Array MyBooks Classics - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Illustrated edition (37 plays, 160 sonnets and 5 Poetry Books With Active Table of Contents)

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

Hath scar’d 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.

Abb.

No, not a creature enters in my house.

Adr.

Then let your servants bring my husband forth.

Abb.

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 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,

And therefore let me have him home with me.

Abb.

Be patient, for I will not let him stir

Till I have us’d 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,

Therefore depart, and leave him here with me.

Adr.

I will not hence, and leave my husband here;

And ill it doth beseem your holiness

To separate the husband and the wife.

Abb.

Be quiet and depart, thou shalt not have him.

[Exit.]

Luc.

Complain unto the Duke of this indignity.

Adr.

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.

[2. E.] Mer.

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.

Ang.

Upon what cause?

[2. E.] Mer.

To see a reverent Syracusian merchant,

Who put unluckily into this bay

Against the laws and statutes of this town,

Beheaded publicly for his offense.

Ang.

See where they come, we will behold his death.

Luc.

Kneel to the Duke before he pass the abbey.

Enter the Duke of Ephesus [attended] and [Egeon] the merchant of Syracuse, bare-head, with the Headsman and other Officers.

Duke.

Yet once again proclaim it publicly,

If any friend will pay the sum for him,

He shall not die, so much we tender him.

Adr.

Justice, most sacred Duke, against the Abbess!

Duke.

She is a virtuous and a reverend lady,

It cannot be that she hath done thee wrong.

Adr.

May it please your Grace, Antipholus my husband,

Who 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 desp’rately he hurried through the street—

With him his bondman, all as mad as he—

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,

Each one with ireful passion, with drawn swords,

Met us again, and madly bent on us

Chas’d us away; till raising of more aid,

We came again to bind them. Then they fled

Into this abbey, whither we pursu’d 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.

Therefore, most gracious Duke, with thy command

Let him be brought forth, and borne hence for help.

Duke.

Long since thy husband serv’d me in my wars,

And I to thee engag’d 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 Messenger.

[Mess.]

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 sing’d off with brands of fire,

And ever as it blaz’d, 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.

Mess.

Mistress, upon my life, I tell you true;

I have not breath’d 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 hous’d him in the abbey here,

And now he’s there, past thought of human reason.

Enter Antipholus [of Ephesus] and Dromio of Ephesus.

E. Ant.

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

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.

E. Ant.

Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there!

She whom thou gav’st to me to be my wife;

That hath abused and dishonored me,

Even in the strength and height of injury:

Beyond imagination is the wrong

That she this day hath shameless thrown on me.

Duke.

Discover how, and thou shalt find me just.

E. Ant.

This day, great Duke, she shut the doors upon me,

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

To-day did dine together: so befall my soul

As this is false he burthens me withal!

Luc.

Ne’er may I look on day, nor sleep on night,

But she tells to your Highness simple truth!

Ang.

O perjur’d woman! They are both forsworn:

In this the madman justly chargeth them.

E. Ant.

My liege, I am advised what I say,

Neither disturbed with the effect of wine,

Nor heady-rash, provok’d with raging ire,

Albeit my wrongs might make one wiser mad.

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,

Where Balthazar and I did dine together.