The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
Page 106
LUCIANA
God, for thy mercy, they are loose again!
ADRIANA
And come with naked swords. Let’s call more help
To have them bound again.
OFFICER
Away, they’ll kill us!
All but Antipholus and Dromio run out, as fast as may be, frighted
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
I see these witches are afraid of swords.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
She that would be your wife now ran from you.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Come to the Centaur. Fetch our stuff from thence.
I long that we were safe and sound aboard.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE 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.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
I will not stay tonight for all the town.
Therefore away, to get our stuff aboard.
Exeunt
5.1 Enter Second Merchant and Angelo the goldsmith
ANGELO
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.
SECOND MERCHANT
How is the man esteemed here in the city?
ANGELO
Of very reverend reputation, sir,
Of credit infinite, highly beloved,
Second to none that lives here in the city.
His word might bear my wealth at any time.
SECOND MERCHANT
Speak softly. Yonder, as I think, he walks.
Enter Antipholus of Syracuse, wearing the chain, and Dromio of Syracuse again
ANGELO
‘Tis so, and that self chain about his neck
Which he forswore most monstrously to have.
Good sir, draw near to me. I’ll speak to him.—
Signor Antipholus, I wonder much
That you would put me to this shame and trouble,
And not without some scandal to yourself,
With circumstance and oaths so to deny
This chain, which now you wear so openly.
Beside the charge, the shame, imprisonment,
You have done wrong to this my honest friend,
Who, but for staying on our controversy,
Had hoisted sail and put to sea today.
This chain you had of me. Can you deny it?
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
I think I had. I never did deny it.
SECOND MERCHANT
Yes, that you did, sir, and forswore it too.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Who heard me to deny it or forswear it?
SECOND MERCHANT
These ears of mine, thou know‘st, did hear thee.
Fie on thee, wretch! ’Tis pity that thou liv’st
To walk where any honest men resort.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
Thou art a villain to impeach me thus.
I’ll prove mine honour and mine honesty
Against thee presently, if thou dar’st stand.
SECOND MERCHANT
I dare, and do defy thee for a villain.
They draw. Enter Adriana, Luciana, Courtesan, and others ⌈from the Phoenix⌉
ADRIANA
Hold, hurt him not, for God’s sake; he is mad.
Some get within him, take his sword away.
Bind Dromio too, and bear them to my house.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
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 ⌈from the priory⌉ the Lady Abbess
ABBESS
Be quiet, people. Wherefore throng you hither?
ADRIANA
To fetch my poor distracted husband hence.
Let us come in, that we may bind him fast,
And bear him home for his recovery.
ANGELO
I knew he was not in his perfect wits.
SECOND MERCHANT
I am sorry now that I did draw on him.
ABBESS
How long hath this possession held the man?
ADRIANA
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.
ABBESS
Hath he not lost much wealth by wreck at sea?
Buried some dear friend?Hath not else his eye
Strayed his affection in unlawful love—
A sin prevailing much in youthful men,
Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing?
Which of these sorrows is he subject to?
ADRIANA
To none of these, except it be the last,
Namely some love that drew him oft from home.
ABBESS
You should for that have reprehended him.
ADRIANA
Why, so I did.
ABBESS Ay, but not rough enough.
ADRIANA
As roughly as my modesty would let me.
ABBESS Haply in private.
ADRIANA And in assemblies too.
ABBESS Ay, but not enough.
ADRIANA
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.
In company I often glancèd 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.
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 offever bred,
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,
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
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.—
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
Till I have brought him to his wits again,
Or lose my labour in essaying 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.
And therefore let me have him home with me.
ABBESS
Be patient, for I will not let him stir
Till I have used th
e approved 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.
ADRIANA
I will not hence, and leave my husband here;
And ill it doth beseem your holiness
To separate the husband and the wife.
ABBESS
Be quiet and depart. Thou shalt not have him.
⌈Exit into the priory⌉
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
Have won his grace to come in person hither
And take perforce my husband from the Abbess.
SECOND MERCHANT
By this, I think, the dial point’s 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.
ANGELO Upon what cause?
SECOND MERCHANT
To see a reverend Syracusian merchant,
Who put unluckily into this bay
Against the laws and statutes of this town,
Beheaded publicly for his offence.
ANGELO
See where they come. We will behold his death.
LUCIANA
Kneel to the Duke before he pass the abbey.
Enter Solinus Duke of Ephesus, and Egeon the merchant of Syracuse, 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.
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.
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,
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,
Whilst to take order for the wrongs I went
That here and there his fury had committed.
Anon, I wot not by what strong escape,
He broke from those that had the guard of him,
And with his mad attendant and himself,
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,
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.
DUKE ⌈raising 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,
And bid the Lady Abbess come to me.
I will determine this before I stir.
Enter a Messenger ⌈from the Phoenix⌉
MESSENGER (to Adriana)
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,
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;
And sure—unless you send some present help-
Between them they will kill the conjurer.
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.
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 (to Adriana)
Come stand by me. Fear nothing. Guard with halberds!
Enter Antipholus of Ephesus and Dromio of Ephesus ⌈from the Phoenix⌉
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,
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,
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.
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.
DUKE
A grievous fautt!—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
But she tells to your highness simple truth.
ANGELO (aside)
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,
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,
Who parted with me to go fetch a chain,
Promising to bring it to the Porcupine,
Where Balthasar 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.
He points to the Second Merchant
There did this perjured goldsmith swe
ar 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.
I did obey, and sent my peasant home
For certain ducats. He with none returned.
Then fairly I bespoke the officer
To go in person with me to my house.
By th’ way, we met my wife, her sister, and a rabble
more
Of vile confederates. Along with them
They brought one Pinch, a hungry lean-faced villain,
A mere anatomy, a mountebank,
A threadbare juggler, and a fortune-teller,
A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch,
A living dead man. This pernicious slave,
Forsooth,took on him as a conjurer,
And gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse,
And with no face, as ’twere, outfacing me,
Cries out I was possessed. Then all together
They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence,
And in a dark and dankish vault at home
There left me and my man, both bound together,
Till, gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder,
I gained my freedom, and immediately
Ran hither to your grace, whom I beseech
To give me ample satisfaction
For these deep shames and great indignities.
ANGELO
My lord, in truth, thus far I witness with him:
That he dined not at home, but was locked out.
DUKE
But had he such a chain of thee, or no?
ANGELO
He had, my lord, and when he ran in here
These people saw the chain about his neck.
SECOND MERCHANT (to Antipholus)
Besides, I will be sworn these ears of mine
Heard you confess you had the chain of him,
After you first forswore it on the mart,
And thereupon I drew my sword on you;
And then you fled into this abbey here,
From whence I think you are come by miracle.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
I never came within these abbey walls,
Nor ever didst thou draw thy sword on me.
I never saw the chain, so help me heaven,
And this is false you burden me withal.
DUKE
Why, what an intricate impeach is this!
I think you all have drunk of Circe’s cup.
If here you housed him, here he would have been.
If he were mad, he would not plead so coldly.
(To Adriana) You say he dined at home, the goldsmith here
Denies that saying. (To Dromio) Sirrah, what say you?
DROMIO OF EPHESUS (pointing out the Courtesan)