SOLINUS, duke of Ephesus. ÆGEON; a merchant of Syracuse. ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus, ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse,

twin brothers, and sons to Egeon and Æmilia.

twin brothers, and attendants on the two Antipholuses.

DROMIO of Ephesus,
DROMIO of Syracuse,
BALTHAZAR, a merchant.
ANGELO, a goldsmith

First Merchant, friend to Antipholus of Syracuse.

ACTI

SCENE I A hall in the DUKE's palace.

Enter DUKE, ÆGEON, Gaoler, Officers, and other Attendants.

Ege. Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall
And by the doom of death end woes and all.
Duke. Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more;
I am not partial to infringe our laws:
The enmity and discord which of late
Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke
To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,
Who wanting guilders to redeem their lives
Have seal'd his rigorous statutes with their bloods,
Excludes all pity from our threatening looks.
For, since the mortal and intestine jars.
'Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,
It hath in solemn synods been decreed,
Both by the Syracusians and ourselves,
To admit no traffic to our adverse towns:
Nay, more,

If any born at Ephesus be seen
At any Syracusian marts and fairs ;
Again: if any Syracusian born

Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,

ΙΟ

20

His goods confiscate to the duke's dispose,
Unless a thousand marks be levied,
To quit the penalty and to ransom him.
Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;
Therefore by law thou art condemn'd to die.
Ege. Yet this my comfort: when your words
are done,

My woes end likewise with the evening sun. Duke. Well, Syracusian, say in brief the cause Why thou departed'st from thy native home 30 And for what cause thou camest to Ephesus. Ege. A heavier task could not have been imposed

end

Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable:
Yet, that the world may witness that my
Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence,
I'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave.
In Syracusa was I born, and wed
Unto a woman, happy but for me,

And by me, had not our hap been bad.

Second Merchant, to whom Angelo is a debtor. PINCH, a schoolmaster,

EMILIA, wife to Ægeon, an abbess at Ephesus.
ADRIANA, wife to Antipholus of Ephesus.
LUCIANA, her sister.

LUCE, servant to Adriana.
A Courtezan.

Gaoler, Officers, and other Attendants.
SCENE: Ephesus.

With her I lived in joy; our wealth increased 40
By prosperous voyages I often made
To Epidamnum; till my factor's death
Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse:
And the great care of goods at random left
From whom my absence was not six months old
Before herself, almost at fainting under
The pleasing punishment that women bear,
Had made provision for her following me
And soon and safe arrived where I was.
There had she not been long but she becaine
A joyful mother of two goodly sons;
And, which was strange, the one so like the other
As could not be distinguish'd but by names.
That very hour and in the self-same inn
A meaner woman was delivered

Of such a burden, male twins, both alike:
Those, for their parents were exceeding poor,
I bought and brought up to attend my sons.
My wife, not meanly proud of two such boys,
Made.daily motions for our home return:
Unwilling I agreed; alas ! too soon
We came aboard.

50

60

71

A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd,
Before the always wind-obeying deep
Gave any tragic instance of our harm:
But longer did we not retain much hope;
For what obscured light the heavens did grant
Did but convey unto our fearful minds
A doubtful warrant of immediate death;
Which though myself would gladly have embraced,
Yet the incessant weepings of my wife,
Weeping before for what she saw must come,
And piteous plainings of the pretty babes,
That mourn'd for fashion, ignorant what to fear,
Forced me to seek delays for them and me.
And this it was, for other means was none:
The sailors sought for safety by our boat,
And left the ship, then sinking-ripe, to us:
My wife, more careful for the latter-born,
Had fasten'd him unto a small spare mast,
Such as seafaring men provide for storms;
To him one of the other twins was bound,
Whilst I had been like heedful of the other:
The children thus disposed, my wife and I,
Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix'd,
Fasten'd ourselves at either end the mast;

80

The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit,
The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell;
My mistress made it one upon my cheek:
She is so hot because the meat is cold;
The meat is cold because you come not home;
You come not home because you have no stomach;
You have no stomach having broke your fast;
But we that know what 'tis to fast and pray
Are penitent for your default to-day.

51

Ant. S. Stop in your wind, sir: tell me this, I pray:

Where have you left the money that I gave you? Dro. E. 0,-sixpence, that I had o' Wednesday last

To pay the saddler for my mistress' crupper?
The saddler had it, sir; I kept it not.

Ant. S. I am not in a sportive humour now:
Tell me, and dally not, where is the money?
We being strangers here, how darest thou trust
So great a charge from thine own custody?
Dro. E. I pray you, jest, sir, as you sit at
dinner:

61

Ant. S. Come on, sir knave, have done your foolishness

And tell me how thou hast disposed thy charge. Dro. E. My charge was but to fetch you from the mart

Home to your house, the Phoenix, sir, to dinner: My mistress and her sister stays for you.

Ant. S. Now, as I am a Christian, answer me
In what safe place you have bestow'd my money,
Or I shall break that merry sconce of yours
That stands on tricks when I am undisposed: 80
Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me?
Dro. E. I have some marks of yours upon my
pate,

Some of my mistress' marks upon my shoulders,
But not a thousand marks between you both.
If I should pay your worship those again,
Perchance you will not bear them patiently.
Ant. S. Thy mistress' marks? what mistress,
slave, hast thou?

Dro. E. Your worship's wife, my mistress at the Phoenix:

She that doth fast till you come home to dinner And prays that you will hie you home to dinner. Ant. S. What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face, 91

Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave. Dro. E. What mean you, sir? for God's sake, hold your hands!

Nay, an you will not, sir, I'll take my heels.

[Exit.

Ant. S. Upon my life, by some device or other The villain is o'er-raught of all my money. They say this town is full of cozenage, As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,

SCENE I. The house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus. Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA.

Adr. Neither my husband nor the slave return'd,

That in such haste I sent to seek his master!
Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock.

Luc. Perhaps some merchant hath invited him And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner.

Good sister, let us dine and never fret:
A man is master of his liberty:
Time is their master, and when they see time
They'll go or come: if so, be patient, sister.
Adr. Why should their liberty than ours be
more?

ΙΟ

Dro. E. Nay, he struck so plainly, I could too well feel his blows; and withal so doubtfully that I could scarce understand them.

Adr. But say, I prithee, is he coming home? It seems he hath great care to please his wife. Dro. E. Why, mistress, sure my master horn-mad.

Adr. Horn-mad, thou villain!
Dro. E.

is

60

I mean not cuckold-mad; But, sure, he is stark mad. When I desired him to come home to dinner, He ask'd me for a thousand marks in gold: "Tis dinner-time,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he:

'Your meat doth burn,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he:

'Will you come home?' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he,

'Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?'

'The pig,' quoth I, 'is burn'd;' 'My gold!' quoth he:

'My mistress, sir,' quoth I; 'Hang up thy mistress!

I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress!' Luc. Quoth who?

Dro. E. Quoth my master:

70

'I know,' quoth he, no house, no wife, no mis

tress.'

So that my errand, due unto my tongue,
I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders;
For, in conclusion, he did beat me there.

Adr. Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him home.

Dro. E. Go back again, and be new beaten home?

For God's sake, send some other messenger.

Adr. Back, slave, or I will break thy pate

across.

Dro. E. And he will bless that cross with other beating:

Between you I shall have a holy head.

80

Adr. Hence, prating peasant! fetch thy master home.

Dro. E. Am I so round with you as you with me, That like a football you do spurn me thus? You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither: If I last in this service, you must case me in leather. [Exit.

Luc. Fie, how impatience loureth in your face !

Adr. His company must do his minions grace, Whilst I at home starve for a merry look. Hath homely age the alluring beauty took From my poor cheek? then he hath wasted it: 90 Are my discourses dull? barren my wit? If voluble and sharp discourse be marr'd, Unkindness blunts it more than marble hard: Do their gay vestments his affections bait? That's not my fault; he's master of my state:

What ruins are in me that can be found,
By him not ruin'd? then is he the ground
Of my defeatures. My decayed fair
A sunny look of his would soon repair:
But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale
And feeds from home; poor I am but his stale.
Luc. Self-harming jealousy! fie, beat it hence!
Adr. Unfeeling fools can with such wrongs
dispense.

I know his eye doth homage otherwhere ;
Or else what lets it but he would be here?
Sister, you know he promised me a chain;
Would that alone, alone he would detain,
So he would keep fair quarter with his bed!
I see the jewel best enamelled

100

Will lose his beauty; yet the gold bides still, 110 That others touch, and often touching will

† Wear gold: and no man that hath a name, By falsehood and corruption doth it shame. Since that my beauty cannot please his eye, I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die. Luc. How many fond fools serve mad jealousy! [Exeunt.

SCENE II. A public place.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse.

Ant. S. The gold I gave to Dromio is laid up
Safe at the Centaur; and the heedful slave
Is wander'd forth, in care to seek me out
By computation and mine host's report.

I could not speak with Dromio since at first
I sent him from the mart. See, here he comes.
Enter DROMIO of Syracuse.

How now, sir! is your merry humour alter'd?
As you love strokes, so jest with me again.
You know.no Centaur? you received no gold?
Your mistress sent to have me home to dinner? to
My house was at the Phoenix? Wast thou mad,
That thus so madly thou didst answer me?

Dro, S. What answer, sir? when spake I such a word?

Ant. S. Even now, even here, not half an hour since.:

Dro. S. I did not see you since you sent me hence,

Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me. Ant. S. Villain, thou didst deny the gold's receipt

And told'st me of a mistress and a dinner;
For which, I hope, thou felt'st I was displeased.
Dro. S. I am glad to see you in this merry

vein :

20

What means this jest? I pray you, master, tell

me.

Ant. S. Yea, dost thou jeer and flbut me in the teeth?

Think'st thou I jest? Hold, take thou that, and that. [Beating him. Dro. S. Hold, sir, for God's sake! now your jest is earnest:

Upon what bargain do you give it me?

Ant. S Because that I familiarly sometimes Do use you for my fool and chat with you, Your sauciness will jest upon my love And make a common of my serious hours. When the sun shines let foolish gnats make sport, 30 But creep in crannies when he hides his beams.