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The Comedy of Errors - Act 4, scene 2
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The Comedy of Errors - Act 4, scene 2Act 4, scene 2
⌜Scene 2⌝
Synopsis:
Dromio (of Syracuse) tells Adriana about the arrest of Antipholus (of Ephesus). She gives him the money for Antipholus’s bail.
Enter Adriana and Luciana.ADRIANA
1110 Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?
1111 Might’st thou perceive austerely in his eye
1112 That he did plead in earnest, yea or no?
1113 Looked he or red or pale, or sad or merrily?
1114 5 What observation mad’st thou in this case
1115 ⌜Of⌝ his heart’s meteors tilting in his face?
LUCIANA
1116 First he denied you had in him no right.
ADRIANA
1117 He meant he did me none; the more my spite.
LUCIANA
1118 Then swore he that he was a stranger here.
ADRIANA
1119 10 And true he swore, though yet forsworn he were.
LUCIANA
1120 Then pleaded I for you.
ADRIANA 1121 And what said he?
LUCIANA
1122 That love I begged for you he begged of me.
ADRIANA
1123 With what persuasion did he tempt thy love?
LUCIANA
1124 15 With words that in an honest suit might move.
1125 First he did praise my beauty, then my speech.
ADRIANA
1126 Did’st speak him fair?
LUCIANA 1127 Have patience, I beseech.
ADRIANA
1128 I cannot, nor I will not hold me still.
1129 20 My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will.
1130 He is deformèd, crooked, old, and sere,
1131 Ill-faced, worse-bodied, shapeless everywhere,
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1132
Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind,1133 Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.
LUCIANA
1134 25 Who would be jealous, then, of such a one?
1135 No evil lost is wailed when it is gone.
ADRIANA
1136 Ah, but I think him better than I say,
1137 And yet would herein others’ eyes were worse.
1138 Far from her nest the lapwing cries away.
1139 30 My heart prays for him, though my tongue do
1140 curse.
Enter Dromio ⌜of⌝ Syracuse ⌜with the key.⌝
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
1141 Here, go—the desk, the purse! Sweet, now make
1142 haste.
LUCIANA
1143 How hast thou lost thy breath?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE 1144 35 By running fast.
ADRIANA
1145 Where is thy master, Dromio? Is he well?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
1146 No, he’s in Tartar limbo, worse than hell.
1147 A devil in an everlasting garment hath him,
1148 One whose hard heart is buttoned up with steel;
1149 40 A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough;
1150 A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff;
1151 A backfriend, a shoulder clapper, one that
1152 countermands
1153 The passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands;
1154 45 A hound that runs counter and yet draws dryfoot
1155 well,
1156 One that before the judgment carries poor souls to
1157 hell.
ADRIANA 1158 Why, man, what is the matter?
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101
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE 1159 50 I do not know the matter. He is ’rested on the case.
ADRIANA
1160 What, is he arrested? Tell me at whose suit.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
1161 I know not at whose suit he is arrested well,
1162 But is in a suit of buff which ’rested him; that can I
1163 tell.
1164 55 Will you send him, mistress, redemption—the
1165 money in his desk?
ADRIANA
1166 Go fetch it, sister. (Luciana exits.) This I wonder at,
1167 ⌜That⌝ he, unknown to me, should be in debt.
1168 Tell me, was he arrested on a band?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
1169 60 Not on a band, but on a stronger thing:
1170 A chain, a chain. Do you not hear it ring?
ADRIANA 1171 What, the chain?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
1172 No, no, the bell. ’Tis time that I were gone.
1173 It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes
1174 65 one.
ADRIANA
1175 The hours come back. That did I never hear.
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
1176 O yes, if any hour meet a sergeant, he turns back
1177 for very fear.
ADRIANA
1178 As if time were in debt. How fondly dost thou
1179 70 reason!
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
1180 Time is a very bankrout and owes more than he’s
1181 worth to season.
1182 Nay, he’s a thief too. Have you not heard men say
1183 That time comes stealing on by night and day?
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1184
75 If ⌜he⌝ be in debt and theft, and a sergeant in the1185 way,
1186 Hath he not reason to turn back an hour in a day?
Enter Luciana, ⌜with the purse.⌝
ADRIANA
1187 Go, Dromio. There’s the money. Bear it straight,
1188 And bring thy master home immediately.
⌜Dromio exits.⌝
1189 80 Come, sister, I am pressed down with conceit:
1190 Conceit, my comfort and my injury.
⌜They⌝ exit.