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A Room in the House of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus. | |
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Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA. | |
| Adr. Ah! Luciana, did he tempt thee so? | |
| Mightst thou perceive austerely in his eye | |
| That he did plead in earnest? yea or no? | 5 |
| Look’d he or red or pale? or sad or merrily? | |
| What observation mad’st thou in this case | |
| Of his heart’s meteors tilting in his face? | |
| Luc. First he denied you had in him no right. | |
| Adr. He meant he did me none; the more my spite. | 10 |
| Luc. Then swore he that he was a stranger here. | |
| Adr. And true he swore, though yet forsworn he were. | |
| Luc. Then pleaded I for you. | |
| Adr. And what said he? | |
| Luc. That love I begg’d for you he begg’d of me. | 15 |
| Adr. With what persuasion did he tempt thy love? | |
| Luc. With words that in an honest suit might move. | |
| First, he did praise my beauty, then my speech. | |
| Adr. Didst speak him fair? | |
| Luc. Have patience, I beseech. | 20 |
| Adr. I cannot, nor I will not hold me still: | |
| My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will. | |
| He is deformed, crooked, old and sere, | |
| Ill-fac’d, worse bodied, shapeless every where; | |
| Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind, | 25 |
| Stigmatical in making, worse in mind. | |
| Luc. Who would be jealous then, of such a one? | |
| No evil lost is wail’d when it is gone. | |
| Adr. Ah! but I think him better than I say, | |
| And yet would herein others’ eyes were worse. | 30 |
| Far from her nest the lapwing cries away: | |
| My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse. | |
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Enter DROMIO of Syracuse. | |
| Dro. S. Here, go: the desk! the purse! sweet, now, make haste. | |
| Luc. How hast thou lost thy breath? | 35 |
| Dro. S. By running fast. | |
| Adr. Where is thy master, Dromio? is he well? | |
| Dro. S. No, he’s in Tartar limbo, worse than hell. | |
| A devil in an everlasting garment hath him, | |
| One whose hard heart is button’d up with steel; | 40 |
| A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough; | |
| A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff; | |
| A back-friend, a shoulder-clapper, one that countermands | |
| The passages of alleys, creeks and narrow lands; | |
| A hound that runs counter and yet draws dryfoot well; | 45 |
| One that, before the judgment, carries poor souls to hell. | |
| Adr. Why, man, what is the matter? | |
| Dro. S. I do not know the matter: he is ’rested on the case. | |
| Adr. What, is he arrested? tell me at whose suit. | |
| Dro. S. I know not at whose suit he is arrested well; | 50 |
| But he’s in a suit of buff which ’rested him, that can I tell. | |
| Will you send him, mistress, redemption, the money in his desk? | |
| Adr. Go fetch it, sister.—[Exit LUCIANA.] This I wonder at: | |
| That he, unknown to me, should be in debt: | |
| Tell me, was he arrested on a band? | 55 |
| Dro. S. Not on a band, but on a stronger thing; | |
| A chain, a chain. Do you not hear it ring? | |
| Adr. What, the chain? | |
| Dro. S. No, no, the bell: ’tis time that I were gone: | |
| It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes one. | 60 |
| Adr. The hours come back! that did I never hear. | |
| Dro. S. O yes; if any hour meet a sergeant, a’ turns back for very fear. | |
| Adr. As if Time were in debt! how fondly dost thou reason! | |
| Dro. S. Time is a very bankrupt, and owes more than he’s worth to season. | |
| Nay, he’s a thief too: have you not heard men say, | 65 |
| That Time comes stealing on by night and day? | |
| If Time be in debt and theft, and a sergeant in the way, | |
| Hath he not reason to turn back an hour in a day? | |
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Re-enter LUCIANA. | |
| Adr. Go, Dromio: there’s the money, bear it straight, | 70 |
| And bring thy master home immediately. | |
| Come, sister; I am press’d down with conceit; | |
| Conceit, my comfort and my injury. [Exeunt. | |
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