Mojo, Will, & Me

There did this perjured goldsmith swear me down

That I this day of him received the chain,

Which, God he knows, I saw not:

The Comedy of Errors

Antipholus of Ephisus                                   Act V, Scene i     Line 144

What we have here, friends, is a continuation of a line that we posted on back in December. I’ll give you that line, the one intervening line, and today’s line, all together. And just for the record, we’ll be disqualifying the intervening line from further possible selection since we’ve got it here today. 

That goldsmith there, were he not pack'd with her,
Could witness it, for he was with me then;
Who parted with me to go fetch a chain,
Promising to bring it to the Porpentine,
Where Balthazar and I did dine together.
Our dinner done, and he not coming thither,
I went to seek him: in the street I met him
And in his company that gentleman.
There did this perjured goldsmith swear me down
That I this day of him received the chain,
Which, God he knows, I saw not:

As I noted back then, this is very near the end of the play and just before everyone in the play finally realizes that there’s two sets of twins. Of course this realization has to come at the very end because literally all of the comedy of this play involves the misunderstandings that are a result of not knowing that there are two sets of twins. There are less than one hundred lines in the play after this realization is made. But today’s line Is about two hundred lines before the end of the play, so the misunderstandings continue at this point. Obviously (or not), the goldsmith gave the chain to Antipholus of Syracuse, not Antipholus of Ephesus, and therein lies the humor. Again, typical Three’s Company stuff. I wonder if Jack Ritter, Joyce Dewitt, and Suzanne Somers realized how closely they were following in the tracks of Shakespearean actors. I’m thinking probably not.

This is my chain. I wear it all the time. It's not gold, or even silver. I'm not sure what it is, but it's definitely mine and it's hard to imagine anyone else ending up with it.