The Comedy of Errors, William Shakespeare [love letters to the dead TXT] 📗
- Author: William Shakespeare
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Off. He is my prisoner: if I let him go,
115 The debt he owes will be required of me.
Adr. I will discharge thee ere I go from thee:
Bear me forthwith unto his creditor,
And, knowing how the debt grows, I will pay it.
Good master doctor, see him safe convey’d
120 Home to my house. O most unhappy day!
Ant. E. O most unhappy strumpet!
Dro. E. Master, I am here entered in bond for you.
Ant. E. Out on thee, villain! wherefore dost thou mad me?
Dro. E. Will you be bound for nothing? be mad, good 125 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 all but Adriana, Luciana, Officer and Courtezan.
Say now; whose suit is he arrested at?
Off. One Angelo, a goldsmith: do you know him?
130 Adr. I know the man. What is the sum he owes?
Off. Two hundred ducats.
Adr.
Say, how grows it due?
Off. 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
135 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:
140 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.
145 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 150 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;
155 Therefore away, to get our stuff aboard.
Exeunt.
ACT V. V. 1 Scene I. A street before a Priory. Enter Second Merchant and Angelo.Ang. 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.
Sec. Mer. How is the man esteem’d here in the city?
5 Ang. Of very reverent 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.
Sec. Mer. Speak softly: yonder, as I think, he walks.
Enter Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse.10 Ang. ’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;
Signior Antipholus, I wonder much
That you would put me to this shame and trouble;
15 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;
20 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.
Sec. Mer. Yes, that you did, sir, and forswore it too.
25 Ant. S. Who heard me to deny it or forswear it?
Sec. Mer. These ears of mine, thou know’st, did hear thee.
Fie on thee, wretch! ’tis pity that thou livest
To walk where any honest men resort.
Ant. S. Thou art a villain to impeach me thus:
30 I’ll prove mine honour and mine honesty
Against thee presently, if thou darest stand.
Sec. 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:
35 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.
40 Let us come in, that we may bind him fast,
And bear him home for his recovery.
Ang. I knew he was not in his perfect wits.
Sec. Mer. I am sorry now that I did draw on him.
Abb. How long hath this possession held the man?
45 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?
50 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?
55 Adr. To none of these, except it be the last;
Namely, some love that drew him oft from home.
Abb. You should for that have reprehended him.
Adr. Why, so I did.
Abb.
Ay, but not rough enough.
Adr. As roughly as my modesty would let me.
Abb. Haply, in private.
60 Adr.
And in assemblies too.
Abb. Ay, but not enough.
Adr. 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;
65 Alone, it was the subject of my theme;
In company I often glanced 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,
70 Poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth.
It seems his sleeps were hinder’d by thy railing:
And thereof comes it that his head is light.
Thou say’st his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings:
Unquiet meals make ill digestions;
75 Thereof the raging fire of fever bred;
And what’s a fever but a fit of madness?
Thou say’st his sports were hinder’d by thy brawls:
Sweet recreation barr’d, what doth ensue
But moody and dull melancholy,
80 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 disturb’d, would mad or man or beast:
85 The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
Have scared thy husband from the use of wits.
Luc. She never reprehended him but mildly,
When he demean’d himself rough, rude, and wildly.
Why bear you these rebukes, and answer not?
90 Adr. She did betray me to my own reproof.
Good people, enter, and lay hold on him.
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,
95 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,
100 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 approved means I have,
With wholesome syrups, drugs and holy prayers,
105 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:
110 And ill it doth beseem your holiness
To separate the husband and the wife.
Abb. Be quiet, and depart: thou shalt not have him. Exit.
Luc. Complain unto the Duke of this indignity.
Adr. Come, go: I will fall prostrate at his feet,
115 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.
Sec. Mer. By this, I think, the dial points at five:
Anon, I’m sure, the Duke himself in person
120 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?
Sec. Mer. To see a reverend Syracusian merchant,
125 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.130 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:
135 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,
At your important letters,—this ill day
A most outrageous fit of madness took him;
140 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
Rings, jewels, any thing his rage did like.
145 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;
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