Cour. As sure, my Liege, as I do see your Grace.

Duke. Why, this is strange; go call the Abbess hither; I think, you are all mated, or stark mad.

[Ex. one to the Abbess, Ægeon. Most mighty Duke, vouchsafe me speak a

word : Haply, I fee a friend, will save

my

life ; And pay

the sum that may deliver me. Duke. Speak freely, Syracufan, what thou wilt.

Ægeon. Is not your name, Sir, call's Antipbolis ? And is not that your bond-man Dromio ?

E. Dro. Within this hour I was his bond-man, Sir, But he, I thank him, gnaw'd in two my cords ; Now am I Dromio, and his man unbound. Ægeon. I am sure, you both of you remember me.

E. Dro. Our selyes we do remember, Sir, by you; For lately we were bound, as you are now. You are not Pinch's patient, are you, Sir? Ægeon. Why look you strange on me? you know me

well. E. Ant. I never saw you in my life, 'till now. Ægeon. Oh! grief hath chang'd me, fince you faxy

me last; And careful hours with time's deformed hand Have written ftrange defeatures in my

face ;
But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice ?

E. Ant. Neither.
Ægeon. Dromio, nor thou?
E. Dro. No, trust me, Sir, nor I.
Ægeon. I am sure, thou doft.

E. Dro. I, Sir? but I am sure, I do not: and what soever a man denies, you are now bound to believe hşm

Ægeon. Not know my voice! oh, time's extremityi Haft thou fo 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 ? Tho' now this grained face of mine be hid In fap-consuming winter's drizled snow, And all the conduits of my blood froze up; Yet hath my night of life some memory ;

My

My wasting lamp some fading gliminer left,
My dull deaf ears a little use to hear :
All these old witnesses, I cannot err,
Tell me thou art my fon Antipholis.

E. Ant. I never saw my father in my life.
Ægeon. But seven years since, in Syracufa-bay,
Thou know'ft, we parted; but, perhaps, my lon,
Thou sham'st t'acknowledge me in misery.

E. Ant. The Duke, and all that know me in the city, Can witness with me that it is not so: I ne'er saw Syracufa in my life.

Duke. I tell thee, Syracufan, twenty years Have I been Patron to Antipholis, During which time he ne'er faw Syracusa: I see, thy age and dangers make thee doat. Enter the Abbess, with Antipholis Syracusan, and Dromio

Syracufan. 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?

S. Dro. I, Sir, am Dromio ; command him away.
E. Dro. I, Sir, am Dromio; pray let me stay.
S. Ant. Ægeon, art thou not? or else his ghoft?
S. Dro. 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 Ægeon, if thou be'it the man,
That hadft a wife once callid Æmilia,
That bore thee at a burthen two fair fons?
Oh, if thou be'st the same Ægeon, speak ;
And speak unto the same Æmilia.

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

me in.

Which accidentally are met together.

Ægeon. 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 fon 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 Duke. Antipholis, thou cam'ft from Corinth first. S. Ant. No, Sir, not I; I came from Syracuse. Duke. Stay, stand apart; I know not, which is which. E. Ant. I came from Corinth, my most gracious Lord. E. Dro. And I with him. E. Ant. Brought to this town by that most famous.

warrior,
Duke Menaphor, 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 so 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 shall have leisure 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 sent 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 purse of ducats I receiv'd from you,
And Dromio my man did bring them me ;
I see, we still did meet each other's man,
And I was ta’en for him, and he for me,
And thereupon these Errors all arose.

E. Anta

And ye

E. Ant. These ducats pawn I for my father here.
Duke. It shall 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, vouchsafe to take the pains To go

with us into the abbey here,
And hear at large discoursed all our fortunes :
And all that are assembled in this place,
That by this sympathized one day's Error
Have suffer'd wrong; go, keep us company,

shall have full satisfaction.
Twenty five years have I but gone in travel (17)
Of you my sons; nor, 'till this present hour,
My heavy burthens are delivered :
The duke, my husband, and my children both,
And you the calendars of their nativiry,
Go to a goslip's feast and go with me:
After so long grief such nativity!
Duke. With all my heart, I'll gossip at this feast,

[Excunt. (17) Thirty-three years.] 'Tis impossible the Poet could be so forgerful, as to design this Number here: and therefore I have ventur'd to alter it to twenty-five, upon a Proof, that, I think, amounts to Demonftration. The Number, I presume, was at first wrote in figures, and, perhaps, blindly; and thence the Miftake might arise. Ægeon, in the first Scene of the first A&, is precise 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 inquisitivo

After his Brother, &c.
And how long it was from the Son's thus parting from his
Father, to their meeting again at Ephesus, where Ægeon, mi-
stakenly, recognizes the Twin-brother for him; we as precisely
Jearn from another Passage in the fifth Act.
Æge. But seven years since, in Syracula-bay,

Thon know's we parted; So that these two Numbers, put together, settle the Date of thçir Bisth beyond Dispute.

Manent

Manent the two Antipholis's, and towo Dromio's.
S. Dro. Master, shall I fetch your stuff from ship-

board ? E. Ant. Dromio, what stuff of mine haft thou imbark'd? S. Dro. Your goods, that lay at hoft, Sir, in the Centaur.

S. Ant. He speaks 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 master'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 glass, and not my

brother : I see by you, I am a sweet-fac'd youth: Will you walk in to see their goffiping?

s. Dro. Not I, Sir; you're my elder.

E. Dro. That's a question : How shall 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