Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 2
The house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.
Adriana : Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?
[p]Mightst thou perceive austerely
in his eye
[p]That he did plead in earnest? yea or no?
[p]Look'd he or
red or pale, or sad or merrily?
[p]What observation madest thou in
this case
[p]Of his heart's meteors tilting in his face?
Luciana : First he denied you had in him no right.
Adriana : He meant he did me none; the more my spite.
Luciana : Then swore he that he was a stranger here.
Adriana : And true he swore, though yet forsworn he were.
Luciana : Then pleaded I for you.
Adriana : And what said he?
Luciana : That love I begg'd for you he begg'd of me.
Adriana : With what persuasion did he tempt thy love?
Luciana : With words that in an honest suit might move.
[p]First he did praise
my beauty, then my speech.
Adriana : Didst speak him fair?
Luciana : Have patience, I beseech.
Adriana : I cannot, nor I will not, hold me still;
[p]My tongue, though not my
heart, shall have his will.
[p]He is deformed, crooked, old and
sere,
[p]Ill-faced, worse bodied, shapeless everywhere;
[p]Vicious,
ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind;
[p]Stigmatical in making, worse in
mind.
Luciana : Who would be jealous then of such a one?
[p]No evil lost is wail'd
when it is gone.
Adriana : Ah, but I think him better than I say,
[p]And yet would herein others'
eyes were worse.
[p]Far from her nest the lapwing cries away:
[p]My
heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.
Dromio of Syracuse : Here! go; the desk, the purse! sweet, now, make haste.
Luciana : How hast thou lost thy breath?
Dromio of Syracuse : By running fast.
Adriana : Where is thy master, Dromio? is he well?
Dromio of Syracuse : No, he's in Tartar limbo, worse than hell.
[p]A devil in an
everlasting garment hath him;
[p]One whose hard heart is button'd up
with steel;
[p]A fiend, a fury, pitiless and rough;
[p]A wolf, nay,
worse, a fellow all in buff;
[p]A back-friend, a shoulder-clapper, one
that
[p]countermands
[p]The passages of alleys, creeks and narrow
lands;
[p]A hound that runs counter and yet draws dryfoot well;
[p]One
that before the judgement carries poor souls to hell.
Adriana : Why, man, what is the matter?
Dromio of Syracuse : I do not know the matter: he is 'rested on the case.
Adriana : What, is he arrested? Tell me at whose suit.
Dromio of Syracuse : I know not at whose suit he is arrested well;
[p]But he's in a suit of
buff which 'rested him, that can I tell.
[p]Will you send him,
mistress, redemption, the money in his desk?
Adriana : Go fetch it, sister.
[p][Exit Luciana]
[p]This I wonder at,
[p]That
he, unknown to me, should be in debt.
[p]Tell me, was he arrested on a
band?
Dromio of Syracuse : Not on a band, but on a stronger thing;
[p]A chain, a chain! Do you
not hear it ring?
Adriana : What, the chain?
Dromio of Syracuse : No, no, the bell: 'tis time that I were gone:
[p]It was two ere I left
him, and now the clock
[p]strikes one.
Adriana : The hours come back! that did I never hear.
Dromio of Syracuse : O, yes; if any hour meet a sergeant, a' turns back for
[p]very fear.
Adriana : As if Time were in debt! how fondly dost thou reason!
Dromio of Syracuse : Time is a very bankrupt, and owes more than he's
[p]worth, to
season.
[p]Nay, he's a thief too: have you not heard men say
[p]That
Time comes stealing on by night and day?
[p]If Time be in debt and
theft, and a sergeant in the way,
[p]Hath he not reason to turn back
an hour in a day?
Adriana : Go, Dromio; there's the money, bear it straight;
[p]And bring thy
master home immediately.
[p]Come, sister: I am press'd down with
conceit--
[p]Conceit, my comfort and my injury.
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 3
