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.

Adr. I will not hence, and leave my husband here: 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,
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
Comes this way to the melancholy vale,
The place of death (94) 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

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; GEON bareheaded; with the Headsman and other Officers.

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 :

It cannot be that she hath done thee

wrong.

Adr. May't 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

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,
That here and there his fury had committed.
Anon, I wot not by what strange escape,
He broke from those that had the guard of him;
And with(95) 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;
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. Long since thy husband serv'd me in my wars; And I to thee engag'd 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.

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,

Whose beard they have singe'd off with brands of fire;

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, the while(96)
His man with scissors nicks him like a fool;
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.

[Cry within.

Serv. Mistress, upon my life, I tell you true; I have not breath'd almost since I did see it. He cries for you, and vows, if he can take you, To scotch your face,(97) and to disfigure you. Hark, hark! I hear him, mistress: fly, be gone! Duke. Come, stand by me; fear nothing.-Guard with halberds!

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 reason.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus and DROMIO of Ephesus.

Ant. E. 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.

Ege. Unless the fear of death doth make me dote,

I see my son Antipholus, and Dromio.

Ant. E. Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there! She whom thou gav'st 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. 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.

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,

But she tells to your highness simple truth!

Ang. O perjur'd woman!-They are both forsworn:

In this the madman justly chargeth them.

Ant. E. My liege, I am advisèd what I say;

Neither disturbed with th' effect of wine,

Nor heady-rash, provok'd 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 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

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,
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
They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence,
And in a dark and dankish vault at home
They left me(98) 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.

Ang. My lord, in truth, thus far I witness with him,

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.

Sec. Mer. 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're come by miracle.

Ant. E. 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
As this is false you burden me withal !(99)

Duke. Why, what an intricate impeach is this!
I think you all have drunk of Circe's cup.
If here you hous'd him, here he would have been;
If he were mad, he would not plead so coldly :-
You say he din'd at home; the goldsmith here
Denies that saying.—Sirrah, what say you?

Dro. E. Sir,

He din'd with her there, at the Porpentine.

Cour. He did; and from my finger snatch'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?
Cour. As sure, my liege, as I do see your grace.

Duke. Why, this is strange.-Go call the abbess hither.—
[Exit an Attendant.

I think

you are all mated or stark mad. Ege. 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. Speak freely, Syracusian, what thou wilt.
Ege. Is not your name, sir, call'd Antipholus?

And is not that your bondman Dromio?

Dro. E. 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.

Ege. I'm sure you both of you remember me.
Dro. E. Ourselves we do remember, sir, by you;