ARKCODEX
Act IV, Scene 2
1The house of Antipholus of Ephesus.
2Enter Adriana and Luciana.
3AdrianaAh, 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 madest thou in this case
Of his heart’s meteors tilting in his face?
4LucianaFirst he denied you had in him no right.
5AdrianaHe meant he did me none; the more my spite.
6LucianaThen swore he that he was a stranger here.
7AdrianaAnd true he swore, though yet forsworn he were.
8LucianaThen pleaded I for you.
9AdrianaAnd what said he?
10LucianaThat love I begg’d for you he begg’d of me.
11AdrianaWith what persuasion did he tempt thy love?
12LucianaWith words that in an honest suit might move.
First he did praise my beauty, then my speech.
13AdrianaDidst speak him fair?
14LucianaHave patience, I beseech.
15AdrianaI 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-faced, worse bodied, shapeless everywhere;
Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind,
Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.
16LucianaWho would be jealous then of such a one?
No evil lost is wail’d when it is gone.
17AdrianaAh, 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.
18Enter Dromio of Syracuse.
19Dromio of SyracuseHere! go; the desk, the purse! sweet, now, make haste.
20LucianaHow hast thou lost thy breath?
21Dromio of SyracuseBy running fast.
22AdrianaWhere is thy master, Dromio? is he well?
23Dromio of SyracuseNo, 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 fury, 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 dry-foot well;
One that before the judgment carries poor souls to hell.
24AdrianaWhy, man, what is the matter?
25Dromio of SyracuseI do not know the matter: he is ’rested on the case.
26AdrianaWhat, is he arrested? Tell me at whose suit.
27Dromio of SyracuseI 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?
28AdrianaGo 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?
29Dromio of SyracuseNot on a band, but on a stronger thing;
A chain, a chain! Do you not hear it ring?
30AdrianaWhat, the chain?
31Dromio of SyracuseNo, no, the bell: ’tis time that I were gone:
It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes one.
32AdrianaThe hours come back! that did I never hear.
33Dromio of SyracuseO, yes; if any hour meet a sergeant, a’ turns back for very fear.
34AdrianaAs if Time were in debt! how fondly dost thou reason!
35Dromio of SyracuseTime 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?
36Reenter Luciana with a purse.
37AdrianaGo, 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.