| ACT V SCENE I | A street before a Priory. | |
| [Enter Second Merchant and ANGELO] |
| ANGELO | I am sorry, sir, that I have hinder'd 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, | 5 |
| 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 and DROMIO of Syracuse] |
| ANGELO | 'Tis so; and that self chain about his neck | 10 |
| 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, | 15 |
| 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, | 20 |
| Had hoisted sail and put to sea to-day: |
| 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? | 25 |
| Second Merchant | These ears of mine, thou know'st did hear thee. |
| Fie on thee, wretch! 'tis pity that thou livest |
| To walk where any honest man resort. |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE | Thou art a villain to impeach me thus: |
| I'll prove mine honour and mine honesty | 30 |
| Against thee presently, if thou darest stand. |
| Second Merchant | I dare, and do defy thee for a villain. |
| [They draw] |
| [Enter ADRIANA, LUCIANA, the Courtezan, and others] |
| 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. | 35 |
| DROMIO OF SYRACUSE | Run, master, run; for God's sake, take a house! |
| This is some priory. In, or we are spoil'd! |
| [
Exeunt Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse
to the Priory
] |
| [Enter the Lady Abbess, AEMILIA] |
| AEMELIA | 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 | 40 |
| 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. |
| AEMELIA | How long hath this possession held the man? |
| ADRIANA | This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad, | 45 |
| And much different from the man he was; |
| But till this afternoon his passion |
| Ne'er brake into extremity of rage. |
| AEMELIA | Hath he not lost much wealth by wreck of sea? |
| Buried some dear friend? Hath not else his eye | 50 |
| 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? |
| ADRIANA | To none of these, except it be the last; | 55 |
| Namely, some love that drew him oft from home. |
| AEMELIA | You should for that have reprehended him. |
| ADRIANA | Why, so I did. |
| AEMELIA | Ay, but not rough enough. |
| ADRIANA | As roughly as my modesty would let me. | 60 |
| AEMELIA | Haply, in private. |
| ADRIANA | And in assemblies too. |
| AEMELIA | Ay, but not enough. |
| ADRIANA | It was the copy of our conference: |
| In bed he slept not for my urging it; | 65 |
| At board he fed not for my urging it; |
| Alone, it was the subject of my theme; |
| In company I often glanced it; |
| Still did I tell him it was vile and bad. |
| AEMELIA | And thereof came it that the man was mad. | 70 |
| The venom clamours of a jealous woman |
| Poisons more deadly than a mad dog's tooth. |
| It seems his sleeps were hinder'd by thy railing, |
| And therefore comes it that his head is light. |
| Thou say'st his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings: | 75 |
| Unquiet meals make ill digestions; |
| Thereof the raging fire of fever bred; |
| And what's a fever but a fit of madness? |
| Thou say'st his sports were hinderd by thy brawls: |
| Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue | 80 |
| 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 | 85 |
| To be disturb'd, would mad or man or beast: |
| The consequence is then thy jealous fits |
| Have scared thy husband from the use of wits. |
| LUCIANA | She never reprehended him but mildly, |
| When he demean'd himself rough, rude and wildly. | 90 |
| 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. |
| AEMELIA | No, not a creature enters in my house. |
| ADRIANA | Then let your servants bring my husband forth. | 95 |
| AEMELIA | 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. |
| ADRIANA | I will attend my husband, be his nurse, | 100 |
| Diet his sickness, for it is my office, |
| And will have no attorney but myself; |
| And therefore let me have him home with me. |
| AEMELIA | Be patient; for I will not let him stir |
| Till I have used the approved means I have, | 105 |
| 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. | 110 |
| ADRIANA | I will not hence and leave my husband here: |
| And ill it doth beseem your holiness |
| To separate the husband and the wife. |
| AEMELIA | Be quiet and depart: thou shalt not have him. |
| [Exit] |
| LUCIANA | Complain unto the duke of this indignity. | 115 |
| 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 points at five: | 120 |
| 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? | 125 |
| 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. | 130 |
| LUCIANA | Kneel to the duke before he pass the abbey. |
| [
Enter DUKE SOLINUS, attended; AEGEON bareheaded; with the
Headsman and other Officers
] |
| DUKE SOLINUS | 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 | Justice, most sacred duke, against the abbess! | 135 |
| DUKE SOLINUS | 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, |
| Whom I made lord of me and all I had, |
| At your important letters,--this ill day | 140 |
| 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 |
| By rushing in their houses, bearing thence | 145 |
| 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, |
| That here and there his fury had committed. |
| Anon, I wot not by what strong escape, | 150 |
| 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, | 155 |
| 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. | 160 |
| Therefore, most gracious duke, with thy command |
| Let him be brought forth and borne hence for help. |
| DUKE SOLINUS | 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, | 165 |
| 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 Servant] |
| Servant | O mistress, mistress, shift and save yourself! | 170 |
| 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: | 175 |
| 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, | 180 |
| And that is false thou dost report to us. |
| Servant | 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. | 185 |
[Cry within] |
| Hark, hark! I hear him, mistress. fly, be gone! |
| DUKE SOLINUS | Come, stand by me; fear nothing. Guard with halberds! |
| ADRIANA | Ay me, it is my husband! Witness you, |
| That he is borne about invisible: |
| Even now we housed him in the abbey here; | 190 |
| And now he's there, past thought of human reason. |
| [Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus and DROMIO of Ephesus] |
| 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 | 195 |
| That then I lost for thee, now grant me justice. |
| AEGEON | 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 gavest to me to be my wife, | 200 |
| That hath abused and dishonour'd me |
| Even in the strength and height of injury! |
| Beyond imagination is the wrong |
| That she this day hath shameless thrown on me. |
| DUKE SOLINUS | Discover how, and thou shalt find me just. | 205 |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS | This day, great duke, she shut the doors upon me, |
| While she with harlots feasted in my house. |
| DUKE SOLINUS | A grievous fault! Say, woman, didst thou so? |
| ADRIANA | No, my good lord: myself, he and my sister |
| To-day did dine together. So befall my soul | 210 |
| 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 | O perjured woman! They are both forsworn: |
| In this the madman justly chargeth them. | 215 |
| 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 lock'd me out this day from dinner: | 220 |
| That goldsmith there, were he not pack'd 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 Porpentine, |
| Where Balthazar and I did dine together. | 225 |
| 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. |
| There did this perjured goldsmith swear me down |
| That I this day of him received the chain, | 230 |
| 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 | 235 |
| To go in person with me to my house. |
| By the 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, | 240 |
| A mere anatomy, a mountebank, |
| A threadbare juggler and a fortune-teller, |
| A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch, |
| A dead-looking man: this pernicious slave, |
| Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer, | 245 |
| And, gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse, |
| And with no face, as 'twere, outfacing me, |
| Cries out, I was possess'd. Then all together |
| They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence |
| And in a dark and dankish vault at home | 250 |
| There left me and my man, both bound together; |
| 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 | 255 |
| 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 lock'd out. |
| DUKE SOLINUS | But had he such a chain of thee or no? |
| ANGELO | He had, my lord: and when he ran in here, | 260 |
| These people saw the chain about his neck. |
| Second Merchant | 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; | 265 |
| 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! | 270 |
| And this is false you burden me withal. |
| DUKE SOLINUS | 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: | 275 |
| You say he dined at home; the goldsmith here |
| Denies that saying. Sirrah, what say you? |
| DROMIO OF EPHESUS | Sir, he dined with her there, at the Porpentine. |
| Courtezan | He did, and from my finger snatch'd that ring. |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS | 'Tis true, my liege; this ring I had of her. | 280 |
| DUKE SOLINUS | Saw'st thou him enter at the abbey here? |
| Courtezan | As sure, my liege, as I do see your grace. |
| DUKE SOLINUS | Why, this is strange. Go call the abbess hither. |
| I think you are all mated or stark mad. |
| [Exit one to Abbess] |
| AEGEON | Most mighty duke, vouchsafe me speak a word: | 285 |
| Haply I see a friend will save my life |
| And pay the sum that may deliver me. |
| DUKE SOLINUS | Speak freely, Syracusian, what thou wilt. |
| AEGEON | Is not your name, sir, call'd Antipholus? |
| And is not that your bondman, Dromio? | 290 |
| DROMIO OF EPHESUS | Within this hour I was his bondman sir, |
| But he, I thank him, gnaw'd in two my cords: |
| Now am I Dromio and his man unbound. |
| AEGEON | I am sure you both of you remember me. |
| DROMIO OF EPHESUS | Ourselves we do remember, sir, by you; | 295 |
| For lately we were bound, as you are now |
| You are not Pinch's patient, are you, sir? |
| AEGEON | Why look you strange on me? you know me well. |
| AEGEON | O, grief hath changed me since you saw me last, |
| And careful hours with time's deformed hand | 300 |
| Have written strange defeatures in my face: |
| But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice? |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS | Neither. |
| AEGEON | Dromio, nor thou? |
| DROMIO OF EPHESUS | No, trust me, sir, nor I. | 305 |
| AEGEON | I am sure thou dost. |
| DROMIO OF EPHESUS | Ay, sir, but I am sure I do not; and whatsoever a |
| man denies, you are now bound to believe him. |
| AEGEON | Not know my voice! O time's extremity, |
| Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue | 310 |
| In seven short years, that here my only son |
| Knows not my feeble key of untuned cares? |
| 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, | 315 |
| Yet hath my night of life some memory, |
| My wasting lamps some fading glimmer left, |
| My dull deaf ears a little use to hear: |
| All these old witnesses--I cannot err-- |
| Tell me thou art my son Antipholus. | 320 |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS | I never saw my father in my life. |
| AEGEON | But seven years since, in Syracusa, boy, |
| Thou know'st we parted: but perhaps, my son, |
| Thou shamest to acknowledge me in misery. |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS | The duke and all that know me in the city | 325 |
| Can witness with me that it is not so |
| I ne'er saw Syracusa in my life. |
| DUKE SOLINUS | I tell thee, Syracusian, twenty years |
| Have I been patron to Antipholus, |
| During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa: | 330 |
| I see thy age and dangers make thee dote. |
| [
Re-enter AEMILIA, with ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse and
DROMIO of Syracuse
] |
| AEMELIA | Most mighty duke, behold a man much wrong'd. |
| [All gather to see them] |
| ADRIANA | I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me. |
| DUKE SOLINUS | One of these men is Genius to the other; |
| And so of these. Which is the natural man, | 335 |
| And which the spirit? who deciphers them? |
| DROMIO OF SYRACUSE | I, sir, am Dromio; command him away. |
| DROMIO OF EPHESUS | I, sir, am Dromio; pray, let me stay. |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE | AEgeon art thou not? or else his ghost? |
| DROMIO OF SYRACUSE | O, my old master! who hath bound him here? | 340 |
| AEMELIA | Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds |
| And gain a husband by his liberty. |
| Speak, old AEgeon, if thou be'st the man |
| That hadst a wife once call'd AEmilia |
| That bore thee at a burden two fair sons: | 345 |
| O, if thou be'st the same AEgeon, speak, |
| And speak unto the same AEmilia! |
| AEGEON | If I dream not, thou art AEmilia: |
| If thou art she, tell me where is that son |
| That floated with thee on the fatal raft? | 350 |
| AEMELIA | 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. | 355 |
| What then became of them I cannot tell |
| I to this fortune that you see me in. |
| DUKE SOLINUS | Why, here begins his morning story right; |
| These two Antipholuses, these two so like, |
| And these two Dromios, one in semblance,-- | 360 |
| Besides her urging of her wreck at sea,-- |
| These are the parents to these children, |
| Which accidentally are met together. |
| Antipholus, thou camest from Corinth first? |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE | No, sir, not I; I came from Syracuse. | 365 |
| DUKE SOLINUS | Stay, stand apart; I know not which is which. |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS | I came from Corinth, my most gracious lord,-- |
| DROMIO OF EPHESUS | And I with him. |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS | Brought to this town by that most famous warrior, |
| Duke Menaphon, your most renowned uncle. | 370 |
| ADRIANA | Which of you two did dine with me to-day? |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE | I, gentle mistress. |
| ADRIANA | And are not you my husband? |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS | No; I say nay to that. |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE | And so do I; yet did she call me so: | 375 |
| And this fair gentlewoman, her sister here, |
| Did call me brother. |
[To Luciana] |
| What I told you then, |
| I hope I shall have leisure to make good; |
| If this be not a dream I see and hear. | 380 |
| ANGELO | That is the chain, sir, which you had of me. |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE | I think it be, sir; I deny it not. |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS | And you, sir, for this chain arrested me. |
| ANGELO | I think I did, sir; I deny it not. |
| ADRIANA | I sent you money, sir, to be your bail, | 385 |
| By Dromio; but I think he brought it not. |
| DROMIO OF EPHESUS | No, none by me. |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE | This purse of ducats I received from you, |
| And Dromio, my man, did bring them me. |
| I see we still did meet each other's man, | 390 |
| And I was ta'en for him, and he for me, |
| And thereupon these errors are arose. |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS | These ducats pawn I for my father here. |
| DUKE SOLINUS | It shall not need; thy father hath his life. |
| Courtezan | Sir, I must have that diamond from you. | 395 |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS | There, take it; and much thanks for my good cheer. |
| AEMELIA | Renowned duke, vouchsafe to take the pains |
| To go with us into the abbey here |
| And hear at large discoursed all our fortunes: |
| And all that are assembled in this place, | 400 |
| 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 | 405 |
| 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 festivity! | 410 |
| DUKE SOLINUS | With all my heart, I'll gossip at this feast. |
| [
Exeunt all but Antipholus of Syracuse, Antipholus
of Ephesus, Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus
] |
| DROMIO OF SYRACUSE | Master, shall I fetch your stuff from shipboard? |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS | Dromio, what stuff of mine hast thou embark'd? |
| DROMIO OF SYRACUSE | Your goods that lay at host, sir, in the Centaur. |
| ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE | He speaks to me. I am your master, Dromio: | 415 |
| Come, go with us; we'll look to that anon: |
| Embrace thy brother there; rejoice with him. |
| [Exeunt Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus] |
| DROMIO OF SYRACUSE | There is a fat friend at your master's house, |
| That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner: |
| She now shall be my sister, not my wife. | 420 |
| DROMIO OF EPHESUS | Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother: |
| I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth. |
| Will you walk in to see their gossiping? |
| DROMIO OF SYRACUSE | Not I, sir; you are my elder. |
| DROMIO OF EPHESUS | That's a question: how shall we try it? | 425 |
| DROMIO OF SYRACUSE | We'll draw cuts for the senior: till then lead thou first. |
| DROMIO OF EPHESUS | Nay, then, thus: |
| We came into the world like brother and brother; |
| And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another. |
| [Exeunt] |