Dro. E.Will you be bound for nothing? Be mad, Good master; cry, the devil. Luc. God help, poor souls, how idly do they talk! Adr. Go, bear him hence. Sister, go you with me. [Exeunt PINCH and Assistants, with ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus and DROMIO of Ephesus. Say now, whose suit is he arrested at? Offi. One Angelo, a goldsmith: do you know him? Adr. I know the man. What is the sum he owes? Offi. Two hundred ducats. Adr. Say, how grows it due? Offi. Due for a chain your husband had of him. Adr. He did bespeak a chain for me, but had it not. Cour. When as your husband, all in rage, to-day Came to my house and took away my ring (The ring I saw upon his finger now), Straight after did I meet him with a chain. Adr. It may be so, but I did never see it.— Come, gaoler, bring me where the goldsmith is; I long to know the truth hereof at large. Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse, with his rapier drawn, and DROMIO of Syracuse. Luc. God, for thy mercy! they are loose again. Adr. And come with naked swords; let's call more help, To have them bound again. Away; they'll kill us! [Exeunt Officer, ADRIANA, and LUCIANA. Ant. S. I see these witches are afraid of swords. Dro. S. She that would be your wife, now ran from you. Ant. S. Come to the Centaur; fetch our stuff from thence: I long that we were safe and sound aboard. Dro. S. Faith, stay here this night; they will surely do us no harm; you saw they speak us fair, give us gold. Methinks they are such a gentle nation, that, but for the mountain of mad flesh that claims marriage of me, I could find in my heart to stay here still, and turn witch. Ant. S. I will not stay to-night for all the town; Therefore away, to get our stuff aboard. [Exeunt. ACT V SCENE I-A public Place. Enter Merchant and ANGELO. Ang. I am sorry, sir, that I have hindered you; But I protest he had the chain of me, Though most dishonestly he doth deny it. Mer. How is the man esteemed here in the city? That you would put me to this shame and trouble; Ant. S. I think I had: I never did deny it. Fie on thee, wretch! 't is pity that thou liv'st Ant. S. Thou art a villain to impeach me thus: Enter ADRIANA, LUCIANA, Courtesan, and others. Adr. Hold, hurt him not, for God's sake; he Some get within him, take his sword away: Bind Dromio too, and bear them to my house. Dro. S. Run, master, run; for God's sake, take a house. This is some priory: in, or we are spoiled. [Exeunt ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse and DROMIO of Syracuse, to the Priory. Enter the Abbess. Abb. Be quiet, people: wherefore throng you hither? Adr. To fetch my poor distracted husband hence: Let us come in, that we may bind him fast, Ang. I knew he was not in his perfect wits. 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 wreck In company, I often glancéd it ; Still did I tell him it was vile and bad. Abb. And thereof came it that the man was mad: The venom clamours of a jealous woman Poison more deadly than a mad dog's tooth. It seems his sleeps were hindered by thy railing: And therefore comes it that his head is light. Thou say'st his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings: Unquiet meals make ill digestions, Thereof the raging fire of fever bred; And what's a fever but a fit of madness? Sweet recreation barred, what doth ensue Why bear you these rebukes, and answer not? Abb. No, not a creature enters in my house. Adr. Then let your servants bring my husband forth. Abb. Neither: he took this place for sanctuary, And it shall privilege him from your hands, Till I have brought him to his wits again, Or lose my labour in assaying it. Adr. I will attend my husband, be his nurse, Diet his sickness,-for it is my office, And will have no attorney but myself; And therefore let me have him home with me. Abb. Be patient; for I will not let him stir, Till I have used the approvéd means I have, With wholesome syrups, drugs, and holy prayers, To make of him a formal man again: It is a branch and parcel of mine oath, A charitable duty of my order; Therefore depart, and leave him here with me. Adr. I will not hence, and leave my husband here; And ill it doth beseem your holiness To separate the husband and the wife. Abb. Be quiet, and depart; thou shalt not have [Exit Abbess. him. Luc. Complain unto the Duke of this indignity. Adr. Come, go: I will fall prostrate at his feet, And never rise until my tears and prayers Have won his grace to come in person hither, And take perforce my husband from the Abbess. Mer. By this, I think, the dial points at five: Anon, I'm sure, the Duke himself in person Comes this way to the melancholy vale,— The place of death and sorry execution, Behind the ditches of the abbey here. Ang. Upon what cause? Mer. To see a reverend Syracusan merchant, Who put unluckily into this bay Against the laws and statutes of this town, Beheaded publicly for his offence. Ang. See where they come; we will behold his death. Luc. Kneel to the Duke before he pass the abbey. Enter DUKE, attended; ÆGEON, bareheaded; with the Headsman and other Officers. Duke. Yet once again proclaim it publicly, If any friend will pay the sum for him, He shall not die; so much we tender him. Adr. Justice, most sacred Duke, against the Abbess! Duke. She is a virtuous and a reverend lady; It cannot be that she hath done thee wrong. Adr. May it please your grace, Antipholus, my husband, Whom I made lord of me and all I had, my wars; And I to thee engaged a prince's word, I will determine this before I stir. Enter a Servant. Serv. O mistress, mistress, shift and save your self! My master and his man are both broke loose, And ever as it blazed, they threw on him Serv. Mistress, upon my life, I tell you true: [Cry within. Hark, hark, I hear him, mistress; fly, begone! Duke. Come, stand by me; fear nothing.Guard with halberds. Adr. Ah me, it is my husband! Witness you Even for the service that long since I did thee, I see my son Antipholus and Dromio. Ant. E. Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there : She, whom thou gav'st to me to be my wife: doors upon me, While she with harlots feasted in my house. Duke. A grievous fault. Say, woman, didst thou so. Adr. No, my good lord :—myself, he, and my sister, To-day did dine together. So befal my soul, Luc. Ne'er may I look on day, nor sleep on night, But she tells to your highness simple truth. Ang. O perjured woman! they are both for sworn. In this the madman justly chargeth them. Ant. E. My liege, I am adviséd what I say; I did obey, and sent my peasant home Το go in person with me to my house. By the way we met My wife, her sister, and a rabble more A mere anatomy, a mountebank, A threadbare juggler, and a fortune-teller; him, That he dined not at home, but was locked out. Duke. But had he such a chain of thee, or no? Ang. He had, my lord: and when he ran in here, These people saw the chain about his neck. Mer. Besides, I will be sworn, these ears of mine Heard you confess you had the chain of him, And then you fled into this abbey here, Duke. Why, what an intricate impeach is this! Cour. He did, and from my finger snatched that ring. Ant. E. 'Tis true, my liege; this ring I had of her. Duke. Saw'st thou him enter at the abbey here? Cour. As sure, my liege, as I do see your grace. Duke. Why, this is strange.-Go call the Abbess hither: I think you are all mated or stark mad. [Exit an Attendant. Ege. Most mighty Duke, vouchsafe me speak a word: Haply I see a friend will save my life, Duke. Speak freely, Syracusan, what thou wilt. Ege. Is not your name, sir, called Antipholus? And is not that your bondman, Dromio? Dro. E. Within this hour I was his bondman, sir; But he, I thank him, gnawed in two my cords: Now am I Dromio, and his man, unbound. Æge. I am sure you both of you remember me. Dro. E. Ourselves we do remember, sir, by you; For lately we were bound, as you are now. You are not Pinch's patient, are you, sir? Ege. Why look you strange on me? You know me well. Ant. E. I never saw you in my life till now. Ege. Oh! grief hath changed me since you saw me last; And careful hours, with Time's deformed hand, Have written strange defeatures in my face: But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice? Ant. E. Neither. Though now this grainéd face of mine be hid Ant. E. I never saw my father in my life. Ege. But seven years since, in Syracusa, boy, Thou know'st we parted; but perhaps, my son, Thou sham'st to acknowledge me in misery. Ant. E. The Duke, and all that know me in the city, Can witness with me that it is not so: Duke. I tell thee, Syracusan, twenty years Abb. Most mighty Duke, behold a man much wronged. [All gather to see him. Adr. I see two husbands, or mine eyes de ceive me. Duke. One of these men is genius to the other; And so of these: which is the natural man, And which the spirit? Who deciphers them? Dro. S. I, sir, am Dromio; command him away. Dro. E. I, sir, am Dromio; pray let me stay. Ant. S. Ægeon, art thou not? or else his ghost? Dro. S. O, my old master! who hath bound him here? Abb. Whoever bound him, I will loose his And gain a husband by his liberty. Ege. If I dream not, thou art Æmilia: Abb. By men of Epidamnum, he and I, And the twin Dromio, all were taken up; But, by and by, rude fishermen of Corinth By force took Dromio and my son from them, And me they left with those of Epidamnum : What then became of them I cannot tell : I to this fortune that you see me in. Duke. Why, here begins his morning story right. These two Antipholuses, these two so like, And these two Dromios, one in semblance,Besides her urging of her wreck at sea,— |