Comedy Of Errors

[Guru]

AEMELIA


Hath he not lost much wealth by wreck of sea?
Buried some dear friend? Hath not else his eye
Stray'd his affection in unlawful love?
A sin prevailing much in youthful men,
Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing.
Which of these sorrows is he subject to?

 

[Guru]

ADRIANA


To none of these, except it be the last;
Namely, some love that drew him oft from home.

 

[Guru]

AEMELIA


You should for that have reprehended him.

 

[Guru]

ADRIANA


Why, so I did.

 

[Guru]

AEMELIA


Ay, but not rough enough.

 

[Guru]

ADRIANA


As roughly as my modesty would let me.

 

[Guru]

AEMELIA


Haply, in private.

 

[Guru]

ADRIANA


And in assemblies too.

 

[Guru]

AEMELIA


Ay, but not enough.

 

[Guru]

ADRIANA


It was the copy of our conference:
In bed he slept not for my urging it;
At board he fed not for my urging it;
Alone, it was the subject of my theme;
In company I often glanced it;
Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.

 

[Guru]

AEMELIA


And thereof came it that the man was mad.
The venom clamours of a jealous woman
Poisons more deadly than a mad dog's tooth.
It seems his sleeps were hinder'd by thy railing,
And therefore comes it that his head is light.
Thou say'st his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings:
Unquiet meals make ill digestions;
Thereof the raging fire of fever bred;
And what's a fever but a fit of madness?
Thou say'st his sports were hinderd by thy brawls:
Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue
But moody and dull melancholy,
Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair,
And at her heels a huge infectious troop
Of pale distemperatures and foes to life?
In food, in sport and life-preserving rest
To be disturb'd, would mad or man or beast:
The consequence is then thy jealous fits
Have scared thy husband from the use of wits.

 

[Guru]

LUCIANA


She never reprehended him but mildly,
When he demean'd himself rough, rude and wildly.
Why bear you these rebukes and answer not?

 

[Guru]

ADRIANA


She did betray me to my own reproof.
Good people enter and lay hold on him.

 

[Guru]

AEMELIA


No, not a creature enters in my house.

 

[Guru]

ADRIANA


Then let your servants bring my husband forth.

 

[Guru]

AEMELIA


Neither: he took this place for sanctuary,
And it shall privilege him from your hands
Till I have brought him to his wits again,
Or lose my labour in assaying it.

 

[Guru]

ADRIANA


I will attend my husband, be his nurse,
Diet his sickness, for it is my office,
And will have no attorney but myself;
And therefore let me have him home with me.

 

[Guru]

AEMELIA


Be patient; for I will not let him stir
Till I have used the approved means I have,
With wholesome syrups, 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.

 

[Guru]

ADRIANA


I will not hence and leave my husband here:
And ill it doth beseem your holiness
To separate the husband and the wife.

 

[Guru]

AEMELIA


Be quiet and depart: thou shalt not have him.

Exit

 

[Guru]

LUCIANA


Complain unto the duke of this indignity.

 

[Guru]

ADRIANA


Come, go: I will fall prostrate at his feet
And never rise until my tears and prayers
Have won his grace to come in person hither
And take perforce my husband from the abbess.

 

[Guru]

Second Merchant


By this, I think, the dial points at five:
Anon, I'm sure, the duke himself in person
Comes this way to the melancholy vale,
The place of death and sorry execution,
Behind the ditches of the abbey here.

 

[Guru]

ANGELO


Upon what cause?

 

[Guru]

Second Merchant


To see a reverend Syracusian merchant,
Who put unluckily into this bay
Against the laws and statutes of this town,
Beheaded publicly for his offence.