Dromio of Ephesus employs vivid imagery in order to comment upon the passing of time.
Returned so soon? Rather approached too late!
The capon burns; the pig falls from the spit;
The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell;
My mistress made it one upon my cheek.
Rather than directly commenting upon the time, Dromio, with a characteristic lack of clarity, narrates the time in a series of images and sensory impressions that imply that they are late and need to get home quickly. First, Dromio activates both the senses of smell and of sight in describing a “capon,” or a rooster, that has been left too long over a flame and is now burning. Next, he draws in a number of different senses in describing a pig that is so overcooked that it falls from the spit upon which it was suspended. The following image of a clock striking twelve calls upon sight and sound impressions, and finally, his reference to a “strike” from his mistress “upon his cheek” appeals to the sense of touch. Dromio, then, incorporates a wide variety of different senses in order to convey one relatively simple idea: they are running late and should hurry back home.
