When that is known, and golden time convents,
A folemn combination fhall be made

Of our dear fouls. Mean time, fweet fifter,
We will not part from hence.-Cefario, come;
(For fo you fhall be while you are a man);
But when in other habits you are feen,
Orfino's miîtrefs, and his fancy's queen.

Clown fings.

When that I was a little tiny boy,

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain':
A foolish thing was but a toy,

For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's eftate,

With bey, bo, &c.

FExeunt.

'Gainft knaves and thieves men fhut their gate,

For the rain, &c.

But when I came, alas! to wive,

With hey, ho, &c.

By fwaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain, &c.

But When I came unto my beds,

With hey, ho, &c.

With tofs-pots ftill had drunken heads,

For the rain, &c.

A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, &c.

But that's all one, our play is done;

And we'll firive to pleafe you every day. [Exit.

This poor ftuff appears to be the player's not Shakespear's.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

SALINUS, Duke of Ephefus. | Balthazar, a merchant.
Egeon, a merchant of Sy-

racufe.

Twin-bro

Antipholis {thers fons to

Egeon and

Antipholis Emilia, but unknown to

of Ephefus.

of Syracufe.

each other.

Angelo, a goldfmith.
A Merchant, friend to An-
tipholis of Syracufe.
Dr. Pinch, a fchoolmaster,
and a conjurer.
Emilia, wife to Egeon, an
abbefs at Ephefus.
Adriana, wife to Antipholis
of Ephefus.

Luciana, fifter to Adriana.
Luce, fervant to Adriana.
Jailor, Officers, and other
attendants.

Enter the Duke of Ephesus, Ægeon, Jailor, and other Attendants.

Egeon.

P

ROCEED, Salinus, to procure my fall, And by the doom of death end woes and all.

Duke. Merchant of Syracufe, plead no more ; I am not partial to infringe our laws:

The enmity, and difcord, which of late

Sprung from the ranc'rous outrage of your Duke,
To merchants, our well dealing countrymen,
(Who, wanting gilders to redeem their lives,
Have feal'd his rigorous ftatutes with their bloods),
Excludes all pity from our threat'ning looks.
For, fince the mortal and intestine jars

The plot taken from the Minæchmi of Plautus.
VOL. III.

'Twixt

'Twixt thy feditious countrymen and us,
It hath in folemn fynods been decreed,
Both by the Syracufans and ourselves,
T' admit no traffic to our adverfe towns;
Nay, more, if any born at Ephefus
Be feen at Syracufan marts and fairs;
Again, if any Syracufan born

Come to the bay of Ephefus, he dies:
His goods confifcate to the Duke's dispose,
Unless a thousand marks be levied
To quit the penalty, and raniom him.
Thy fubftance, valu'd at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;
Therefore, by law thou art condemn'd to die.
Egeon. Yet this my comfort, when your words are
done,

My woes end likewife with the evening-fun.

Duke. Well, Syracufan, fay, in brief, the caufe, Why thou departed'ft from thy native home; And for what caufe thou cam'ft to Ephefus.

Egeon. A heavier talk could not have been impos'd, Than I to speak my grief unfpeakable :

Yet that the world may witnefs, that my end
Was wrought by nature *, not by vile offence,
I'll utter what my forrow gives me leave.
In Syracufa was I born, and wed

Unto a woman, happy but for me;

And by me too, had not our hap been bad:
With her I liv'd in joy; our wealth increas'd,
By profperous voyages I often made
To Epidamnum; till my factor's death,
And the great care of goods at random left,
Drew me from kind embracements of my fpoufe;
From whom my abfence was not fix months old,
Before herself (almost at fainting under
The pleafing punishment that women bear)
Had made provifion for her following me,
And foon, and fafe, arrived where I was,
There he had not been long, but fhe became
A joyful mother of two goodly fons;

And, which was strange, the one fo like the other,

i. e. by a natural event, by the courfe of providence.

As

As could not be diftinguifh'd but by names.
That very hour, and in the self-fame inn,
A poor mean woman was delivered

Of fuch a burthen, male twins both alike :
Thofe (for the parents were exceeding poor)
I bought, and brought up to attend my fons.
My wife, not meanly proud of two fuch boys,
Made daily motion for our home-return:
Unwilling, I agreed; alas, too soon!
We came aboard.

A league from Epidamnum had we fail'd,
Before the always wind-obeying deep
Gave any tragic inftance of our harm;
But longer did we not retain much hope:
For what obfcured light the heav'ns did grant,
Did but convey unto our fearful minds

A doubtful warrant of immediate death;
Which tho' myfelf would gladly have embrace'd,
Yet the inceffant weeping of my wife,

(Weeping before, for what the faw must come)
And piteous plainings of the pretty babes,
That mourn'd for fashion, ignorant what to fear,
Force'd me to feek delays for them and me.
And this it was; (for other means were none).
The failors fought for fafety by our boat,
And left the ship, then finking-ripe, to us;
My wife, more careful for the elder born,
Had faften'd him unto a small spare maft,
Such as feafaring men provide for storms;
To him one of the other twins was bound,
Whilft I had been like heedful of the other.
The children thus difpos'd, my wife and I,
Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix'd,
Faften'd ourselves at either end the mast;
And floating ftraight, obedient to the stream,
Were carry'd towards Corinth, as we thought.
At length the fun, gazing upon the earth,
Difpers'd thofe vapours that offended us;
And, by the benefit of his wifh'd light,
The feas wax'd calm; and we difcover'd
Two fhips from far making amain to us,
Of Corinth that, of Epidarus this;

But ere they came Oh, let me fay no more!
Gather the fequel by that went before. i

Duke. Nay, forward, old man, do not break off so; For we may pity, tho' not pardon thee.

Egeon Oh, had the gods done fo, I had not now Worthily term'd them merciless to us.

For ere the ships could meet by twice five leagues,
We were encountered by a mighty rock;
Which being violently borne upon, ༞ *# *! * ནོ༔
Our helpless fhip was fplitted in the midft:
So that, in this unjust divorce of us,***
Fortune had left to both of us alike
What to delight in, what to forrow for.
Her part, poor foul! feeming as burdened
With leffer weight, but not with leffer woe,
Was carried with more speed before the wind,
And in our fight they three were taken up
By fifhermen of Corinth, as we thought.
At length, another ship had feiz'd on us;
And knowing whom it was their hap to fave,
Gave helpful welcome to their fhipwreck'd guests;
And would have reft the fifhers of their prey,
Had not their bark been very slow of fail;'
And therefore homeward did they bend their course.
Thus have you heard me fever'd from my blifs;
That by misfortune was my life prolong'd,
To tell fad flories of my own mishaps.

Duke. And, for the fakes of them thou forrow'st for, Do me the favour to dilate at full

What hath befall'n of them, and thee, till now.
Egeon. My youngest boy, and yet my eldest care;
At eighteen years, became inquifitive

After his brother; and importun'd me,
That his attendant (for his cafe was like,
Reft of his brother, but retain'd his name)
Might bear him company in queft of him:
Whom whilst I labour'd of a love to fee,
I hazarded the lofs of whom I lov'd.
Five fummers have I spent in farthest Greece,
Roaming clean through the bounds of Afia,
And coating homeward, came to Ephesus :
Hopelefs to find, yet loth to leave unfought,

A

Or