feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/sparknotes/The Comedy of Errors/section_2_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Comedy of Errors.act ii.scene i
feat_summary_id: act ii, scene ii; act iii, scene i
feat_summary: {"name": "Act II, scene ii; Act III, scene i", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210224233119/https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/errors/section3/", "summary": "Antipholus of Syracuse goes to the inn and finds that his slave did, in fact, bring his money and luggage safely there. Confused, he wanders the city until he encounters Dromio of Syracuse--his Dromio--who, of course, has no memory of telling him to come home to dinner or anything else from Antipholus' earlier conversation with Dromio of Ephesus. Antipholus grows angry with him, but the slave manages to defuse his anger through a long, involved joke about baldness. While the master and slave converse and jest, Adriana and Luciana come upon them, mistaking them for Antipholus of Ephesus and his Dromio. Adriana immediately accuses the man she believes to be her husband of infidelity and rebukes him for violating his own promise of love and their marriage bed. Antipholus, confused, says that he has never met her, which only makes Adriana more furious. She insists on dragging her perplexed \"husband\" home to dinner, bringing Dromio with them, and the confused Antipholus decides to play along until he understands the situation better. They go into Antipholus of Ephesus' house, and Dromio is left below to guard the door during dinner. /PARAGRAPH While his double is upstairs eating, Antipholus of Ephesus returns from the marketplace, accompanied by Dromio of Ephesus, Angelo the goldsmith, and Balthasar the merchant. He asks his fellow businessmen to give Adriana an excuse for his tardiness and then mentions that his slave is behaving oddly. When he knocks at the gate, however, Dromio of Syracuse refuses to let the company in. Antipholus pounds and shouts furiously, bringing Luce, his maid to the door, and then Adriana-- but since both believe that Antipholus is already inside, they refuse to admit him. In a rage, Antipholus is about to break down the door when Balthasar dissuades him, telling him that doing so will reflect badly on his wife's honor and that Adriana must have a good reason for keeping him out. Still seething, Antipholus leads his friends away, resolving to dine with a Courtesan at her house, the Porpentine. He asks Angelo to go fetch a gold chain, recently made, that he had promised to his wife; Antipholus now plans to present it to the Courtesan instead.        Act II, scene ii; Act III,", "analysis": "Commentary The conversation between the Syracusan Antipholus and his Dromio is illustrative of their relationship--what begins with anger and threatened blows is quickly turned to laughter by Dromio's artful sense of humor. This will contrast sharply with the behavior of the other Antipholus, who comes across as a humorless, angry master, unlikely to joke around with his slave. , a new love , and a valuable gold chain, while the unlucky brother is locked out of his house, accused of being mad, and eventually imprisoned, none of which are conductive to a good humor.) The sympathy that the audience feels for Antipholus of Syracuse is further enhanced by his willingness to go along with what seems to him to be nonsense--namely, Adriana's demand that he return to \"their home\" for dinner. Despite his earlier, somewhat fearful reference to Ephesus' reputation for witchcraft, he willingly takes up the peculiar adventure offered by the women, declaring that \"I'll entertain the offered fallacy\", and later \"I'll say as they say, and persevere so, / and in this mist at all adventures go .\" This openness to adventure is characteristic of a comic hero, and it will be amply rewarded at the play's end. The exchange across the barred door between Antipholus of Ephesus and those inside his house is played for laughs, of course, but it can be argued that there is more going on than simple confusion. Antipholus of Syracuse may be only given dinner by his \"wife,\" but there are hints of a sexual element in the confusion--that Adriana may offer her \"husband\" more than food. Balthasar urges Antipholus of Ephesus not to break down the door because that would lead to gossip and ruin the reputation of his wife, but the Ephesian Antipholus seems to assume that there is something sexual going on inside, and his quick decision to dine at the house of the Courtesan  suggests that he plans to revenge what he perceives as his wife's infidelity with infidelity of his own. Whether his jealousy is justified is a matter for interpretation--most critics see Adriana as innocent of adultery with her husband's twin, but others believe that Shakespeare is implying a strong sexual element in the dinner."}
text: SCENE II.
  
  A public place._
  
    _Enter _ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse_._
  
  _Ant. S._ The gold I gave to Dromio is laid up
  Safe at the Centaur; and the heedful slave
  Is wander'd forth, in care to seek me out
  By computation and mine host's report.
  I could not speak with Dromio since at first                         5
  I sent him from the mart. See, here he comes.
  
    _Enter _DROMIO of Syracuse_._
  
  How now, sir! is your merry humour alter'd?
  As you love strokes, so jest with me again.
  You know no Centaur? you receiv'd no gold?
  Your mistress sent to have me home to dinner?                       10
  My house was at the Phoenix? Wast thou mad,
  That thus so madly thou didst answer me?
  
  _Dro. S._ What answer, sir? when spake I such a word?
  
  _Ant. S._ Even now, even here, not half an hour since.
  
  _Dro. S._ I did not see you since you sent me hence,                15
  Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me.
  
  _Ant. S._ Villain, thou didst deny the gold's receipt,
  And told'st me of a mistress and a dinner;
  For which, I hope, thou felt'st I was displeased.
  
  _Dro. S._ I am glad to see you in this merry vein:                  20
  What means this jest? I pray you, master, tell me.
  
  _Ant. S._ Yea, dost thou jeer and flout me in the teeth?
  Think'st thou I jest? Hold, take thou that, and that.
      [_Beating him._
  
  _Dro. S._ Hold, sir, for God's sake! now your jest is earnest:
  Upon what bargain do you give it me?                                25
  
  _Ant. S._ Because that I familiarly sometimes
  Do use you for my fool, and chat with you,
  Your sauciness will jest upon my love,
  And make a common of my serious hours.
  When the sun shines let foolish gnats make sport,                   30
  But creep in crannies when he hides his beams.
  If you will jest with me, know my aspect,
  And fashion your demeanour to my looks,
  Or I will beat this method in your sconce.
  
  _Dro. S._ Sconce call you it? so you would leave battering,         35
  I had rather have it a head: an you use these blows
  long, I must get a sconce for my head, and insconce it
  too; or else I shall seek my wit in my shoulders. But,
  I pray, sir, why am I beaten?
  
  _Ant. S._ Dost thou not know?                                       40
  
  _Dro. S._ Nothing, sir, but that I am beaten.
  
  _Ant. S._ Shall I tell you why?
  
  _Dro. S._ Ay, sir, and wherefore; for they say every
  why hath a wherefore.
  
  _Ant. S._ Why, first,--for flouting me; and then, wherefore,--      45
  For urging it the second time to me.
  
  _Dro. S._ Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season,
  When in the why and the wherefore is neither rhyme nor reason?
  Well, sir, I thank you.
  
  _Ant. S._ Thank me, sir! for what?                                  50
  
  _Dro. S._ Marry, sir, for this something that you gave
  me for nothing.
  
  _Ant. S._ I'll make you amends next, to give you nothing
  for something. But say, sir, is it dinner-time?
  
  _Dro. S._ No, sir: I think the meat wants that I have.              55
  
  _Ant. S._ In good time, sir; what's that?
  
  _Dro. S._ Basting.
  
  _Ant. S._ Well, sir, then 'twill be dry.
  
  _Dro. S._ If it be, sir, I pray you, eat none of it.
  
  _Ant. S._ Your reason?                                              60
  
  _Dro. S._ Lest it make you choleric, and purchase me
  another dry basting.
  
  _Ant. S._ Well, sir, learn to jest in good time: there's a
  time for all things.
  
  _Dro. S._ I durst have denied that, before you were so              65
  choleric.
  
  _Ant. S._ By what rule, sir?
  
  _Dro. S._ Marry, sir, by a rule as plain as the plain bald
  pate of father Time himself.
  
  _Ant. S._ Let's hear it.                                            70
  
  _Dro. S._ There's no time for a man to recover his hair
  that grows bald by nature.
  
  _Ant. S._ May he not do it by fine and recovery?
  
  _Dro. S._ Yes, to pay a fine for a periwig, and recover
  the lost hair of another man.                                       75
  
  _Ant. S._ Why is Time such a niggard of hair, being, as
  it is, so plentiful an excrement?
  
  _Dro. S._ Because it is a blessing that he bestows on
  beasts: and what he hath scanted men in hair, he hath
  given them in wit.                                                  80
  
  _Ant. S._ Why, but there's many a man hath more hair
  than wit.
  
  _Dro. S._ Not a man of those but he hath the wit to
  lose his hair.
  
  _Ant. S._ Why, thou didst conclude hairy men plain                  85
  dealers without wit.
  
  _Dro. S._ The plainer dealer, the sooner lost: yet he
  loseth it in a kind of jollity.
  
  _Ant. S._ For what reason?
  
  _Dro. S._ For two; and sound ones too.                              90
  
  _Ant. S._ Nay, not sound, I pray you.
  
  _Dro. S._ Sure ones, then.
  
  _Ant. S._ Nay, not sure, in a thing falsing.
  
  _Dro. S._ Certain ones, then.
  
  _Ant. S._ Name them.                                                95
  
  _Dro. S._ The one, to save the money that he spends in
  trimming; the other, that at dinner they should not drop
  in his porridge.
  
  _Ant. S._ You would all this time have proved there is
  no time for all things.                                            100
  
  _Dro. S._ Marry, and did, sir; namely, no time to recover
  hair lost by nature.
  
  _Ant. S._ But your reason was not substantial, why
  there is no time to recover.
  
  _Dro. S._ Thus I mend it: Time himself is bald, and                105
  therefore to the world's end will have bald followers.
  
  _Ant. S._ I knew 'twould be a bald conclusion:
  But, soft! who wafts us yonder?
  
    _Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA._
  
  _Adr._ Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown:
  Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects;                        110
  I am not Adriana nor thy wife.
  The time was once when thou unurged wouldst vow
  That never words were music to thine ear,
  That never object pleasing in thine eye,
  That never touch well welcome to thy hand,                         115
  That never meat sweet-savour'd in thy taste,
  Unless I spake, or look'd, or touch'd, or carved to thee.
  How comes it now, my husband, O, how comes it,
  That thou art then estranged from thyself?
  Thyself I call it, being strange to me,                            120
  That, undividable, incorporate,
  Am better than thy dear self's better part.
  Ah, do not tear away thyself from me!
  For know, my love, as easy mayst thou fall
  A drop of water in the breaking gulf,                              125
  And take unmingled thence that drop again,
  Without addition or diminishing,
  As take from me thyself, and not me too.
  How dearly would it touch thee to the quick,
  Shouldst thou but hear I were licentious,                          130
  And that this body, consecrate to thee,
  By ruffian lust should be contaminate!
  Wouldst thou not spit at me and spurn at me,
  And hurl the name of husband in my face,
  And tear the stain'd skin off my harlot-brow,                      135
  And from my false hand cut the wedding-ring,
  And break it with a deep-divorcing vow?
  I know thou canst; and therefore see thou do it.
  I am possess'd with an adulterate blot;
  My blood is mingled with the crime of lust:                        140
  For if we two be one, and thou play false,
  I do digest the poison of thy flesh,
  Being strumpeted by thy contagion.
  Keep, then, fair league and truce with thy true bed;
  I live distain'd, thou undishonoured.                              145
  
  _Ant. S._ Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not:
  In Ephesus I am but two hours old,
  As strange unto your town as to your talk;
  Who, every word by all my wit being scann'd,
  Wants wit in all one word to understand.                           150
  
  _Luc._ Fie, brother! how the world is changed with you!
  When were you wont to use my sister thus?
  She sent for you by Dromio home to dinner.
  
  _Ant. S._ By Dromio?
  
  _Dro. S._ By me?                                                   155
  
  _Adr._ By thee; and this thou didst return from him,
  That he did buffet thee, and, in his blows,
  Denied my house for his, me for his wife.
  
  _Ant. S._ Did you converse, sir, with this gentlewoman?
  What is the course and drift of your compact?                      160
  
  _Dro. S._ I, sir? I never saw her till this time.
  
  _Ant. S._ Villain, thou liest; for even her very words
  Didst thou deliver to me on the mart.
  
  _Dro. S._ I never spake with her in all my life.
  
  _Ant. S._ How can she thus, then, call us by our names,            165
  Unless it be by inspiration.
  
  _Adr._ How ill agrees it with your gravity
  To counterfeit thus grossly with your slave,
  Abetting him to thwart me in my mood!
  Be it my wrong you are from me exempt,                             170
  But wrong not that wrong with a more contempt.
  Come, I will fasten on this sleeve of thine:
  Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine,
  Whose weakness, married to thy stronger state,
  Makes me with thy strength to communicate:                         175
  If aught possess thee from me, it is dross,
  Usurping ivy, brier, or idle moss;
  Who, all for want of pruning, with intrusion
  Infect thy sap, and live on thy confusion.
  
  _Ant. S._ To me she speaks; she moves me for her theme:            180
  What, was I married to her in my dream?
  Or sleep I now, and think I hear all this?
  What error drives our eyes and ears amiss?
  Until I know this sure uncertainty,
  I'll entertain the offer'd fallacy.                                185
  
  _Luc._ Dromio, go bid the servants spread for dinner.
  
  _Dro. S._ O, for my beads! I cross me for a sinner.
  This is the fairy land;--O spite of spites!
  We talk with goblins, owls, and sprites:
  If we obey them not, this will ensue,                              190
  They'll suck our breath, or pinch us black and blue.
  
  _Luc._ Why pratest thou to thyself, and answer'st not?
  Dromio, thou drone, thou snail, thou slug, thou sot!
  
  _Dro. S._ I am transformed, master, am I not?
  
  _Ant. S._ I think thou art in mind, and so am I.                   195
  
  _Dro. S._ Nay, master, both in mind and in my shape.
  
  _Ant. S._ Thou hast thine own form.
  
  _Dro. S._                          No, I am an ape.
  
  _Luc._ If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an ass.
  
  _Dro. S._ 'Tis true; she rides me, and I long for grass.
  'Tis so, I am an ass; else it could never be                       200
  But I should know her as well as she knows me.
  
  _Adr._ Come, come, no longer will I be a fool,
  To put the finger in the eye and weep,
  Whilst man and master laughs my woes to scorn.
  Come, sir, to dinner. Dromio, keep the gate.                       205
  Husband, I'll dine above with you to-day,
  And shrive you of a thousand idle pranks.
  Sirrah, if any ask you for your master,
  Say he dines forth, and let no creature enter.
  Come, sister. Dromio, play the porter well.                        210
  
  _Ant. S._ Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?
  Sleeping or waking? mad or well-advised?
  Known unto these, and to myself disguised!
  I'll say as they say, and persever so,
  And in this mist at all adventures go.                             215
  
  _Dro. S._ Master, shall I be porter at the gate?
  
  _Adr._ Ay; and let none enter, lest I break your pate.
  
  _Luc._ Come, come, Antipholus, we dine too late.
  
      [_Exeunt._
  
  
  
    NOTES: II, 2.
  
    SCENE II.] Capell. SCENE IV. Pope.
    A public place.] Capell. A street. Pope.
    3, 4, 5: _out By ... report. I_] F1 F2 F3. _out By ... report, I_ F4.
      _out. By ... report, I_ Rowe.
    12: _didst_] _did didst_ F1.
    23: Beating him] Beats Dro. Ff.
    28: _jest_] _jet_ Dyce.
    29: _common_] _comedy_ Hanmer.
    35-107: Pope marks as spurious.
    38: _else_] om. Capell.
    45: _Why, first_] _First, why_ Capell.
    53: _next, to_] _next time,_ Capell conj.
    _to_] _and_ Collier MS.
    59: _none_] F1. _not_ F2 F3 F4.
    76: _hair_] _hair to men_ Capell.
    79: _men_] Pope, ed. 2 (Theobald). _them_ Ff.
    91: _sound_] F1. _sound ones_ F2 F3 F4.
    93: _falsing_] _falling_ Heath conj.
    97: _trimming_] Rowe. _trying_ Ff. _tyring_ Pope. _'tiring_ Collier.
    101: _no time_] F2 F3 F4. _in no time_ F1. _e'en no time_ Collier
      (Malone conj.).
    110: _thy_] F1. _some_ F2 F3 F4.
    111: _not ... nor_] _but ... and_ Capell conj.
    112: _unurged_] _unurg'dst_ Pope.
    117: _or look'd, or_] _look'd,_ Steevens.
    _to thee_] om. Pope. _thee_ S. Walker conj.
    119: _then_] _thus_ Rowe.
    130: _but_] F1. om. F2 F3 F4.
    135: _off_] Hanmer. _of_ Ff.
    138: _canst_] _wouldst_ Hanmer.
    140: _crime_] _grime_ Warburton.
    142: _thy_] F1. _my_ F2 F3 F4.
    143: _contagion_] _catagion_ F4.
    145: _distain'd_] _unstain'd_ Hanmer (Theobald conj.).
      _dis-stain'd_ Theobald. _distained_ Heath conj.
    _undishonoured_] _dishonoured_ Heath conj.
    149, 150: Marked as spurious by Pope.
    _Who, ... Wants_] _Whose every ..., Want_ Becket conj.
    150: _Wants_] Ff. _Want_ Johnson.
    155: _By me?_] Pope. _By me._ Ff.
    156: _this_] F1, Capell. _thus_ F2 F3 F4.
    167: _your_] _you_ F2.
    174: _stronger_] F4. _stranger_ F1 F2 F3.
    180-185: Marked 'aside' by Capell.
    180: _moves_] _means_ Collier MS.
    183: _drives_] _draws_ Collier MS.
    184: _sure uncertainty_] _sure: uncertainly_ Becket conj.
    185: _offer'd_] Capell. _free'd_ Ff. _favour'd_ Pope.
      _proffered_ Collier MS.
    187-201: Marked as spurious by Pope.
    189: _talk_] _walk and talk_ Anon. conj.
    _goblins_] _ghosts and goblins_ Lettsom conj.
    _owls_] _ouphs_ Theobald.
    _sprites_] F1. _elves sprites_ F2 F3 F4. _elvish sprites_
      Rowe (ed. 2). _elves and sprites_ Collier MS.
    191: _or_] _and_ Theobald.
    192: _and answer'st not?_] F1. om. F2 F3 F4.
    193: _Dromio, thou drone, thou snail_] Theobald.
      _Dromio, thou Dromio, thou snaile_ F1.
      _Dromio, thou Dromio, snaile_ F2 F3 F4.
    194: _am I not?_] Ff. _am not I?_ Theobald.
    203: _the eye_] _thy eye_ F2 F3.
    204: _laughs_] Ff. _laugh_ Pope.
    211-215: Marked as 'aside' by Capell.
  
  
  
  
  ACT III. _SCENE I.
  
  
  
  Before the house of _ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus_._
  
    _Enter _ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus_, _DROMIO of Ephesus_, ANGELO,
    and BALTHAZAR._
  
  _Ant. E._ Good Signior Angelo, you must excuse us all;
  My wife is shrewish when I keep not hours:
  Say that I linger'd with you at your shop
  To see the making of her carcanet,
  And that to-morrow you will bring it home.                           5
  But here's a villain that would face me down
  He met me on the mart, and that I beat him,
  And charged him with a thousand marks in gold,
  And that I did deny my wife and house.
  Thou drunkard, thou, what didst thou mean by this?                  10
  
  _Dro. E._ Say what you will, sir, but I know what I know;
  That you beat me at the mart, I have your hand to show:
  If the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink,
  Your own handwriting would tell you what I think.
  
  _Ant. E._ I think thou art an ass.
  
  _Dro. E._                      Marry, so it doth appear             15
  By the wrongs I suffer, and the blows I bear.
  I should kick, being kick'd; and, being at that pass,
  You would keep from my heels, and beware of an ass.
  
  _Ant. E._ You're sad, Signior Balthazar: pray God our cheer
  May answer my good will and your good welcome here.                 20
  
  _Bal._ I hold your dainties cheap, sir, and your welcome dear.
  
  _Ant. E._ O, Signior Balthazar, either at flesh or fish,
  A table full of welcome makes scarce one dainty dish.
  
  _Bal._ Good meat, sir, is common; that every churl affords.
  
  _Ant. E._ And welcome more common; for that's nothing but words.    25
  
  _Bal._ Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.
  
  _Ant. E._ Ay to a niggardly host and more sparing guest:
  But though my cates be mean, take them in good part;
  Better cheer may you have, but not with better heart.
  But, soft! my door is lock'd.--Go bid them let us in.               30
  
  _Dro. E._ Maud, Bridget, Marian, Cicely, Gillian, Ginn!
  
  _Dro. S._ [_Within_] Mome, malt-horse, capon, coxcomb,
          idiot, patch!
  Either get thee from the door, or sit down at the hatch.
  Dost thou conjure for wenches, that thou call'st for such store,
  When one is one too many? Go get thee from the door,                35
  
  _Dro. E._ What patch is made our porter? My master stays
          in the street.
  
  _Dro. S._ [_Within_] Let him walk from whence he came, lest he
          catch cold on's feet.
  
  _Ant. E._ Who talks within there? ho, open the door!
  
  _Dro. S._ [_Within_] Right, sir; I'll tell you when, an you'll
          tell me wherefore.
  
  _Ant. E._ Wherefore? for my dinner: I have not dined to-day.        40
  
  _Dro. S._ [_Within_] Nor to-day here you must not; come again
          when you may.
  
  _Ant. E._ What art thou that keepest me out from the house I owe?
  
  _Dro. S._ [_Within_] The porter for this time, sir, and
          my name is Dromio.
  
  _Dro. E._ O villain, thou hast stolen both mine office
          and my name!
  The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame.                45
  If thou hadst been Dromio to-day in my place,
  Thou wouldst have changed thy face for a name, or thy name
          for an ass.
  
  _Luce._ [_Within_] What a coil is there, Dromio? who are
          those at the gate?
  
  _Dro. E._ Let my master in, Luce.
  
  _Luce._                [_Within_] Faith, no; he comes too late;
  And so tell your master.
  
  _Dro. E._          O Lord, I must laugh!                            50
  Have at you with a proverb;--Shall I set in my staff?
  
  _Luce._ [_Within_] Have at you with another; that's,
         --When? can you tell?
  
  _Dro. S._ [_Within_] If thy name be call'd Luce, --Luce,
          thou hast answer'd him well.
  
  _Ant. E._ Do you hear, you minion? you'll let us in, I hope?
  
  _Luce._ [_Within_] I thought to have ask'd you.
  
  _Dro. S._     [_Within_] And you said no.                           55
  
  _Dro. E._ So, come, help:--well struck! there was blow for blow.
  
  _Ant. E._ Thou baggage, let me in.
  
  _Luce._            [_Within_] Can you tell for whose sake?
  
  _Dro. E._ Master, knock the door hard.
  
  _Luce._            [_Within_] Let him knock till it ache.
  
  _Ant. E._ You'll cry for this, minion, if I beat the door down.
  
  _Luce._ [_Within_] What needs all that, and a pair of stocks
          in the town?                                                60
  
  _Adr._ [_Within_] Who is that at the door that keeps
          all this noise?
  
  _Dro. S._ [_Within_] By my troth, your town is troubled
          with unruly boys.
  
  _Ant. E._ Are you, there, wife? you might have come before.
  
  _Adr._ [_Within_] Your wife, sir knave! go get you from the door.
  
  _Dro. E._ If you went in pain, master, this 'knave'
          would go sore.                                              65
  
  _Aug._ Here is neither cheer, sir, nor welcome: we would
          fain have either.
  
  _Bal._ In debating which was best, we shall part with neither.
  
  _Dro. E._ They stand at the door, master; bid them welcome
          hither.
  
  _Ant. E._ There is something in the wind, that we cannot get in.
  
  _Dro. E._ You would say so, master, if your garments were thin.     70
  Your cake here is warm within; you stand here in the cold:
  It would make a man mad as a buck, to be so bought and sold.
  
  _Ant. E._ Go fetch me something: I'll break ope the gate.
  
  _Dro. S._ [_Within_] Break any breaking here, and I'll break
          your knave's pate.
  
  _Dro. E._ A man may break a word with you, sir; and words
          are but wind;                                               75
  Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind.
  
  _Dro. S._ [_Within_] It seems thou want'st breaking: out
          upon thee, hind!
  
  _Dro. E._ Here's too much 'out upon thee!' I pray thee,
          let me in.
  
  _Dro. S._ [_Within_] Ay, when fowls have no feathers, and
          fish have no fin.
  
  _Ant. E._ Well, I'll break in:--go borrow me a crow.                80
  
  _Dro. E._ A crow without feather? Master, mean you so?
  For a fish without a fin, there's a fowl without a feather:
  If a crow help us in, sirrah, we'll pluck a crow together.
  
  _Ant. E._ Go get thee gone; fetch me an iron crow.
  
  _Bal._ Have patience, sir; O, let it not be so!                     85
  Herein you war against your reputation,
  And draw within the compass of suspect
  Th' unviolated honour of your wife.
  Once this,--your long experience of her wisdom,
  Her sober virtue, years, and modesty,                               90
  Plead on her part some cause to you unknown;
  And doubt not, sir, but she will well excuse
  Why at this time the doors are made against you.
  Be ruled by me: depart in patience,
  And let us to the Tiger all to dinner;                              95
  And about evening come yourself alone
  To know the reason of this strange restraint.
  If by strong hand you offer to break in
  Now in the stirring passage of the day,
  A vulgar comment will be made of it,                               100
  And that supposed by the common rout
  Against your yet ungalled estimation,
  That may with foul intrusion enter in,
  And dwell upon your grave when you are dead;
  For slander lives upon succession,                                 105
  For ever housed where it gets possession.
  
  _Ant. E._ You have prevail'd: I will depart in quiet,
  And, in despite of mirth, mean to be merry.
  I know a wench of excellent discourse,
  Pretty and witty; wild, and yet, too, gentle:                      110
  There will we dine. This woman that I mean,
  My wife--but, I protest, without desert--
  Hath oftentimes upbraided me withal:
  To her will we to dinner. [_To Ang._] Get you home,
  And fetch the chain; by this I know 'tis made:                     115
  Bring it, I pray you, to the Porpentine;
  For there's the house: that chain will I bestow--
  Be it for nothing but to spite my wife--
  Upon mine hostess there: good sir, make haste.
  Since mine own doors refuse to entertain me,                       120
  I'll knock elsewhere, to see if they'll disdain me.
  
  _Ang._ I'll meet you at that place some hour hence.
  
  _Ant. E._ Do so. This jest shall cost me some expense.
  
      [_Exeunt._
  
  
  
    NOTES: III, 1.
  
    SCENE I. ANGELO and BALTHAZAR.] Angelo the Goldsmith and Balthasar
      the Merchant. Ff.
    1: _all_] om. Pope.
    11-14: Put in the margin as spurious by Pope.
    11: _Say_] _you must say_ Capell.
    13: _the skin_] _my skin_ Collier MS.
    14: _own_] F1. om. F2 F3 F4.
    _you_] _you for certain_ Collier MS.
    15: _doth_] _dont_ Theobald.
    19: _You're_] _Y'are_ Ff. _you are_ Capell.
    20: _here_] om. Pope.
    21-29: Put in the margin as spurious by Pope.
    31: _Ginn_] om. Pope. _Jen'_ Malone. _Gin'_ Collier. _Jin_ Dyce.
    36-60: Put in the margin as spurious by Pope.
    32, sqq.: [Within] Rowe.
    46: _been_] F1. _bid_ F2 F3 F4.
    47: _an ass_] _a face_ Collier MS.
    48: Luce. [Within] Rowe. Enter Luce. Ff.
    _there, Dromio? who_] _there! Dromio, who_ Capell.
    54: _hope_] _trow_ Theobald. Malone supposes a line omitted
      ending _rope_.
    61: Adr. [Within]. Rowe. Enter Adriana. Ff.
    65-83: Put in the margin as spurious by Pope.
    67: _part_] _have part_ Warburton.
    71: _cake here_] _cake_ Capell. _cake there_ Anon. conj.
    72: _mad_] F1. _as mad_ F2 F3 F4.
    _as a buck_] om. Capell.
    75: _you,_] _your_ F1.
    85: _so_] _thus_ Pope.
    89: _Once this_] _Own this_ Malone conj. _This once_ Anon. conj.
    _her_] Rowe. _your_ Ff.
    91: _her_] Rowe. _your_ Ff.
    93: _made_] _barr'd_ Pope.
    105: _slander_] _lasting slander_ Johnson conj.
    _upon_] _upon its own_ Capell conj.
    106: _housed ... gets_] Collier. _hous'd ... gets_ F1.
      _hous'd ... once gets_ F2 F3 F4. _hous'd where 't gets_ Steevens.
    108: _mirth_] _wrath_ Theobald.
    116: _Porpentine_] Ff. _Porcupine_ Rowe (and passim).
    117: _will I_] F1. _I will_ F2 F3 F4.
    119: _mine_] F1. _my_ F2 F3 F4.
    122: _hour_] F1. _hour, sir_ F2 F3 F4.
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Act II, scene ii; Act III, scene i
target: Antipholus of Syracuse goes to the inn and finds that his slave did, in fact, bring his money and luggage safely there. Confused, he wanders the city until he encounters Dromio of Syracuse--his Dromio--who, of course, has no memory of telling him to come home to dinner or anything else from Antipholus' earlier conversation with Dromio of Ephesus. Antipholus grows angry with him, but the slave manages to defuse his anger through a long, involved joke about baldness. While the master and slave converse and jest, Adriana and Luciana come upon them, mistaking them for Antipholus of Ephesus and his Dromio. Adriana immediately accuses the man she believes to be her husband of infidelity and rebukes him for violating his own promise of love and their marriage bed. Antipholus, confused, says that he has never met her, which only makes Adriana more furious. She insists on dragging her perplexed "husband" home to dinner, bringing Dromio with them, and the confused Antipholus decides to play along until he understands the situation better. They go into Antipholus of Ephesus' house, and Dromio is left below to guard the door during dinner. /PARAGRAPH While his double is upstairs eating, Antipholus of Ephesus returns from the marketplace, accompanied by Dromio of Ephesus, Angelo the goldsmith, and Balthasar the merchant. He asks his fellow businessmen to give Adriana an excuse for his tardiness and then mentions that his slave is behaving oddly. When he knocks at the gate, however, Dromio of Syracuse refuses to let the company in. Antipholus pounds and shouts furiously, bringing Luce, his maid to the door, and then Adriana-- but since both believe that Antipholus is already inside, they refuse to admit him. In a rage, Antipholus is about to break down the door when Balthasar dissuades him, telling him that doing so will reflect badly on his wife's honor and that Adriana must have a good reason for keeping him out. Still seething, Antipholus leads his friends away, resolving to dine with a Courtesan at her house, the Porpentine. He asks Angelo to go fetch a gold chain, recently made, that he had promised to his wife; Antipholus now plans to present it to the Courtesan instead.        Act II, scene ii; Act III,
feat_summary_analysis: Commentary The conversation between the Syracusan Antipholus and his Dromio is illustrative of their relationship--what begins with anger and threatened blows is quickly turned to laughter by Dromio's artful sense of humor. This will contrast sharply with the behavior of the other Antipholus, who comes across as a humorless, angry master, unlikely to joke around with his slave. , a new love , and a valuable gold chain, while the unlucky brother is locked out of his house, accused of being mad, and eventually imprisoned, none of which are conductive to a good humor.) The sympathy that the audience feels for Antipholus of Syracuse is further enhanced by his willingness to go along with what seems to him to be nonsense--namely, Adriana's demand that he return to "their home" for dinner. Despite his earlier, somewhat fearful reference to Ephesus' reputation for witchcraft, he willingly takes up the peculiar adventure offered by the women, declaring that "I'll entertain the offered fallacy", and later "I'll say as they say, and persevere so, / and in this mist at all adventures go ." This openness to adventure is characteristic of a comic hero, and it will be amply rewarded at the play's end. The exchange across the barred door between Antipholus of Ephesus and those inside his house is played for laughs, of course, but it can be argued that there is more going on than simple confusion. Antipholus of Syracuse may be only given dinner by his "wife," but there are hints of a sexual element in the confusion--that Adriana may offer her "husband" more than food. Balthasar urges Antipholus of Ephesus not to break down the door because that would lead to gossip and ruin the reputation of his wife, but the Ephesian Antipholus seems to assume that there is something sexual going on inside, and his quick decision to dine at the house of the Courtesan  suggests that he plans to revenge what he perceives as his wife's infidelity with infidelity of his own. Whether his jealousy is justified is a matter for interpretation--most critics see Adriana as innocent of adultery with her husband's twin, but others believe that Shakespeare is implying a strong sexual element in the dinner.