Nath. "When in the world I liv'd, I was the world's commander,' Boyet. Most true, 't is right; you were so, Alisander. Bir. Pompey the Great, Cost. Your servant, and Costard. Bir. Take away the conqueror, take away [575 Alisander. Cost. [To Sir Nath.] O, sir, you have overthrown Alisander the conqueror! You will be scrap'd out of the painted cloth for this. Your lion, that holds his poll-axe sitting on a close [580 stool, will be given to Ajax; he will be the ninth Worthy. A conqueror, and afeard to speak Run away for shame, Alisander. [Nath. retires.] There, an 't shall please you, a foolish mild man, an honest man, look you, and soon dash'd. He is a marvellous good neighbour, faith, [585 and a very good bowler; but, for Alisander, alas, you see how 't is, a little o'erparted. But there are Worthies a-coming will speak their mind in some other sort. [Exit Curate. 590 Prin. Stand aside, good Pompey. Enter Pedant [HOLOFERNES], for Judas, and the Boy [MOTH], for Hercules. Hol. Great Hercules is presented by this imp, Whose club kill'd Cerberus, that three-headed canus ; And when he was a babe, a child, a shrimp, Thus did he strangle serpents in his manus. 595 Quoniam he seemeth in minority, Ergo I come with this apology." [1side.] Keep some state in thy exit, and van Judas I am," Dum. A Judas! faces. ish. [Moth retires.] Gave Hector a gift," Dum. A gilt nutmeg. 600 Bir. A lemon. Boyet. True, and it was enjoined him in Rome for want of linen; since when, I'll be sworn, he wore none but a dishclout of Jaquenetta's, and that 'a wears next his heart [20 for a favour. Enter a Messenger, Monsieur MERCADE. But that thou interruptest our merriment. Mer. Even so; my tale is told. Bir. Worthies, away! The scene begins to cloud. 730 Arm. For mine own part, I breathe free breath. I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier. [Exeunt Worthies. King. How fares your majesty ? Prin. Boyet, prepare; I will away to-night. King. Madam, not so; I do beseech you, stay. Prin. Prepare, I say. I thank you, gracious lords. For all your fair endeavours; and entreat, If over-boldly we have borne ourselves In the converse of breath. Your gentleness 148 King. The extreme parts of time extremely forms All causes to the purpose of his speed, The holy suit which fain it would convince, lost We did not quote them so. King. Now, at the latest minute of the hour, Grant us your loves. Prin. A time, methinks, too short To make a world-without-end bargain in. No, no, my lord, your Grace is perjured much, Full of dear guiltiness; and therefore this: 801 If for my love, as there is no such cause, You will do aught, this shall you do for me: Your oath I will not trust; but go with speed To some forlorn and naked hermitage, Remote from all the pleasures of the world; There stay until the twelve celestial signs Have brought about the annual reckoning. If this austere insociable life 905 810 Change not your offer made in heat of blood; Come challenge me, challenge me by these deserts, And, by this virgin palm now kissing thine, 815 For the remembrance of my father's death. 820 Ros. You must be purged too, your sins are racked, Mar. The liker you; few taller are so young. Bir. Studies my lady? Mistress, look on me; Behold the window of my heart, mine eye, What humble suit attends thy answer there. Impose some service on me for thy love. 850 Ros. Oft have I heard of you, my Lord Before I saw you; and the world's large tongue 855 To weed this wormwood from your fruitful Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Will hear your idle scorns, continue then, 875 Bir. A twelvemonth! Well, befall what will befall, 880 I'll jest a twelvemonth in a hospital. Prin. [To the King.] Ay, sweet my lord; and so I take my leave. Mocks married men; for thus sings he, Cuckoo, cuckoo," O word of fear, When shepherds pipe on oaten straws 910 And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks, When turtles tread, and rooks, and dawS, 915 And maidens bleach their summer smocks, The cuckoo then on every tree Mocks married men; for thus sings he, Cuckoo, cuckoo," -O word of fear, Winter. When icicles hang by the wall And milk comes frozen home in pail, A merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. When all aloud the wind doth blow And Marian's nose looks red and raw, A merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. 920 925 930 935 Arm. The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo. You that way: [940 we this way. [Exeunt. THE COMEDY OF ERRORS THERE has been very general agreement in regarding The Comedy of Errors as one of the earliest of Shakespeare's productions. A play called A Comedy of Errors (“like to Plautus his Menaechmus") was acted by players at Gray's Inn on December 28, 1594, and there seems no reason to doubt that this was the present play. Of internal evidences, the most pointed is the reference in III. ii. 125-127 to France as "making war against her heir," which is taken as an allusion to the contest between Henry of Navarre and the League (1589-94). But Henry of Navarre was heir to the French throne before the death of Henry III in 1589, and had been at war with France as early as 1585. Thus there is nothing in the passage to prevent this comedy from having come at the very beginning of Shakespeare's career. The large amount of verbal quibbling in the style of the play; the versification, which is marked by much rime both in couplets and alternates, by a considerable amount of doggerel, and by the absence of weak and light endings; and the comparative rarity of prose, all point to an early date. The year 1591 has been most frequently conjectured, and the play may well enough have been written still earlier. It was first published in the First Folio of 1623, and on this the present text is based. The main plot is derived from the Menechmi of Plautus, which Shakespeare may have read either in the original or in the translation by W. W. (? William Warner). Though this translation was not published till 1595, it is stated in the printer's note to the readers that the work had been done by the translator "for the use and delight of his private friends," so that Shakespeare may have had opportunity of access to it some time previously. The characters common to Plautus and Shakespeare are the two Antipholuses (Menechmi), Dromio of Syracuse (Messenio), Adriana (Mulier), the Courtezan (Erotium), and Pinch (Medicus). Shakespeare preserves in the Dromio of Syracuse, whom he borrows, and bestows upon the Dromio of Ephesus, whom he invents, the stock characteristics of the witty slave of Plautus. In Pinch's attempt to diagnose the madness of Antipholus, there is a strong reminiscence of the Medicus of Plautus. Mulier in the Menechmi is more of the conventional shrew than Adriana. The Parasite who plays a large part in the Latin comedy, the cook and maid-servant of the Courtezan, and Senex, the father of Mulier, are all discarded by Shakespeare. On the other hand, the enveloping plot of the parents of the twins, with the characters of Egeon, Æmilia, Solinus, Luciana, the Merchants, and Luce, are all due to Shakespeare's invention. Little of the detail is drawn from Plautus, the most notable borrowings being the humorous treatment of the conjurer, the frequent thrashings of Dromio, and the reproof administered by the Abbess to Adriana, which resembles the remarks addressed to Mulier by Senex. From the Amphitruo of Plautus are derived the scene (III. i.) in which Antipholus of Ephesus and his Dromio are shut out of their own home, and the notion of “doubling" the slaves as well as the masters. This play had formed the basis of an early farce, Jack Juggler (1562–63), but no trace is discernible of Shakespeare's having used this intermediary. The riming fourteensyllabled lines in which the Dromios often speak belong to the tradition of the early drama, and have also suggested an English intermediary; a supposition which receives a slight support from the unexplained presence of the names Sereptus and Errotis added to Antipholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracuse respectively in the stage directions of the Folio. Some have thought that Shakespeare may have founded his play on a Historie of Error showen at Hampton Court on Newyeres daie at night enacted by the Children of Powles" (157); but, though possible, this is far from certain. The word "Error" was at that time the common term for mistaken identity, and this was so common a device in the drama that no argument can be based on its mere occurrence in a title not otherwise identical. Though The Comedy of Errors is notable among Shakespeare's plays for the slightness of the characterization, yet a comparison with Plautus shows, especially in the case of Adriana, a substantial superiority in elaboration and vitality on the part of Shakespeare's creations. |