239 anatomy walking skeleton (OED n. 6a, first citation)
mountebank See 1.2.101 and n., on mountebanks.
240 juggler See 1.2.98 and n. Antipholus’ terms (mountebank, 239; juggler, fortune-teller, 240; conjuror, 243; cf. also wizard, 4.4.59) recall his brother’s apprehensive speech about tricksters and sorcerers in Ephesus, 1.2.97–102. See also 4.4.40.2n.
241 sharp-looking hungry-looking (OED sharp adj. 4f); narrow-faced, emaciated (OED 10e, f; OED C3 notes this as the compound’s first citation)
242 pernicious wicked (OED adj. 2b); perhaps also evil, harmful (OED 2a)
slave See 1.2.87 and n., on slave.
243 took … as assumed the part of (OED take v. 16a)
conjuror See 177, 4.4.40.2n.
244 gazing also at 53; see 1.1.88n., on gazing.
245 no-face because so lean-faced (238)
out-facing maintaining with boldness or impudence (OED v. 3c); cf. face me down, 3.1.6 and n.; also 227 and n.
246 ‘possessed’ See 2.2.146n., on I … with.
247–9 recalling 4.4.95 (see n., on bound … room)
247 bore Cf. 2.1.72 and n.
249, 250 bound, bonds See 4.1.13n.
250 in sunder asunder, apart (OED sunder adv.)
251–2 immediately … grace Antipholus omits his beating of the maids and tormenting of Pinch; see 170–7.
246 ‘possessed’] this edn; possest F all together] Rowe; altogether F
253 satisfaction redress; see 4.1.5n., on satisfaction.
254 shames Cf. 2.1.112 and n.
258, 264 here See 178, 188n.
262 mart See 4.1n.
263 See 32 SD and n.; the Second Merchant implies that he drew first.
265 you are perhaps pronounced ‘y’are’ (Pope)
266–9 Antipholus responds to his accusers successively, first to the Second Merchant, addressed disdainfully as thou (267). With his second I never, he turns to Angelo, his antagonist regarding the chain; his ‘I never saw the chain’ (268) repudiates Angelo’s ‘These people saw the chain’ (259). Finally, he confronts Adriana, repeating (269) her reply to him at 209, perhaps as sarcasm, perhaps as unconscious linguistic transfer or ‘sympathy’ (see 397n., on sympathized).
269 withal See 209n.
270 impeach accusation; calling into question (OED n. 3)
260 SD] Wells subst. 266, 268, 269, 273 SDs] this edn
271–5 Imitating Antipholus (266–9) and demonstrating the intricate impeach (270), the Duke addresses different participants in turn. He responds first to the Second Merchant (272), the character who most recently had mentioned Antipholus’ disappearance into the abbey. At 273, he reproves Adriana, who in particular had asserted Antipholus’ madness (e.g. at 141). Next he challenges Luciana (274–5), the corroborator (at 210–11) of Adriana’s claim (207–8) that Antipholus had dined at home. He completes the circuit with Dromio, Sirrah (275).
271 drunk … cup making them as irrational as animals (recalling the theme of bestial metamorphosis (e.g. 2.2.201–8; see 2.2.206n., on ’Tis true; see also 24–5, 42)). Homer’s enchantress Circe (Od., 10) drugs Odysseus’ men and turns their bodies into swine. The Duke implies, however, that CE’s characters are altered in mind and not in body. In the Renaissance, Circean enchantment commonly stood for ‘the loss of reason’, with Circe as the archetype of the witch (Roberts, ‘Circe’, 199). Cf. 1H6 5.3.35.
272, 279 here See 178, 188n.
272 housed See 188 and n.
273 coldly calmly (OED adv. 2a); rationally (Crystal & Crystal, adv. 1)
276 there Dromio probably refers deictically to Adriana; see 189, 197n.
277, 278 ring See 4.1.13.1n.
272 SD] this edn (Andrews subst.) 274, 275 SDs] this edn (Capell subst.) 276 SD] Oxf subst. her there,] her, there, Collier 277+ SP] (Cur., Curt.) 279 SD] Oxf
281 Go … hither the Duke’s second command to call for the Abbess; see 165–6, and 165n.
282 mated bewildered, amazed (OED adj.1 1); cf. 3.2.54 and n.
stark mad Cf. 2.1.57 and n. The distinction between mated and stark mad is presumably that between a temporary and a semi-permanent condition.
284 Haply See 60n.; evoking the hap-words of 1.1; see 1.1.37n.
friend kinsman, relative (OED n. 3), recalling friends at 1.1.152; cf. TGV 3.1.106, AYL 1.3.62.
288–91 bondman … unbound Although a bondman is a slave (OED n. 2; see 141 and n.), Dromio puns on his being recently tied up (bound) and now loosed. This passage may recall Plautus’ Men. (1146–8), where the slave Messenio is released from slavery by Sosicles Menaechmus as recompense for unravelling the play’s confusions (cf. 294, 305). On bound, see 1.1.81 and n.; on bond, see 4.1.13n.
288 Dromio pronounced here as three syllables
292 I am perhaps pronounced ‘I’m’
294 referring to Dromio and Antipholus’ rope-binding by Pinch and his men (see 4.4.107–14), but also alluding to the play’s larger knot of errors; Egeon entered bound at 127.1–2. On knots of errors.
286 Syracusan] F2; Siracusian F 287 SD] Oxf 292 sure you] sure F2
295 Pinch’s patient perhaps a theatrical in-joke if Egeon and Pinch were played by the same actor; see Appendix 3. For another possible allusion to Pinch, see 337 and n., on ghost.
296 look you strange See 2.2.116n.
299 careful full of care
Time’s deformed hand deformèd (at 4.2.19; see n.); Time’s hand is both deformed in itself and deforming of others; the word deformed probably signifies old age. See LN. Syracusan Antipholus had feared the power of witches to ‘deform the body’ (1.2.100). On Father Time, see 2.2.72 and n.
300 strange alien; not of one’s own family (OED adj. 1a, 3)
defeatures disfigurements, here with the sense of ruins; cf. 2.1.97 and n., on defeatures. The defeatures are wrinkle-lines metaphorically written by Time’s … hand.
302–3 Steevens first treated these lines as shared. The lines printed here as 302 constitute a six-syllable verse line, and those printed as 303 constitute an iambic pentameter line (with I am elided, ‘I’m’).
302 Neither i.e. neither face nor voice; an emphatic ‘no’; see 94n., on Neither.
305 bound a pun: both trussed and obliged (cf. 294), the latter suggesting that a restrained prisoner is in no position to exact a different answer. On bound, see 1.1.81n.
296 SD] Folg2 subst. 299 Time’s] Malone; times F 302–3] verse as Steevens4; Dyce lines thou? / I. / dost. / 304–5] Hanmer lines whatsoever / him. / (I sir om.); Capell lines sir, / whatsoever / him. / 304 Ay, sir,] (I sir); I, Sir? Pope
307–18 Egeon’s vivid detailing of the defeatures that he has suffered from age prepares the audience for the rebirth that he will experience through reunion with his family (Oxf1).
307 extremity extreme severity, rigour (OED n. 6)
308 splitted recurring here from the shipwreck story of 1.1; see 1.1.103n., on splitted. As before, splitted divides the line metrically.
309 seven Egeon claimed to have searched after his son for Five summers (1.1.132). Perhaps seven encompasses two years after Antipholus’ departure but before Egeon’s (see 320) (Oxf1); see also 400n., on Thirty-three years. In Shakespeare, seven often stands for an indefinite length of time (Dent, Y25).
310 i.e. does not know my voice, made weak and discordant from my woes. With its alliterations and assonances, the line is harmonic despite Egeon’s claim. His key refers to a system of musical notes comprising a scale; untuned means ‘not melodious’ (OED adj. 1a); cf. Luc 1214, R2 1.3.134. The application of untuned to Egeon’s cares (the agent) rather than his voice (the object) creates another transferred epithet or rhetorical hypallage (see 5.1.299 LN). The line-ending cares recalls Egeon’s language in 1.1: woes (1.1.2, 27), griefs (32) and various forms of care (see 1.1.42n., on care); see also 299 a
bove.
311 grained grainèd; furrowed or lined like the markings of wood (OED adj.1 4), i.e. wrinkled; cf. Cor 4.5.108. See 3.2.107 and n.
312 ‘in my white beard and hair, like the snow of winter, the season that dries up the vital sap of plants’; drizzled means falling in a fine, spray-like manner (OED v. derivatives, first citation).
313 conduits channels
froze frozen; Elizabethans sometimes dropped the -en inflection, using the preterite as the past participle (Abbott, 343); cf. arose at 388.
315 wasting lamps i.e. dimming eyes (OED lamp n.1 2b, first citation); cf. 1H6 2.5.8.
glimmer feeble light (OED n.1 1, first citation)
317 I cannot err This insistence on the integrity of personal observation via the senses marks the end of the outward spiralling of error.
307 Time’s] Staunton; times F
320 But only
seven years See 309n.
boy suggesting some impatience (Cam1), rectified with my son (321)
322 an unflattering suggestion, but the pressure of shame has been felt throughout CE; on shame, see 2.1.112n.
to acknowledge perhaps pronounced ‘t’acknowledge’
324 witness The witnessing activity of social life is brought against the witnesses (317) of the senses.
329 dote See 195 and n.; the Duke confirms Egeon’s fear.
330 SD The Abbess and the Syracusans sometimes enter unnoticed, so that the surprised crowd turns at the Abbess’s pronouncement and gathers to surround the new threesome. The twins are now finally and wondrously on stage together. In productions, Egeon is sometimes left standing alone.
326 Syracusan] F2; Siracusian F 329.1 Emilia] Ard2 329.2 OF SYRACUSE] Theobald3; Siracusa F wearing the chain] Oxf 329.3 OF SYRACUSE] Theobald3; Sir. F
332 genius in pagan belief, the ‘attendant spirit allotted to every person at his birth, to govern his fortunes and determine his character’ and accompany him throughout life (OED n. 1a). The Duke takes the genius as an exact likeness, a double, capable of becoming visible. F italicizes ‘genius’, apparently as a foreign term. It occurs similarly at e.g. JC 2.1.66 (see 63–9), TN 3.4.129. In Spenser’s FQ, ‘Genius’ is described as an invisible, intuitive ‘Selfe’ (2.12.47). Warner’s translation of Men. reads, ‘Your ghoast … Your Image’ (36).
334 deciphers discovers (OED v. 4), i.e. distinguishes (Wells); cf. 1H6 4.1.184, Tit 4.2.8.
335–6 The mirrored syntax and rhyme emphasize the Dromios’ likeness.
337 Egeon The reintroduction of the merchant father’s name here (see 1.1.140), repeated at 341 and 344, continues his humanizing; see 195–6n.
ghost Egeon looks like a revenant or perhaps a living dead man, the term applied to Pinch (242); see 295n.
338, 339 bound See 1.1.81n.
339 bonds i.e. the ropes that bind him, but also with metaphoric narrative implications (see 340 SDn.). See 4.1.13n., on bond, and 1.1.81n., on bound.
340 liberty See 53; 2.1.7n., on liberty; on liberties, see 1.2.102 and n.
340 SD The knot of errors is becoming undone (see 294n.).
341–5 The repetition of Speak/speak lends an incantatory quality, while the reiterated names call Egeon and the Abbess into being as individuals in the family romance.
332 genius] (genius) 340 SD] this edn 342, 345, 352 Emilia] Capell; Æmilia F
343 at a burden at a single birth (Cam2); see 1.1.55 and n.; cf. 402 and n., on burden. The scene’s language is reconnecting to the play’s beginning.
fair Cf. goodly at 1.1.50.
344–5 speak, / And speak rhetorical anadiplosis
346–51 See LN.
347–8 These two … these two more phrasal repetition, here rhetorical conduplicatio
347 Antipholus’ i.e. Antipholuses
348, 350 Both lines appear to be tetrameter, unless perhaps semblance (348) is read as trisyllabic, i.e. ‘sèmbelànce’ (Malone), and children (350), as ‘chìlderèn’, after ME childeren (OED child n.) (White, following Walker, Versification, 7). On the extra syllable at medial r, see Abbott, 477.
348 semblance outward appearance (OED n. 4a); the word also carries the sense of apparition (OED 4b).
349 *his urging his for F’s probably erroneous ‘her’, perhaps caused by the compositor’s eye looking ahead towards her later in the line and then reading it back into the earlier part of the line. While his urging recalls the first scene, F’s ‘her urging’ posits a prior conversation that never occurs in the play.
352 dream not Cf. 376; also 2.2.188–92 (and see n.), where Syracusan Antipholus enters into the Ephesian dream.
354 fatal decreed by fate (OED adj. 1)
355–9 A new version of the shipwreck’s aftermath. According to Egeon earlier, Emilia and her set of boys were simply ‘taken up / By fishermen of Corinth, as we thought’ (1.1.110–11). The Abbess’s story introduces the information necessary to explain her separation from the boys under her charge (for which Egeon’s as we thought had left some wiggle-room).
343 sons.] Rann (sons!); sonnes? F 346–51] after 361 Capell 346 Why] aside Why Munro 347 Antipholus’] Ard2; Antipholus F 349 his] Collier2 (Mason); her F her] their Hanmer 355, 359 Epidamium] Epidamnium / Rowe; Epidamnum / Pope; Epidamnus Oxf1
357 rude uncivilized, barbarous (OED adj. 4a), or possibly worse, violent, harsh (OED 2); see 1.1.112 and n., on seized on.
361 fortune besides fate or chance, also condition in life (OED n. 5)
368 Menaphon an arbitrary name, perhaps recalled from Greene’s Menaphon (1589), a pastoral romance involving shipwreck, conflicted love and themes of misrecognition, fortune and time; or possibly from Marlowe’s Tamburlaine (c. 1587).
renowned renownèd
370 And … husband In performance, Adriana’s surprise often induces laughter.
362 SD] Cam1 subst.
374 What … then referring to 3.2.29–69
376 Antipholus conditionally invokes the witness of sight and sound, as if just coming out of the dream he entered in 2.2 (see e.g. 2.2.188–9); see 352n. above. Cf. TGV 5.4.26, MND 4.1.192–4 (Ard2).
377–81 sir The medial repetition (rhetorical mesodiplosis) restores decorum to frayed relationships.
377–9 That … this The change in pronouns hints that the chain may be handed from Syracusan Antipholus to Angelo to Ephesian Antipholus (Dawson, 141). Who finally departs with it is left unclear.
378 be may be (Wells); see Abbott, 298.
378, 380 deny The repetition of deny here evokes and closes the circle of earlier accusations and denials about the chain; see 3n., on deny.
386 still See 2.1.11n., on still.
387 ta’en See 3.2.172 and n., on ta’en.
388 errors another closing of the circle; see 2.2.190 and n.
are See 169n.
arose arisen; see 313n., on froze.
374 SD] Capell subst. 379 SD] Folg2 subst. 381 SD] Wells 384 SD] Capell subst. 387 ta’en] (tane)
389 This offer of ransom money from one son fulfils the dramatic possibility begun at 1.2.8 (see n.) with the mention of the purse of money belonging to the other son; expectations are fulfilled although not exactly in the way that might have been predicted.
390 The Duke’s pardon reveals him to be not strictly bound by Ephesian laws, despite his earlier claim to the contrary; see 1.1.4, 5–10 and n., 142–5 and n. Instead, the laws of romance fiction now apply. Although the Abbess earlier released Egeon’s bonds (339–40), his liberty is not established until the Duke frees him, which he does after the money is offered.
391 that diamond her ring. On the ring, see 4.1.13.1n.
392 SD ring See 4.1.13.1n.
392 much … cheer ‘a termination of a relationship, a salacious reminiscence, or a genuine expression of gratitude’ (Maguire, 369)
393 Renowned renownèd;
the first in a series of past tense verbs with noticeably syllabified endings (-èd; see 395n., on discoursed; 397n.; 402n., on delivered), plus an elongated -ion (see 399n.), whose effect is to poeticize and elevate the language and the action
395 at large at liberty, without restraint (OED large Phrases 5a)
discoursed discoursèd; see 393n.
397 sympathized sympathizèd; see 393n. ‘Compounded of corresponding parts’ (OED adj. a, citing only this line); shared by all (Wells); cf. LLL 3.1.51. But such definitions miss the word’s strong connotations of mysterious agency. The OED defines ‘sympathy’ as ‘affinity between certain things’ that allows them to be ‘similarly or correspondingly affected by the same influence’ (OED n. 1a). That and related definitions (see OED 2, 3a) emphasize a ‘mystical affinity leading to a correspondence of experience’ (van Elk, ‘Genre’, 70); cf. Luc 1112–13. ‘Sympathy’ in Elizabethan texts has a strong connection with magic and denotes a capacity to work long-distance magical effects on a person by performing actions on an object associated with that person, as alluded to by Syracusan Dromio at 4.3.73–6 (see n.). Sympathetic magic, with its sense of correspondences, recalls the way that feelings expressed by one character become manifested in the experiences of an associated character.
error Cf. 2.2.190 and n.
389 SD] Folg2; offering money / Bevington4 391 SD] Folg2 392 SD] Capell subst.
399 satisfaction with -ion pronounced as two syllables; see 393n. As the play draws to a close, satisfaction, or compensation (see OED n. 1a) for wrong (398), will come in the form of narrative.
400 Thirty-three years The elapsed years previously mentioned, eighteen (1.1.125) and seven (see 309 and n.), add up to only 25 (Theobald). Shakespearean plays often lack arithmetic exactitude. Because of the scene’s Christian resonances (e.g. nativity, 404, 406), thirty-three years may recall Christ’s lifespan (see Kinney, ‘Kinds’, 32), yet such specificity of reference squares awkwardly with what is otherwise a quality of suggestiveness.
travail labour, as in childbirth (OED n.1 4); F’s ‘trauaile’ is rendered here as travail, but see 1.2.15n., on travel. Both senses, travail and ‘travel’, may be in play.
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