It was the copy of our conference:
In bed he slept not for my urging it;
At board he fed not for my urging it;
Alone, it was the subject of my theme;
65
In company I often glanced at it;
Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.
ABBESS
And thereof came it that the man was mad:
The venom clamours of a jealous woman
Poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth.
70
It seems his sleeps were hindered by thy railing,
And thereof comes it that his head is light.
Thou sayst his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings:
Unquiet meals make ill digestions;
Thereof the raging fire of fever bred,
75
And what’s a fever but a fit of madness?
Thou sayst his sports were hindered by thy brawls:
Sweet recreation barred, what doth ensue
But moody and dull melancholy,
Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair,
80
And at her heels a huge infectious troop
Of pale distemperatures and foes to life?
In food, in sport and life-preserving rest
To be disturbed would mad or man or beast;
The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
85
Hath scared thy husband from the use of wits.
LUCIANA
She never reprehended him but mildly,
When he demeaned himself rough, rude and wildly.
[to Adriana] Why bear you these rebukes and answer not?
ADRIANA
She did betray me to my own reproof.
90
– Good people, enter and lay hold on him.
ABBESS
No, not a creature enters in my house.
ADRIANA
Then let your servants bring my husband forth.
ABBESS
Neither. He took this place for sanctuary,
And it shall privilege him from your hands
95
Till I have brought him to his wits again
Or lose my labour in assaying it.
ADRIANA
I will attend my husband, be his nurse,
Diet his sickness, for it is my office,
And will have no attorney but myself;
100
And therefore let me have him home with me.
ABBESS
Be patient, for I will not let him stir
Till I have used the approved means I have,
With wholesome syrups, drugs and holy prayers,
To make of him a formal man again.
105
It is a branch and parcel of mine oath,
A charitable duty of my order;
Therefore depart, and leave him here with me.
ADRIANA
I will not hence and leave my husband here;
And ill it doth beseem your holiness
110
To separate the husband and the wife.
ABBESS
Be quiet and depart: thou shalt not have him. [Exit.]
LUCIANA [to Adriana]
Complain unto the Duke of this indignity.
ADRIANA
Come, go; I will fall prostrate at his feet,
And never rise until my tears and prayers
115
Have won his grace to come in person hither
And take perforce my husband from the Abbess.
2 MERCHANT
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,
120
The place of death and sorry execution,
Behind the ditches of the abbey here.
ANGELO
Upon what cause?
2 MERCHANT
To see a reverend Syracusan merchant,
Who put unluckily into this bay
125
Against the laws and statutes of this town,
Beheaded publicly for his offence.
Enter [Solinus,] the DUKE of Ephesus, and [EGEON,]
the Merchant of Syracuse[,] barehead[ed and bound],
with the Headsman and other Officers.
ANGELO
See where they come; we will behold his death.
LUCIANA
Kneel to the Duke before he pass the abbey.
DUKE
Yet once again proclaim it publicly,
130
If any friend will pay the sum for him,
He shall not die, so much we tender him.
ADRIANA [kneeling]
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.
135
ADRIANA
May it please your grace, Antipholus, my husband,
Who I made lord of me and all I had
At your important letters – this ill day,
A most outrageous fit of madness took him,
That desp’rately he hurried through the street,
140
With him his bondman, all as mad as he,
Doing displeasure to the citizens
By rushing in their houses, bearing thence
Rings, jewels, anything his rage did like.
Once did I get him bound and sent him home,
145
Whilst to take order for the wrongs I went,
That here and there his fury had committed.
Anon, I wot not by what strong es
cape,
He broke from those that had the guard of him,
And with his mad attendant and himself,
150
Each one with ireful passion, with drawn swords,
Met us again and, madly bent on us,
Chased us away; till, raising of more aid,
We came again to bind them. Then they fled
Into this abbey, whither we pursued them,
155
And here the Abbess shuts the gates on us,
And will not suffer us to fetch him out,
Nor send him forth, that we may bear him hence.
Therefore, most gracious Duke, with thy command,
Let him be brought forth and borne hence for help.
160
DUKE [Raises Adriana.]
Long since, thy husband served me in my wars,
And I to thee engaged a prince’s word,
When thou didst make him master of thy bed,
To do him all the grace and good I could.
– Go, some of you, knock at the abbey gate
165
And bid the Lady Abbess come to me;
I will determine this before I stir.
Enter a Messenger.
[MESSENGER]
O, mistress, mistress, shift and save yourself!
My master and his man are both broke loose,
Beaten the maids a-row and bound the doctor,
170
Whose beard they have singed off with brands of fire,
And ever as it blazed, they threw on him
Great pails of puddled mire to quench the hair.
My master preaches patience to him, and the while
His man with scissors nicks him like a fool;
175
And sure, unless you send some present help,
Between them they will kill the conjuror.
ADRIANA
Peace, fool; thy master and his man are here,
And that is false thou dost report to us.
MESSENGER
Mistress, upon my life, I tell you true;
180
I have not breathed almost since I did see it.
He cries for you and vows, if he can take you,
To scorch your face and to disfigure you. Cry within
Hark, hark! I hear him, mistress; fly, be gone!
DUKE
Come, stand by me. Fear nothing. – Guard with halberds!
185
Enter ANTIPHOLUS [OF EPHESUS, wearing the ring,]
and DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
ADRIANA
Ay me, it is my husband! Witness you
That he is borne about invisible:
Even now we housed him in the abbey here,
And now he’s there, past thought of human reason.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Justice, most gracious Duke! O, grant me justice,
190
Even for the service that long since I did thee,
When I bestrid thee in the wars and took
Deep scars to save thy life; even for the blood
That then I lost for thee, now grant me justice!
EGEON [aside]
Unless the fear of death doth make me dote,
195
I see my son Antipholus and Dromio.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there:
She whom thou gav’st to me to be my wife,
That hath abused and dishonoured me,
Even in the strength and height of injury;
200
Beyond imagination is the wrong
That she this day hath shameless thrown on me.
DUKE
Discover how, and thou shalt find me just.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
This day, great Duke, she shut the doors upon me
While she with harlots feasted in my house.
205
DUKE
A grievous fault. – Say, woman, didst thou so?
ADRIANA
No, my good lord. Myself, he and my sister
Today did dine together; so befall my soul
As this is false he burdens me withal.
LUCIANA
Ne’er may I look on day nor sleep on night
210
But she tells to your highness simple truth.
ANGELO
O perjured woman! They are both forsworn:
In this the madman justly chargeth them.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
My liege, I am advised what I say,
Neither disturbed with the effect of wine,
215
Nor heady-rash, provoked with raging ire,
Albeit my wrongs might make one wiser mad.
This woman locked me out this day from dinner;
That goldsmith there, were he not packed with her,
Could witness it, for he was with me then,
220
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,
225
And in his company that gentleman. [Indicates Second Merchant.]
There did this perjured goldsmith swear me down
That I this day of him received the chain,
Which, God he knows, I saw not. For the which
He did arrest me with an officer.
The Comedy of Errors Page 24
