Cour. When as your husband all in rage today Came to my house and took away my ring The ring I saw upon his finger nowStraight after did I meet him with a chain.

146

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. Off. Away! they'll kill us.

[Exeunt all [but Ant. S. and Dro. S.] as fast as may be, frighted. Ant. S. I see these witches are afraid of swords.

151

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 [155 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.

160

Ant. S. I will not stay to-night for all the town;

Therefore away, to get our stuff aboard.

ACT V

[Exeunt.

Which he forswore most monstrously to have. Good sir, draw near to me, I'll speak to him. Signior 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 to-day.
This chain you had of me; can you deny it?
Ant. S. I think I had; I never did deny it.
2. Mer. Yes, that you did, sir, and forswore
it too.

20

Ant. S. Who heard me to deny it or forswear it ?

25

2. Mer. 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.

Ant. S. Thou art a villain to impeach me thus.

I'll prove mine honour and mine honesty Against thee presently, if thou dar'st stand. 2. Mer. I dare, and do defy thee for a villain. [They draw. Enter ADRIANA, LUCIANA, the COURTEZAN and others.

Adr. 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. Dro. S. Run, master, run; for God's sake,

take a house!

This is some priory. In, or we are spoil'd! [Exeunt Ant. S. and Dro. S. to the Priory.

Enter the LADY 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 40 And bear him home for his recovery.

Ang. I knew he was not in his perfect wits. 2. Mer. I am sorry now that I did draw on

him.

Abb. How long hath this possession held the man?

Adr. This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad,

And 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 of sea?

Buried some dear friend? Hath not else his

eye

Stray'd 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?

Adr. To none of these, except it be the last;

Who put unluckily into this bay

Against the laws and statutes of this town, Beheaded publicly for his offence.

125

Ang. See where they come; we will behold his death.

Luc. Kneel to the Duke before he pass the abbey.

Enter DUKE [attended], and EGEON bareheaded, with the Headsman and other Officers.

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. 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. 135 Adr. 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 desperately he hurried through the

street,

With him his bondman, all as mad as he,Doing displeasure to the citizens

140

180

By rushing in their houses, bearing thence
Rings, jewels, any thing his rage did like.
Once did I get him bound and sent him home,
Whilst to take order for the wrongs I went 140
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,
Chas'd us away, till, raising of more aid,
We came again to bind them. Then they fled
Into this abbey, whither we pursu'd them; 156
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 com-
mand

Let him be brought forth and borne hence for help.

160

Duke. Long since thy husband serv'd me in

my wars,

of fire;

171

And ever, as it blaz'd, 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 conjurer.

Adr. Peace, fool! thy master and his man are here,

And that is false thou dost report to us.

Mess. Mistress, upon my life, I tell you true; I have not breath'd almost since I did see it. 181 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

Adr. Ay me, it is my husband! Witness you, That he is borne about invisible. Even now we hous'd him in the abbey here; And now he's there, past thought of human

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 s
And in his company that gentleman.
There did this perjur'd goldsmith swear me

down

That I this day of him receiv'd 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 return'd.
Then fairly I bespoke the officer
To go in person with me to my house.
By the way we met

230

235

My wife, her sister, and a rabble more
Of vile confederates. Along with them
They brought one Pinch, a hungry lean-fac'd
villain,

A mere anatomy, a mountebank,

A threadbare juggler and a fortune-teller,
A needy, hollow-ey'd, sharp-looking wretch, 240
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 't were, outfacing me,
Cries out, I was possess'd. Then all together 245
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 to-
gether;

250

Till, gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder,
I gain'd my freedom, and immediately
Ran hither to your grace; whom I beseech
To give me ample satisfaction

For these deep shames and great indignities.
Ang. My lord, in truth, thus far I witness

with him,

254

That he din'd not at home, but was lock'd 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.
2. Mer. Besides, I will be sworn these ears
of mine

Heard you confess you had the chain of him 260
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.

Ant. E. I never saw you in my life till now. Ege. O, grief hath chang'd me since you saw me last,

And careful hours with time's deformed hand
Have written strange defeatures in my face. 209
But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?
Ant. E. Neither.

Ege. Dromio, nor thou?
Dro. E.

No, trust me, sir, nor I. Ege. I am sure thou dost.

Dro. E. Ay, sir, but I am sure I do not; and whatsoever a man denies, you are now bound to believe him.

306

Ege. Not know my voice! O time's extremity,

Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue

In seven short years, that here my only son Knows not my feeble key of untun'd cares? 310 Though now this grained face of mine be hid

In sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow,
And all the conduits of my blood froze up,
Yet hath my night of life some memory,
My wasting lamps some fading glimmer left, 315
My dull deaf ears a little use to hear.
All these old witnesses- I cannot err-
Tell me thou art my son Antipholus.

Ant. E. I never saw my father in my life. 319 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.

I ne'er saw Syracusa in my life.

325

Duke. I tell thee, Syracusian, twenty years Have I been patron to Antipholus, During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa. I see thy age and dangers make thee dote. Re-enter ABBESS, with ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse and DROMIO of Syracuse.

And gain a husband by his liberty.
Speak, old Egeon, if thou be'st the man
That hadst a wife once call'd Æmilia
That bore thee at a burden two fair sons.
O, if thou be'st the same geon, speak,
And speak unto the same Emilia !

Ege. If I dream not, thou art Æmilia.
If thou art she, tell me, where is that son
That floated with thee on the fatal raft?

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.

340

345

350

355

Duke. Why, here begins his morning story right.

360

These two Antipholuses, these two so like,
And these two Dromios, one in semblance,
Besides her urging of her wreck at sea,
These are the parents to these children,
Which accidentally are met together.
Antipholus, thou cam'st from Corinth first?
Ant. S. No, sir, not I; I came from Syracuse.
Duke. Stay, stand apart; I know not which
is which.

And all that are assembled in this place,
That by this sympathized one day's error
Have suffer'd wrong, go, keep us company,
And we shall make full satisfaction.
Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail
Of you, my sons; and till this present hour 401
My heavy burden ne'er delivered.

The Duke, my husband, and my children both,
And you the calendars of their nativity,
Go to a gossips' feast, and go with me;
After so long grief, such nativity!

405

Duke. With all my heart, I'll gossip at this feast.

[Exeunt all but Ant. S., Ant. E., Dro. S., and Dro. E.

Dro. S. Master, shall I go fetch your stuff from shipboard?

Ant. E. Dromio, what stuff of mine hast thou embark'd?

Dro. S. Your goods that lay at host, sir, in the Centaur.

410

Ant. S. He speaks to me. I am your master, Dromio.

Come, go with us; we'll look to that anon. Embrace thy brother there; rejoice with him. [Exeunt [Ant. S. and Ant. E.]. Dro. S. There is a fat friend at your master's house,

That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner ; 418 She now shall be my sister, not my wife.

Dro. E. Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother.

I see by you I am a sweet-fac'd youth.
Will you walk in to see their gossiping?
Dro. S. Not I, sir; you are my elder.
Dro. E. That's a question: how shall we try
it ?