THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

Act 4 Scene 2

(Enter from the Phoenix Adriana and Luciana)
l1l	Adriana	 Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?
l2l		Mightst thou perceive austerely in his eye
l3l		That he did plead in earnest, yea or no?
l4l		Looked he or red or pale, or sad or merrily?
l5l		What observation mad’st thou in this case
l6l		Of his heart’s meteors tilting in his face?
l7l	Luciana	First he denied you had in him no right.
l8l	Adriana	He meant he did me none, the more my spite.
l9l	Luciana	Then swore he that he was a stranger here.
l10l	Adriana	And true he swore, though yet forsworn he were.
l11l	Luciana	Then pleaded I for you.
	Adriana	And what said he?
l12l	Luciana	That love I begged for you, he begged of me.
l13l	Adriana	With what persuasion did he tempt thy love?
l14l	Luciana	With words that in an honest suit might move.
l15l		First he did praise my beauty, then my speech.
l16l	Adriana	Didst speak him fair?
	Luciana	Have patience, I beseech.
l17l	Adriana	I cannot, nor I will not, hold me still.
l18l		My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will.
l19l		He is deformèd, crookèd, old, and sere,
l20l		Ill-faced, worse-bodied, shapeless everywhere,
l21l		Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind,
l22l		Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.
l23l	Luciana	Who would be jealous, then, of such a one?
l24l		No evil lost is wailed when it is gone.
l25l	Adriana	Ah, but I think him better than I say,
l26l		And yet would herein others’ eyes were worse.
l27l		Far from her nest the lapwing cries away.
l28l		My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.
		(Enter Dromio of Syracuse running)
l29l	Dromio Of Syracuse	 Here, go—the desk, the purse! Sweet now, make haste!
l30l	Luciana	How? Hast thou lost thy breath?
	Dromio Of Syracuse	By running fast.
l31l	Adriana	Where is thy master, Dromio? Is he well?
l32l	Dromio Of Syracuse	No, he’s in Tartar limbo, worse than hell.
l33l		A devil in an everlasting garment hath him,
l34l		One whose hard heart is buttoned up with steel#
l35l		A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough#
l36l		A wolf, nay worse, a fellow all in buff#
l37l		A back-friend, a shoulder-clapper, one that countermands
l38l		The passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow launds#
l39l		A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dryfoot well#
l40l		One that before the Judgement carries poor souls to hell.
l41l	Adriana	Why, man, what is the matter?
l42l	Dromio Of Syracuse	I do not know the matter, he is ’rested on the case.
l43l	Adriana	What, is he arrested? Tell me at whose suit.
l44l	Dromio Of Syracuse	I know not at whose suit he is arrested well,
l45l		But is in a suit of buff which ’rested him, that can I tell.
l46l		Will you send him, mistress, redemption—the money in his desk?
l47l	Adriana	Go fetch it, sister.
		(Exit Luciana into the Phoenix)
		 This I wonder at,
l48l		That he unknown to me should be in debt.
l49l		Tell me, was he arrested on a bond?
l50l	Dromio Of Syracuse	Not on a bond but on a stronger thing:
l51l		A chain, a chain—do you not hear it ring?
l52l	Adriana	What, the chain?
	Dromio Of Syracuse	No, no, the bell. ’Tis time that I were gone:
l53l		It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes one.
l54l	Adriana	The hours come back! That did I never hear.
l55l	Dromio Of Syracuse	O yes, if any hour meet a sergeant, a turns back for very fear.
l56l	Adriana	As if time were in debt. How fondly dost thou reason!
l57l	Dromio Of Syracuse	Time is a very bankrupt, and owes more than he’s worth to season.
l58l		Nay, he’s a thief too. Have you not heard men say
l59l		That time comes stealing on by night and day?
l60l		If a be in debt and theft, and a sergeant in the way,
l61l		Hath he not reason to turn back an hour in a day?
		(Enter Luciana from the Phoenix with the money)
l62l	Adriana	 Go, Dromio, there’s the money. Bear it straight,
l63l		And bring thy master home immediately.
		(Exit Dromio)
l64l		Come, sister, I am pressed down with conceit:
l65l		Conceit, my comfort and my injury.
		(Exeunt into the Phoenix)