o 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