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 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,
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!
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.
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.
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;
And now he’s there, past thought of human reason.
Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus and DROMIO of Ephesus
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.
AEGEON Unless the fear of death doth make me dote,
I see my son Antipholus and Dromio.
OF EPHESUS Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there!
She whom thou gavest to me to be my wife,
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.
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
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.
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:
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.
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,
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
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 dead-looking 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 possess’d. 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 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.
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,
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;
And then you fled into this abbey here,
From whence, I think, you are come by miracle.
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 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:
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.
OF EPHESUS ‘Tis true, my liege; this ring I had of her.
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:
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?
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;
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.
ANTIPHOLUS I never saw you in my life till now.
AEGEON O, grief hath changed me since you saw me last,
And careful hours with time’s deformed hand
Have written strange defeatures in my face:
But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?
OF EPHESUS Neither.
AEGEON Dromio, nor thou?
DROMIO OF EPHESUS No, trust me, sir, nor I.
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
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,
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.
OF EPHESUS I never saw my father in my life.
AEGEON But seven years since, in Syracusa, boy,