man without force, and not especially provided for by law.-GREY. "Tell me, was he arrested on a band?"-Act IV., Scene 2. Band is here used in the sense of bond; it also signifies a neckcloth; hence the equivoque arises. "What, have you got rid of the picture of old Adam new apparelled?"-Act IV., Scene 3. The two words "rid of" were inserted by Theobald, and on sufficient ground, as it seems to us. His reasons are thus stated by himself:-"A short word or two must have slipped out by some accident, in copying, or at press; otherwise I have no conception of the meaning of the pas sage. The case is this:-Dromio's master had been arrested, and sent his servant home for money to redeem him: he, running back with the money, meets the twin Antipholus, whom he mistakes for his master, and seeing him clear of the officer before the money was come, he cries, in a surprise, What, have you got rid of the picture of old Adam new apparelled?' for so I have ventured to supply by conjecture. "But why is the officer called 'Old Adam new apparelled?' The allusion is to Adam in his state of innocence going naked, and immediately after the fall being clothed in a frock of skins. Thus he was new apparelled; and, in like manner, the sergeants of the Counter were formerly clad in buff, or calf's-skin, as the author humorously a little lower calls it." Similar allusions to Adam's primitive suit are frequent in "This day, great Duke, she shut the doors upon me, While she with harlots feasted in my house." Act V., Scene 1. Pinch and his companions are here alluded to. The term "harlot" originally meant merely a hireling, and was afterwards applied contemptuously to both sexes. In Ben Jonson's "VOLPONE," Corbaccio says to the impostor, "Out, harlot." "And careful hours, with Time's deformed hand, "Deformed" here signifies deforming. "Defeatures" are alterations of feature, marks of old age. "And these two Dromios, one in semblance,— Besides her urging of her wreck at sea,— These are the parents to these children." Act V., Scene 1. A line is plausibly supposed to be lost after the second of those quoted, which would have given connexion to the passage. "The Duke, my husband, and my children both, Act V., Scene 1. These "calendars" are the two Dromios. In Act I. Antipholus of Syracuse calls one of them "the almanack of my true date." "We came into the world like brother and brother; And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another." Act V., Scene 1. These lines very pleasantly wind up the "COMEDY OF ERRORS," and leave a favourable impression of the good sense and good temper of the two slave brothers.-In re ference to the loose kind of metre in which they are occasionally made to speak, a few similar specimens from old dramas may be found amusing. Malone introduces them with the subjoined observations: "The long doggerel verses that Shakspere has attributed in this play to the two Dromios, are written in that kind of metre which was usually attributed by the dramatic poets before his time, in their comic pieces, to some of their inferior characters; and this circumstance is one of many that authorise us to place the preceding comedy, as well as 'LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST,' and 'THE TAMING OF THE SHREW' (where the same kind of versification is likewise found), among our author's earliest productions; composed probably at a time when he was imperceptibly infected with the prevailing mode, and before he had completely learned 'to deviate boldly from the common track.' As these early pieces are now not easily met with, I shall subjoin a few extracts from some of them : 'LIKE WILL TO LIKE' (1568). Royst. If your name to me you will declare and showe, You may in this matter my minde the sooner knowe. Tos. Few wordes are best among friends, this is true, Wherefore I shall briefly show my name unto you. Tom Tospot it is, it need not to be printed, Wherefore I with Raife Roister must needs be acquainted, &c. 'COMMONS CONDITIONS' (about 1570). Shift. By gogs bloud, my maisters, we were not best longer here to staie, I thinke was never such a craftie knave before this daie. [Exit AMBO. Cond. Are thei all gone? Ha, ha, well fare old Shift at a neede: By his woundes had I not devised this, I had hanged indeed. Tinkers (qd you), tinke me no tinkes; I'll meddle with them no more. I thinke was never knave so used by a companie of tinkers before. By your leave I'll be so bolde as to looke about me and spie, Lest any knaves for my coming down in ambush do lie. By your licence I minde not to preache longer in this tree, My tinkerly slaves are packed hence, as farre as I maie see. PROMUS AND CASSANDRA' (1578). The wind is yl blows no man's gaine; for cold I neede not care, Here is nine and twentie sutes of apparel for my share; grace; But I marvel much, poore slaves, that they are hanged so soone, They were wont to staye a day or two, now scarce an after noone. 'THE THREE LADIES OF LONDON' (1584). You think I am going to market to buy rost meate, do ye not? But I am going to a bloodsucker, and who is it? faith Usurie, that theefe. 'THE COBLER'S PROPHECY' (1594). Quoth Niceness to Newfangle, thou art such a Jacke, pholuses; because, although there have been instances of almost indistinguishable likeness in two persons, yet these are mere individual accidents, casus ludentis nature; and the verum will not excuse the inverisimile. But farce dares add the two Dromios, and is justified in so doing by the laws of its end and constitution. In a word, farces commence in a postulate which must be granted.-COLERIDGE. The general idea of this play is taken from the "MENECHMI" of Plautus, but the plot is entirely recast, and rendered much more diverting by the variety and quick succession of the incidents. To the twin brothers of Plautus are added twin servants; and though this increases the improbability, yet, as Schlegel observes, "when once we have lent ourselves to the first, which certainly borders on the incredible, we should not probably be disposed to cavil about the second; and if the spectator is to be entertained with mere perplexities, they cannot be too much varied." The clumsy and inartificial mode of informing the spectator, by a prologue, of events which it was necessary for him to be acquainted with in order to enter into the spirit of the piece, is well avoided, and shews the superior skill of the modern dramatist over his ancient prototype. With how much more propriety is it placed in the mouth of Egeon, the father of the twin brothers, whose character is sketched with such skill as deeply to interest the reader in his griefs and misfortunes! Development of character, however, was not to be expected in a piece which consists of an uninterrupted series of mistakes and laughter-moving situations. We may conclude with Schlegel's dictum that "This is the best of all written or possible Menæchmi; and if the piece is inferior in worth to other pieces of Shakspere, it is merely because nothing more could be made of the materials."-SINGER. A translation of the "MENECHMI" of Plautus appeared in 1595, by "W. W.," which letters are supposed to have been the initials of William Warner. There is not the slightest internal evidence in Shakspere's play to shew that he made any use of this version. Indeed, it is highly probable that the "COMEDY OF ERRORS" was written at an earlier period. The following is a specimen of Warner's translation. It is the commencement of the second Act; the dialogue being between Menæchmus Sosicles (Antipholus of Syracuse) and Messenio : "Men. Surely, Messenio, I think seafarers never take so comfortable a joy in any thing as, when they have been long tost and turmoiled in the wide seas, they hap at last to ken land. Mes. I'll be sworn, I should not be gladder to see a whole country of mine own, than I have been at such a sight. But I pray, wherefore are we now come to Epidamnum? Must we needs go to see every town that we hear of? Men. Till I find my brother, all towns are alike to me: I must try in all places. Mes. Why, then, let's even as long as we live seek your brother six years now have we roamed about thus; Istria, Hispania, Massylia, Illyria, all the upper sea, all high Greece, all haven towns in Italy. I think if we had sought a needle all this time we must needs have found it, had it been above ground. It cannot be that he is alive; and to seek a dead man thus among the living, what folly is it? Men. Yea, could I but once find any man that could certainly inform me of his death, I were satisfied; otherwise I can never desist seeking: little knowest thou, Messenio, how near my heart it goes. Mes. This is washing of a blackamoor. Faith, let's go home, unless ye mean we should write a story of our travail. Men. Sirrah, no more of these saucy speeches. I perceive I must teach you how to serve me, not to rule me. Mes. Ay, so, now it appears what it is to be a servant." |