The Comedy of Errors Part 18

Therefore depart, and leave him here with me.

_Adr._ I will not hence, and leave my husband here: And ill it doth beseem your holiness 110 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, And never rise until my tears and prayers 115 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 Comes this way to the melancholy vale, 120 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, Who put unluckily into this bay 125 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 pa.s.s the abbey.

_Enter DUKE, attended; aeGEON 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,-- 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; That desperately he hurried through the street,-- 140 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.

Once did I get him bound, and sent him home, 145 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, 150 Each one with ireful pa.s.sion, 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; 155 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. 160

_Duke._ 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, 165 And bid the lady abbess come to me.

I will determine this before I stir.

_Enter a _Servant_._

_Serv._ 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, 170 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; 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.

_Serv._ Mistress, upon my life, I tell you true; 180 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._ 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 housed him in the abbey here; And now he's there, past thought of human reason.

_Enter _ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus_ and _DROMIO of Ephesus_._

_Ant. E._ Justice, most gracious Duke, O, grant me justice! 190 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.

_aege._ Unless the fear of death doth make me dote, 195 I see my son Antipholus, and Dromio.

_Ant. E._ 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: 200 Beyond imagination is the wrong That she this day hath shameless thrown on me.

_Duke._ Discover how, and thou shalt find me just.

_Ant. E._ This day, great Duke, she shut the doors upon me, While she with harlots feasted in my house. 205

_Duke._ A grievous fault! Say, woman, didst thou so?

_Adr._ No, my good lord: myself, he and my sister To-day did dine together. So befal my soul As this is false he burdens me withal!

_Luc._ Ne'er may I look on day, nor sleep on night, 210 But she tells to your Highness simple truth!

_Ang._ O perjured woman! They are both forsworn: In this the madman justly chargeth them.

_Ant. E._ My liege, I am advised what I say; Neither disturbed with the effect of wine, 215 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; 220 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, 225 And in his company that gentleman.

There did this perjured goldsmith swear me down That I this day of him received the chain, Which, G.o.d he knows, I saw not: for the which He did arrest me with an officer. 230 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 235 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, 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 'twere, 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 together; Till, gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder, I gain'd my freedom, and immediately 250 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, That he dined not at home, but was lock'd out. 255

_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.

_Sec. 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 came within these abbey-walls; 265 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. 270 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?

_Dro. E._ Sir, he dined with her there, at the Porpentine. 275

_Cour._ He did; and from my finger s.n.a.t.c.h'd that ring.

_Ant. E._ 'Tis true, my liege; this ring I had of her.

_Duke._ Saw'st thou him enter at the abbey here?