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The House of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus. | |
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Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA. | |
| Adr. Neither my husband, nor the slave return’d, | |
| That in such haste I sent to seek his master! | |
| Sure, Luciana, it is two o’clock. | 5 |
| Luc. Perhaps some merchant hath invited him, | |
| And from the mart he’s somewhere gone to dinner. | |
| Good sister, let us dine and never fret: | |
| A man is master of his liberty: | |
| Time is their master, and, when they see time, | 10 |
| They’ll go or come: if so, be patient, sister. | |
| Adr. Why should their liberty than ours be more? | |
| Luc. Because their business still lies out o’ door. | |
| Adr. Look, when I serve him so, he takes it ill. | |
| Luc. O! know he is the bridle of your will. | 15 |
| Adr. There’s none but asses will be bridled so. | |
| Luc. Why, headstrong liberty is lash’d with woe. | |
| There’s nothing situate under heaven’s eye | |
| But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky: | |
| The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls, | 20 |
| Are their males’ subjects and at their controls. | |
| Men, more divine, the masters of all these, | |
| Lords of the wide world, and wild wat’ry seas, | |
| Indu’d with intellectual sense and souls, | |
| Of more pre-eminence than fish and fowls, | 25 |
| Are masters to their females and their lords: | |
| Then, let your will attend on their accords. | |
| Adr. This servitude makes you to keep unwed. | |
| Luc. Not this, but troubles of the marriage-bed. | |
| Adr. But, were you wedded, you would bear some sway. | 30 |
| Luc. Ere I learn love, I’ll practise to obey. | |
| Adr. How if your husband start some other where? | |
| Luc. Till he come home again, I would forbear. | |
| Adr. Patience unmov’d! no marvel though she pause; | |
| They can be meek that have no other cause. | 35 |
| A wretched soul, bruis’d with adversity, | |
| We bid be quiet when we hear it cry; | |
| But were we burden’d with like weight of pain, | |
| As much, or more we should ourselves complain: | |
| So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee, | 40 |
| With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me: | |
| But if thou live to see like right bereft. | |
| This fool-begg’d patience in thee will be left. | |
| Luc. Well, I will marry one day, but to try. | |
| Here comes your man: now is your husband nigh. | 45 |
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Enter DROMIO of Ephesus. | |
| Adr. Say, is your tardy master now at hand? | |
| Dro. E. Nay, he’s at two hands with me, and that my two ears can witness. | |
| Adr. Say, didst thou speak with him? Know’st thou his mind? | |
| Dro. E. Ay, ay, he told his mind upon mine ear. | 50 |
| Beshrew his hand, I scarce could understand it. | |
| Luc. Spake he so doubtfully, thou couldst not feel his meaning? | |
| Dro. E. Nay, he struck so plainly, I could too well feel his blows; and withal so doubtfully, that I could scarce understand them. | |
| Adr. But say, I prithee, is he coming home? It seems he hath great care to please his wife. | |
| Dro. E. Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad. | 55 |
| Adr. Horn-mad, thou villain! | |
| Dro. E. I mean not cuckold-mad; but, sure, he is stark mad. | |
| When I desir’d him to come home to dinner, | |
| He ask’d me for a thousand marks in gold: | |
| ‘’Tis dinner time,’ quoth I; ‘my gold!’ quoth he: | 60 |
| ‘Your meat doth burn,’ quoth I; ‘my gold!’ quoth he: | |
| ‘Will you come home?’ quoth I: ‘my gold!’ quoth he: | |
| ‘Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?’ | |
| ‘The pig,’ quoth I, ‘is burn’d;’ ‘my gold!’ quoth he: | |
| ‘My mistress, sir,’ quoth I: ‘hang up thy mistress! | 65 |
| I know not thy mistress: out on thy mistress!’ | |
| Luc. Quoth who? | |
| Dro. E. Quoth my master: | |
| ‘I know,’ quoth he, ‘no house, no wife, no mistress.’ | |
| So that my errand, due unto my tongue, | 70 |
| I thank him, I bear home upon my shoulders; | |
| For, in conclusion, he did beat me there. | |
| Adr. Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him home. | |
| Dro. E. Go back again, and be new beaten home? | |
| For God’s sake, send some other messenger. | 75 |
| Adr. Back, slave, or I will break thy pate across. | |
| Dro. E. And he will bless that cross with other beating: | |
| Between you, I shall have a holy head. | |
| Adr. Hence, prating peasant! fetch thy master home. | |
| Dro. E. Am I so round with you as you with me, | 80 |
| That like a football you do spurn me thus? | |
| You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither: | |
| If I last in this service, you must case me in leather. [Exit. | |
| Luc. Fie, how impatience loureth in your face! | |
| Adr. His company must do his minions grace, | 85 |
| Whilst I at home starve for a merry look. | |
| Hath homely age the alluring beauty took | |
| From my poor cheek? then, he hath wasted it: | |
| Are my discourses dull? barren my wit? | |
| If voluble and sharp discourse be marr’d, | 90 |
| Unkindness blunts it more than marble hard: | |
| Do their gay vestments his affections bait? | |
| That’s not my fault; he’s master of my state: | |
| What ruins are in me that can be found | |
| By him not ruin’d? then is he the ground | 95 |
| Of my defeatures. My decayed fair | |
| A sunny look of his would soon repair; | |
| But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale | |
| And feeds from home: poor I am but his stale. | |
| Luc. Self-harming jealousy! fie! beat it hence. | 100 |
| Adr. Unfeeling fools can with such wrongs dispense. | |
| I know his eye doth homage otherwhere, | |
| Or else what lets it but he would be here? | |
| Sister, you know he promis’d me a chain: | |
| Would that alone, alone he would detain, | 105 |
| So he would keep fair quarter with his bed! | |
| I see, the jewel best enamelled | |
| Will lose his beauty; and though gold bides still | |
| That others touch, yet often touching will | |
| Wear gold; and no man that hath a name, | 110 |
| By falsehood and corruption doth it shame. | |
| Since that my beauty cannot please his eye, | |
| I’ll weep what’s left away, and weeping die. | |
| Luc. How many fond fools serve mad jealousy! [Exeunt. | |
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