A Room in the House of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus. |
|
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? |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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, |
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. |
Far from her nest the lapwing cries away: |
My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse. |
|
Enter DROMIO of Syracuse. |
Dro. S. Here, go: the desk! the purse! sweet, now, make haste. |
Luc. How hast thou lost thy breath? |
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; |
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; |
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; |
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? |
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. |
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, |
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? |
|
Re-enter LUCIANA. |
Adr. Go, Dromio: there's the money, bear it straight, |
And bring thy master home immediately. |
Come, sister; I am press'd down with conceit; |
Conceit, my comfort and my injury. [Exeunt. |
Design © 1995-2007 ZeFLIP.com All rights reserved.