Page:The Psychology of Shakespeare.pdf/278

Rh in this instance the mistake is not made by the subject of it, but by the public. Adriana procures the assistance of a conjuring exorcist, Pinch. The marks of anger are inter preted into the signs of madness. “Alas, how fiery and how sharp he looks : “Mark, how he trembles in his extasy" “Pinch. Give me your hand, and let me feel your pulse. Ant. E. There is my hand, and let it feel your ear. 1xx

Pinch. I charge thee, Satan, hous'd within this man,

To yield possession to my holy prayers, And to thy state of darkness hie thee straight; I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven.” This of course adds fuel to the fire of the angry man's excitement; discussion leads to violence; master and man over

powered and bound together are put in a dark and dampish vault.

Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse, the other halves of the identity, as they may be called, take refuge from their persecutions in the sanctuary of the cloister. The interview of the Abbess with the zealous and jealous wife is the fine

passage of the play. Adriana must have drawn upon her fancy for the account of the premonitory symptoms, or have thus interpreted the ill-humour caused by her own shrewish temper. The Abbess makes a wrong guess or two at the cause, but her keen eye reads the only probable one in the feature language of the wife. The manner in which she inveigles the latter into self-accusation, and then describes the distracting effect of domestic cark and worry is finely graphic. Abb. How long hath this posession held the man 7 Adr. This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad, And much, much different from the man he was ;

But, till this afternoon, his passion Ne'er brake into extremity of rage. Abb. Hath he not lost much wealth by wrack of sea 7