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 Or I'll attach you by this officer. Ang. Even just the sum that I do owe to you I shall receive the money for the same. 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; 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 Perchance I will be there as soon as you. Ang. Then you will bring the chain to her yourself? 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, 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. Ant. E. I answer you! what should I answer you? 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. And charge you in the Duke's name to obey me. 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. Ang. Sir, sir, I shall have law in Ephesus, Enter DROMIO of Syracuse. Dro. S. Master, there is a bark of Epidamnum 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: 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? Luc. First he denied you had in him no right.2 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 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." |