TPTT The Comedy of Errors: ACT V
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
SCENE I. A street before a Priory.
About the Play
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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
5     Of very reverend 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.
Second Merchant
      Speak softly; yonder, as I think, he walks.
Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse and DROMIO of Syracuse
ANGELO
10    '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?
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
25    Who heard me to deny it or forswear it?
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:
30    I'll prove mine honour and mine honesty
      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:
35    Bind Dromio too, and bear them to my house.
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.
40    Let us come in, that we may bind him fast
      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
45    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.
AEMELIA
      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?
ADRIANA
55    To none of these, except it be the last;
      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
60    As roughly as my modesty would let me.
AEMELIA
      Haply, in private.
ADRIANA
      And in assemblies too.
AEMELIA
      Ay, but not enough.
ADRIANA
      It was the copy of our conference:
65    In bed he slept not for my urging it;
      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
70    And thereof came it that the man was mad.
      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.
75    Thou say'st his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings:
      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:
80    Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue
      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?
85    In food, in sport and life-preserving rest
      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,
90    When he demean'd himself rough, rude and wildly.
      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
95    Then let your servants bring my husband forth.
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
100   I will attend my husband, be his nurse,
      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
105   Till I have used the approved means I have,
      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.
110   Therefore depart and leave him here with me.
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
115   Complain unto the duke of this indignity.
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
120   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 and sorry execution,
      Behind the ditches of the abbey here.
ANGELO
125   Upon what cause?
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
130   See where they come: we will behold his death.
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
135   Justice, most sacred duke, against the abbess!
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,
140   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
145   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.
150   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,
155   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,
160   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,
165   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
170   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
175   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
180   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,
185   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:
190   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
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
195   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.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
      Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there!
200   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
205   Discover how, and thou shalt find me just.
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
210   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:
215   In this the madman justly chargeth them.
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.
220   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,
225   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
230   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
235   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
240   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,
245   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
250   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
255   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
260   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:
265   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.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
      I never came within these abbey-walls,
      Nor ever didst thou draw thy sword on me:
270   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;
275   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.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
280   '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
285   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?
290   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
295   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.
AEGEON
      O, grief hath changed me since you saw me last,
300   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?
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
      Neither.
AEGEON
      Dromio, nor thou?
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
305   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,
310   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,
315   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--
320   Tell me thou art my son Antipholus.
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
325   The duke and all that know me in the city
      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,
330   During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa:
      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;
335   And so of these. Which is the natural man,
      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
340   O, my old master! who hath bound him here?
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
345   That bore thee at a burden two fair sons:
      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
350   That floated with thee on the fatal raft?
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
355   And me they left with those of Epidamnum.
      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,
360   And these two Dromios, one in semblance,--
      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
365   No, sir, not I; I came from Syracuse.
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,
370   Duke Menaphon, your most renowned uncle.
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
375   And so do I; yet did she call me so:
      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;
380   If this be not a dream I see and hear.
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
385   I sent you money, sir, to be your bail,
      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.
390   I see we still did meet each other's man,
      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
395   Sir, I must have that diamond from you.
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:
400   And all that are assembled in this place,
      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
405   Of you, my sons; and till this present hour
      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;
410   After so long grief, such festivity!
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
415   He speaks to me. I am your master, Dromio:
      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:
420   She now shall be my sister, not my wife.
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
425   That's a question: how shall we try it?
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
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