Imatges de pàgina
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That hath abused and dishonour'd me,
Even in the strength and height of injury!
Beyond imagination is the wrong,

That she this day hath shameless thrown on me.
Duke. Discover how, and thou shalt find me
just.

Ant. E. This day, great duke, she shut the doors upon me,

While she with harlots feasted in my house. Duke. A grievous fault: Say, woman, didst thou so?

Adr. No, my good lord ;-myself, he, and my
sister,

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

Luc. Ne'er may I look on day, nor sleep on
night,

But she tells to your highness simple truth!
Ang. O perjur'd woman! They are both for-

sworn.

In this the madman justly chargeth them.

Ant. E. My liege, I am advised what I say;
Neither disturb'd with the effect of wine,
Nor heady-rash, provok'd with raging ire,
Albeit, my wrongs might make me wiser mad.
This woman lock'd me out this day from dinner :
That goldsmith there, were he not pack'd with
here.

Could witness it, for he was with me then;
Who parted with me to go fetch a chain,
Promising to bring it to the Porcupine,
Where Balthazar and I did dine together.
Our dinner done, and he not coming thither,
1 wem to seek him in the street I met him;
And in his company, that gentleman,
There did this perjur'd goldsmith swear

down,

That I this day of him receiv'd the chain.

me

Ant. E. I never came within these abbey
walls.

Nor ever didst thou draw thy sword on me:
I never saw the chain, so help me heaven!
And this is false, you burden me withal.

Duke. Why, what an intricate impeach is
this!

I think you all have drank of Circe's cup.
If here you hous'd him, here he would have
been;
[ly:-
If he were mad, he would not plead so cold-
You say, he dined at home: the goldsmith here
Denies that saying:-Sirrah, what say you?

Dro. E. Sir, he dined with her there, at the
Porcupine.

Cour. He did; and from my finger snatch'd
that ring.

Ant. E. 'Tis true, my leige, this ring I had of her.

Duke. Saw'st thou him enter at the abbey

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I think you are all mated, or stark mad.
[Exit an Attendant.
Ege. Most mighty duke, vouchsafe me speak
a word;

Haply I see a friend will save my life,
And pay the sum that may deliver me.
Duke. Speak freely, Syracusan, what thou
wilt.

Ege. Is not your name, Sir, call'd Autipho-
lus ?

And is not that your bondman Dromio?
Dro. E. Within this hour I was his bondman,
Sir,

Which, God he knows, I saw not for the But he, I thank him, gnaw'd in two my cords:

which,

He did arrest me with an officer.

I did obey; and sent my peasant home

For certain ducats: he with none return'd.
Then fairly I bespoke the officer,

To go in person with me to my house.

By the way we met,

My wife, her sister, and a rabble more

of vile confederates; along with them
They brought one Pinch; a hungry lean-fac'd
villain,

A mere anatomy, a mountebank,

A thread-bare juggler, and a fortune-teller;
A needy, hollow-ey'd, sharp-looking wretch,
A living dead man: this pernicious slave,
Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer;
And, gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse,
And with no face, as 'twere, outfacing ms,
Cries out, I was possess'd: then altogether
They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence;
And in a dark and dankish vault at home
There left me and my man, both bound to-
gether;

Till gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder,
I gain'd my freedom, and immediately
Ran hither to your grace; whom I beseech
To give me ample satisfaction

For these deep shames and great indignities.
Ang. My lord, in truth, thus far I witness with
him ;

That he dined not at home, but was lock'd out.
Duke. But had he such a chain of thee, or

no?

Ang. He had, my lord: and when he ran in
here,

These people saw the chain about his neck.
Mer. Besides, I will be sworn, these ears of
mine

Heard you confess you had the chain of him,
After you first foreswore it on the mart,
And, thereupon, I drew my sword on you;
And then you fled into this abbey here,
From whence, I think you are come by miracle.

Harlot was a term of reproach applied to cheats among men as well as to wantons among women.

Now am I Dromio, and his man, unbound.

Ege. I am sure you both of you remember

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saw me last;

And careful hours, with Time's deformed hand,
Have written strange defeatures in my face;
But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?
Ant. E. Neither.

Ege. Dromio, nor thou?

Dro. E. No, trust me, Sir, not I.
Ege. I am sure, thou dost.

Dro. E. Ay, Sir; but I am sure, I do not; and whatsoever a man denies, you are now bound to believe him.

Age. Not know my voice; O time's extremity! Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor

tongue,

In seven short years, that here my only son
Knows not my feeble key of untun'd cares?
Though now this grained face of mine be hid
In sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow,
And all the conduits of my blood froze up;
Yet hath my night of life some memory,
My wasting lamp some fading glimmer left,
My dull deaf ears a little use to hear:
All these old witnesses (I cannot err,)
Tell me, art thou my son Antipholus.

Ant. E. I never say my father in my life.
Ege. But seven years since, in Syracusa,

boy,

Thou know'st, we parted but perhaps, my son,
Thou sham'st to acknowledge me in misery.
Ant. E. The duke, and all that know me in
the city,

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Can witness with me that it is not so;
I ne'er saw Syracusa in my life.

Duke. I tell thee, Syracusan, twenty years
Have I been patron to Antipholus,
During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa :
I see thy age and dangers make thee dote.
Enter the ABBESS, with ANTIPHOLUS Syracu-
san, and DROMIO Syracusan.

Abb. Most mighty duke, behold a man much wrong'd. [All gather to see him. Adr. I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me.

Duke. One of these men is Genius to the other;

And so of these: Which is the natural man, And which the spirit? Who deciphers them? Dro. S. I, Sir, am Dromio; command him away.

Dro. E. 1, Sir, am Dromio; pray let me stay. Ant. S. Egeon, art thou not? or else his ghost?

Dro. S. O my old master! who hath bound

him here?

Abb. Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds,

And gain a husband by his liberty :-
Speak, old Egeon, if thou 'be'st the man
That had'st a wife once call'd Æmilia,
That bore thee at a burden two fair sons:
Oh! if thou be'st the same Ægeon, speak,
And speak unto the same Æmilia!

Ege. If I dream not, thou art Æmilia;
If thou art she, tell me, where is that son
That floated with thee on the fatal raft ?

Abb. By men of Epidamnum, he, and I, And the twin Dromio, all were taken up; But, by and by, rude fishermen of Corinth By force took Dromio and my son from them, And me they left with those of Epidamnum ; What then became of them, I cannot tell ; I, to this fortune that you see me in.

Duke. Why here begins his morning story right;

These two Antipholuses, these two so like,
And these two Dromios, one in semblance,-
Besides her urging of her wreck at sea,
These are the parents to these children,
Which accidentally are met together.
Antipholus, thou cam'st from Corinth first.

Ant. S. No, Sir, not I; I came from Syracuse. Duke. Stay, stand apart; I know not which is which.

Ant. E. I came from Corinth, my most gracious lord.

Dro. E. And I with him.

Ant. E. Brought to this town with that most famous warrior

Duke Menaphon, your most renowned uncle. Adr. Which of you two did dine with me to-day?

Ant. S. 1, gentle mistress.

Adr. And are you not 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. By Dromio; but I think he brought it not. Adr. I sent you money, Sir, to be your bail, Dro. E. No, none by me.

Ant. S. This purse of ducats I receiv'd from

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And all that are assembled in this place,
That by this sympathized one day's error
Have suffer'd wrong, go, keep us company,
And we shall make full satisfaction.-
Twenty-five years have I but gone in travail
Of you, my sons; nor, till this present hour
My heavy burdens are delivered :-

The duke, my husband, and my children both,
And you the calendars of their nativity,
Go to a gossip's feast, and go with me:
After so long grief, such nativity!

Duke. With all my heart, I'll gossip at this

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Dro. S. We will draw cuts for the senior : till then, lead thou first.

Dro. E. Nay, then thus: [ther; We came into the world, like brother and bro

The morning story is what Egeon tells the Duke in And now let's go hand in hand, not one be. the first scene of this play.

fore another.

[Exeunt.

AS YOU LIKE IT.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

MALONE ascertains the date of this play by the following singular coincidence of an allusion made by Rosalind with a circumstance recorded by Stowe. "I will weep for nothing, (says Rosalind) like Diana in the Fountain.” In 1598, at the east side of the cross in Cheapside, was set up (says the latter in his survey of London,) **s curious wrought tabernacle of grey marble, and, in the same, an alabaster image of Diana, and water, conveyed from the Thames, prilling from her naked breast." A trifling novel or pastoral romance, by Dr. Thomas Lodge, called Euphues's Golden Legacy, is the foundation of As you Like it. In addition to the fable, which is pretty exactly followed, the outlines of certain principal personages may be traced in the novel; but the characters of Jaques, Touchstone, and Audrey, originated entirely with the poet. Few plays contain so much instructive sentiment, poignant satire, luxuriant fancy, and amusing incident, as this: it is altogether "wild and pleasing." The philosophic reader will be no less diverted by the sententions shrewdness of Touchstone, than instructed by the elegant and amiable lessons of the moralizing Jaques.---Shakspeare is sais to have played the part of Adam in As you like it.

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The SCENE lies, first, near Oliver's House; afterwards, partly in the Usurper's Court, and partly in the Forest of Arden.

ACT I.

SCENE I.—An Orchard, near OLIVER's
House.

Enter ORLANDO and ADAM.

seems to take from me: he lets me feed with bis hinds, bars me the place of a brother, and, as much as in him lies, mines my gentility with my education. That is it, Adam, that grieves me; and the spirit of my father, which I think is within me, begins to mutiny against this servitude: I will no longer endure it, though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it.

Enter OLIVER.

Adam. Yonder comes my master, your bro ther.

Oli. Now, Sir! what make you here ? •

Orl. As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed me: By will, but a poor thousand crowns: and, as thou say'st, charged my brother, on his blessing, to breed me well: and there begins my sadness. My brother Jaques he keeps at school, and report speaks goldenly of his profit: for my part, he keeps Orl. Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt bear me rustically at home, or, to speak more pro-how he will shake me up. perly, stays me here at home unkept: For call you that keeping for a gentleman of my birth, that differs not from the stalling of an ox? His horses are bred better; for, besides that they are fair with their feeding, they are taught their manage, and to that end riders dearly hired: but I, his brother, gain nothing under him but growth; for the which his animals on his dunghills are as much bound to him as I. Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me, the something that nature gave me his countenance

Orl. Nothing: I am not taught to make any thing.

Oli. What mar you then, Sir?

Orl. Marry, Sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a poor unworthy brother of your's, with idleness.

Óli. Marry, Sir, be better employed, and be naught awhile.

• What do you here.

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