網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版
[blocks in formation]

Ang. 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.

Sec. Mer. Speak softly; yonder, as I think, he walks.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse and DROMIO of Syracuse.

Ang. 'Tis so; and that self chain about his neck 10 Which he forswore most monstrously to have. Good sir, draw near to me, I'll speak to him. Siznior Antipholus, I wonder much That you would put me to this shame and trouble;

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,
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 for-

swore it too.

20

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 honor and mine honesty Against thee presently, if thou darest stand. Ste. Mer. I dare, and do defy thee fora 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: 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.

Let us come in, that we may bind him fast 40 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?

Alr. 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 ?

Buried some dear friend? Hath not else his

eve

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?

50

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.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue
But moody and dull melancholy,
Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair, 80
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 :
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?
Adr. She did betray me to my own reproof.
Good people enter and lay hold on him.
91
Abb. No, not a creature enters in my house.
Adr. Then let your servants bring my hus-

band forth.

Abb. Neither he took this place for sanetuary,

And it shall privilege him from your hands
Till I have brought him to his wits again,

Or lose my labor in assaying it.

Adr. I will attend my husband, be his nurse, Diet his sickness, for it is my office,

And will have no attorney but myself;

100

And therefore let me have him home with me.

Till I have used the approved means I have,

prayers,

[blocks in formation]

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.

[blocks in formation]

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,
With him his bondman, all as mad as he, - 141
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 strong escape,

He broke from those that had the guard of him:
And with his mad attendant and himself, 150
Each one with ireful passion, with drawn
swords,

Abb. Be patient; for I will not let him stir | Met us again and madly bent on us,

With wholesome syrups, drugs and holy

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.

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.

[blocks in formation]

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.

Sere. O mistress, mistress, shift and save yourself!

171

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.

Adr. Peace, fool! thy master and his man are here,

And that is false thou dost report to us.

Sare. 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. 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 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, О, 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.
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 gavest to me to be my wife, That hath abused and dishonor'd me

Even in the strength and height of injury! 200 Bevond imagination is the wrong

That she this day hath shameless thrown on

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

A mere anatomy, a mountebank,

A threadbare juggler and a fortune-teller,
A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch,
A living-dead man: this pernicious slave, 241
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 to

gether;

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

250

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. 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

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

Heard you confess you had the chain of him

[blocks in formation]

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,

Cour. He did, and from my finger snatch'd that ring.

Ant. E. 'Tis true, my liege; this ring I had of her. here ? Duke. Saw'st thou him enter at the abbey Cour. As sure, my liege, as I do see your grace.

Duke. Why, this is strange. Go call the abbess hither.

I think you are all mated or stark mad.

280,

[Erit one to the Abbess, Age. 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.

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.

Ant. E. I never saw my father in my life. Æge. But seven years since, in Syracusa, boy,

son,

[ocr errors]

320

Thou know'st we parted: but perhaps, my
Thou shamest to acknowledge me in misery.
Ant. E. 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. I tell thee, Syracusian, twenty years
Have I been patron to Antipholus,
During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa :
I see thy age and dangers make thee dote.
Re-enter Abbess, with ANTIPHOLUS of Syra-
cuse and DROMIO of Syracuse.

Abb. Most mighty duke, behold a man much wrong'd. [All gather to see them. 330 Adr. I see two husbands, or mine eyes de

ceive me.

Duke. One of these men is Genius to the other;

[blocks in formation]

And so of these. Which is the natural man, And which the spirit? who deciphers them ? Dro. S. I, sir, am Dromio; command him

And is not that your bondman, Dromio?

away.

Dro. E. Within this hour I was his bondman

sir,

Dro. E. I, sir, am Dromio; pray, let me stay.

But he, I thank him, gnaw'd in two my cords : Now am I Dromio and his man unbound.

Ant. S. Ægeon art thou not? or else his

290

ghost?

Æge. I am sure you both of you remember

Dro. S. O, my old master! who hath bound

me.

him here?

[blocks in formation]

And gain a husband by his liberty.
Speak, old Ægeon, if thou be'st the man
That hadst a wife once call'd Æmilia
That bore thee at a burden two fair sons:
O, if thou be'st the same Ægeon, speak,
And speak unto the same Æmilia!

Æge. If I dream not, thou art Æmilia:
If thou art she, tell me where is that son
That floated with thee on the fatal raft?

Abb. By men of Epidamnum he and I And the twin Dromio all were taken up: 350 But by and by rude fishermen of Corinth By force took Dromio and my son from them 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. Why, here begins his morning story right;

These two Antipholuses, these two so like,

« 上一頁繼續 »