Adr. And come with naked fwords;

Let's call more help to have them bound again.

Offi. Away, they'll kill us.

Manent Antipholis and Dromio.

[They run out..

S. Ant. I fee, thefe witches are afraid of fwords. S. Dro. She, that would be your wife, now ran from you. S. Ant. Come to the Centaur, fetch our stuff from thence: I long, that we were fafe and found aboard.

S. Dro. Faith, ftay here this night; they will furely do us no harm; you faw, they fpake us fair, gave us gold; methinks, they are fuch a gentle nation, that but for the mountain of mad flesh that claims marriage of me, I could find in my heart to ftay here ftill, and turn witch.

S. Ant. I will not stay to-night for all the town; Therefore away, to get our ftuff aboard.

[Exeunt.

I

A CT V.

SCENE, a Street, before a Priory.

Enter the Merchant and Angelo.

ANGELO.

Am forry, Sir, that I have hinder'd you;
But, I proteft he had the chain of me,

Tho' moft difhoneftly he doth deny it.

Mer. How is the man efteem'd here in the city?
Ang. Of very reverent reputation, Sir,

Of credit infinite, highly belov'd,

Second to none that lives here in the city;
His word might bear my wealth at any time.

Mer. Speak foftly: yonder, as I think, he walks.

Enter Antipholis and Dromio of Syracuse.

Ang. 'Tis fo; and that self-chain about his neck, Which he forfwore most monftrously to have.

Good

Good Sir, draw near to me, I'll speak to him.
Signior Antipholis, I wonder much

That you would put me to this fhame and trouble; :
And not without some scandal to yourself,、'
With circumstance and oaths fo to deny
This chain, which now you wear fo openly;
Befides the charge, the fhame, imprisonment,
You have done wrong to this my honest friend ;;
Who, but for ftaying on our controversy,
Had hoifted fail, and put to fea to-day :
This chain you had of me, can you deny it ?
S. Ant. I think, I had; I never did deny it.
Mer. Yes, that you did, Sir; and forfwore it too..
S. Ant. Who heard me to deny it, or forfwear it ?
Mer. These ears of mine, thou knoweft, did hear thee::
Fy on thee, wretch! 'tis pity, that thou liv'ft

To walk where any honeft men refort.

S. Ant. Thou art a villain, to impeach me thus. prove mine honour and my honefty

Against thee prefently, if thou dar’st stand.

Mer. I dare, and do defy thee for a villain. [They draw Enter Adriana, Luciana, Courtezan, and others.

Adr. Hold, hurt him not, for God's fake; he is mad; Some get within him, take his sword away:

Bind Dremio too, and bear them to my houfe.

S. Dro. Run, mafter, run; for God's fake, take a house; ; This is fome priory: in, or we are spoil'd.

[Exeunt to the Priory

Enter Lady Abbess. .

Abb. Be quiet, people; wherefore throng you hither? Adr. To fetch my poor distracted husband hence; Let us come in, that we may bind him fast,

And bear him home for his recovery.

Ang. I knew, he was not in his perfect wits.
Mer. I'm forry now, that I did draw on him.
Abb. How long hath this poffeffion held the man?
Adr. This week he hath been heavy, fower, fad,
And much, much different from the man he was :

But

But till this afternoon, his paffion

Ne'er brake into extremity of rage.

Abb. Hath he not loft much wealth by wreck at fea?
Bury'd fome dear friend? hath not elfe his eye
Stray'd his affection in unlawful love?

A fin, prevailing much in youthful men,
Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing.
Which of these forrows is he fubject to?

Adr. To none of thefe, except it be the laft ;
Namely, fome love, that drew him oft from home.
Abb. You should for that have reprehended him.
Adr. Why, fo I did..

Abb. Ay, but not rough enough.

Adr. As roughly, as my modefty would let me,
Abb. Haply, in private.

Adr. And in affemblies too.
Abb. Ay, but not enough.

Adr. It was the copy of our conference (20).
In bed, he flept not for my urging it;
At board, he fed not for my urging it;
Alone, it was the fubject of my theam;
In company, I often glanc'd at it;
Still did I tell him, it was vile and bad.

(20) It was the copy of our conference.] We are not to underfland this word here, as it is now used, in oppofition to an original; any thing done after a pattern; but we are to take it in the neareft fenfe to the Latin word copia, from which it is derived. Adriana would fay, her reproofs were the burden, the fulness of her conference, all the fubject of her talk. And in thefe acceptations the word copie was ufed by writers before our Author's time, as well as by his contemporaries. So Hall, in his reign of King Henry Vth. p. 8. fays;

If you vanquish the Numidians, you fhall have copie of beafts. i. e. plenty.

And fo B. Jonfon in his Every-man out of his humour;

that, being a woman, fhe was bleft with no more copy of wir, but to ferve his humour thus.

And, again, in his Cynthia's Revels.

lours.

-to be fure to have daily about him copy and variety of co

And in many other paffages of his works,

Abb. And thereof came it, that the man was mad. The venom clamours of a jealous woman Paifon more deadly, than a mad dog's tooth. It feems, his fleeps were hinder'd by thy railing; And thereof comes it, that his head is light.

Thou fay'ft, his meat was fauc'd with thy upbraidings; Unquiet meals make ill digeftions;

Thereof the raging fire of fever bred;

And what's a fever, but a fit of madness ?
Thou fay'ft, his fports were hinder'd by thy brawls.
Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth enfue,
But moody and dull melancholy,

Kinfman to grim and comfortless despair?
And at her heels a huge infectious troop
Of pale diftemperatures, and foes to life.
In food, in fport, and life-preferving reft,
To be disturb'd, would mad or man or beast:
The confequence is then, thy jealous fits
Have feared thy husband from the use of wits.
Luc. She never reprehended him but mildly,
When he demeaned himself rough, rude and wildly;
Why bear you thefe rebukes, and anfwer 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

houfe.

Adr. Then, let your fervants bring my hofband forth.
Abb. Neither; he took this place for fanctuary,

And it fhall priviledge him from your hands;

'Till I have brought him to his wits again,

Or lofe my labour in affaying it.

Adr. I will attend my hufband, be his nurse, Diet his fickness, 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 ftir,
'Till I have us'd th' approved means I have,
With wholfome firups, 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 befeem your holinefs

To feparate the hufband and the wife.

Abb. Be quiet and depart, thou shalt not have him. Luc. Complain unto the Duke of this indignity.

[Exit Abbefs. Adr. Come, go; I will fall proftrate at his feet, And never rise, until my tears and prayers Have won his Grace to come in perfon hither; And take perforce my husband from the Abbefs. Mer. By this, I think, the dial points at five; Anon, I'm fure, the Duke himself in perfon Comes this way to the melancholy vale; The place of death and forry execution (21), Behind the ditches of the abbey here. Ang. Upon what cause ?

Mer. To fee a reverent Syracufan merchant,
Who put unluckily into this bay

Against the laws and ftatutes of this town,
Beheaded publickly for his offence.

Ang. See, where they come; we will behold his death.
Luc. Kneel to the Duke, before he pass the abbey.

Enter the Duke, and Egeon bare-head; with the Headf man, and other Officers.

Duke. Yet once again proclaim it publickly, If any friend will pay the fum for him,

He fhall not die, so much we tender him.

Adr. Juftice, most sacred Duke, against the Abbess. Duke. She is a virtuous and reverend Lady;

It cannot be that the hath done thee wrong.

Adr. May it please your Grace, Antipholis my hufband,

(21) The place of death and forry execution.] i. e. difmal, lamentable, to be griev'd at. In the like acceptations our Poet employs it again, where Macbeth, after the murder of Duncan, is looking on his own bloody hands.

-This is a forry fight

(Whom