Cour. As fure, my Liege, as I do fee your Grace. Duke. Why, this is ftrange; go call the Abbefs hither; I think, you are all mated, or stark mad.

[Ex. one to the Abbess. Egeon. Moft mighty Duke, vouchsafe me speak a

word :

Haply, I fee a friend, will fave my life;

And pay the fum that may deliver me.

Duke. Speak freely, Syracufan, what thou wilt. Egeon. Is not your name, Sir, call'd Antipholis? And is not that your bond-man Dromio?

cords;

E. Dro. Within this hour I was his bond-man, Sir, But he, I thank him, gnaw'd in two my Now am I Dromio, and his man unbound.

Egeon. I am fure, you both of you remember me. E. Dro. Our felves we do remember, Sir, by you; For lately we were bound, as you are now.

You are not Pinch's patient, are you, Sir?

Egeon. Why look you ftrange on me? you know me well.

E. Ant. I never faw you in my life, 'till now.

Egeon. Oh! grief hath chang'd me, fince you faw me laft;

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

Egeon. Dromio, nor thou?

E. Dro. No, truft me, Sir, nor I.

Egeon. I am fure, thou doft.

E. Dro. I, Sir? but I am fure, I do not: and whatfoever a man denies, you are now bound to believe hom Egeon. Not know my voice! oh, time's extremity Haft thou fo crack'd and splitted my poor tongue In seven short years, that here my only fon Knows not my feeble key of untun'd cares? Tho' now this grained face of mine be hid In fap-confuming winter's drizled fnow, And all the conduits of my blood froze up; Yet hath my night of life fome memory;

My

My wafting lamp fome fading glimmer left,
My dull deaf ears a little use to hear
All these old witneffes, I cannot err,
Tell me thou art my fon Antipholis.

E. Ant. I never saw my father in my life.
Ageon. But feven years fince, in Syracufa-bay,
Thou know'ft, we parted; but, perhaps, my fon,
Thou fham'ft t'acknowledge me in misery.

E. Ant. The Duke, and all that know me in the city, Can witnefs with me that it is not fo:

I ne'er faw Syracufa in my life.

Duke. I tell thee, Syracufan, twenty years
Have I been Patron to Antipholis,

During which time he ne'er faw Syracufa:
I fee, thy age and dangers make thee doat.

Enter the Abbefs, with Antipholis Syracufan, and Dromie
Syracufan.

Abb. Moft mighty Duke, behold a man much wrong'd. [All gather to fee him. Adr. I fee two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me. Duke. One of these men is Genius to the other; And fo of these which is the natural man, And which the fpirit? who deciphers them?

S. Dro. I, Sir, am Dromio; command him away.
E. Dro. I, Sir, am Dromio; pray let me stay.
S. Ant. Egeon, art thou not? or else his ghoft?
S. Dro. O, my old mafter! who hath bound him here?
Abb. Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds;
And gain a husband by his liberty.

Speak, old #geon, if thou be'it the man,
That hadft a wife once call'd Emilia,
That bore thee at a burthen two fair fons?

Oh, if thou be'st the fame #geon, speak;
And speak unto the fame Emilia.

Duke. Why, here begins his morning story right:
These two Antipholis's, these two so like,
And those two Dromio's, one in femblance;
Befides her urging of her wreck at fea,
Thefe plainly are the parents to these children,

Which accidentally are met together.
Egeon. If I dream not, thou art Æmilia ;
If thou art fhe, tell me where is that fon
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 fon from them,
And me they left with thofe of Epidamnum.
What then became of them, I cannot tell;
I, to this fortune that you fee me in.

Duke. Antipholis, thou cam'ft from Corinth first.
S. Ant. No, Sir, not I; I came from Syracufe.
Duke. Stay, ftand apart; I know not, which is which.
E. Ant. I came from Corinth, my moft gracious Lord.
E. Dro. And I with him.

E. Ant. 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
S. Ant. I, gentle mistress.

Adr. And are not you my husband?

E. Ant. No, I fay nay to that.

S. Ant. And fo do I, yet fhe did call me fo:
And this fair gentlewoman, her fifter here,
Did call me brother. What I told you then,
I hope, I fhall have leifure to make good,
If this be not a dream, I fee and hear.

Ang. That is the chain, Sir, which you
had of me.
S. Ant. I think it be, Sir, I deny it not.
E. Ant. And you, Sir, for this chain arrested me.
Ang. I think, I did, Sir; I deny it not.
Adr. I fent you mony, Sir, to be your bail,
By Dromio; but, I think, he brought it not.
E. Dro. No, none by me.

S. Ant. This purfe of ducats I receiv'd from you,
And Dromio my man did bring them me;
I fee, we ftill did meet each other's man,
And I was ta'en for him, and he for me,
And thereupon these Errors all arose.

E. Ant.

Το

E. Ant. These ducats pawn I for my father here.
Duke. It fhall not need, thy father hath his life.
Cour. Sir, I must have that diamond from you.
E. Ant. There, take it; and much thanks for my
good cheer.

Abb. Renowned Duke, vouchfafe to take the pains go with us into the abbey here,

And hear at large difcourfed all our fortunes:
And all that are affembled in this place,
That by this fympathized one day's Error
Have fuffer'd wrong; go, keep us company,
And ye fhall have full fatisfaction.

Twenty five years have I but gone in travel (17)
Of you my fons; nor, 'till this present hour,
My heavy burthens are delivered:

The duke, my husband, and my children both,
And you the calendars of their nativity,
Go to a goffip's feaft and go with me:
After fo long grief fuch nativity!

Duke. With all my heart, I'll goffip at this feast.
[Exeunt.

(17) Thirty-three years.] 'Tis impoffible the Poet could be fo forgetful, as to defign this Number here: and therefore I have ventur❜d to alter it to twenty-five, upon a Proof, that, I think, amounts to Demonstration. The Number, I presume, was at first wrote in figures, and, perhaps, blindly; and thence the Miftake might arife. Ageon, in the fift Scene of the firft A&t, is precife as to the Time his Son left him, in Quest of his Brother:

My youngest Boy, and yet my eldest Care,

At eighteen Tears became inquifitive

After his Brother, &c.

And how long it was from the Son's thus parting from his Father, to their meeting again at Ephefus, where Ægeon, miftakenly, recognizes the Twin-brother for him; we as precisely learn from another Paffage in the fifth A&t.

Age. But feven years fince, in Syracula-bay,

Thou know't we parted;

So that these two Numbers, put together, fettle the Date of their Birth beyond Dispute.

Manent

Manent the two Antipholis's, and two Dromio's.

S. Dro. Mafter, fhall I fetch your ftuff from shipboard?

E. Ant. Dromio, what stuff of mine haft thou imbark'd? S. Dro. Your goods, that lay at host, Sir, in the Centaur. S. Ant. He fpeaks to me; I am your master, Dromio. Come, go with us, we'll look to that anon;

Embrace thy brother there, rejoice with him.

[Exeunt Antipholis S. and E. S. Dro. There is a fat friend at your mafter's house, That kitchen'd me for you to day at dinner:

She now shall be my fifter, not my wife.

E. Dro. Methinks, you are my glafs, and not my brother:

I fee by you, I am a fweet-fac'd youth:
Will you walk in to fee their goffiping?
S. Dro. Not I, Sir; you're my elder.
E. Dro. That's a question:

How fhall I try it?

S. Dro We'll draw cuts for the senior:

'Till then, lead thou first.

E. Dro. Nay, then thus

[Embracing.

We came into the world, like brother and brother:

And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.

[Exeunt.

THE