Chapter 8

_SCENE I. A public place._

_Enter _Second Merchant_, ANGELO, and an _Officer_._

_Sec. Mer._ You know since Pentecost the sum is due, And since I have not much importuned you; Nor now I had not, but that I am bound To Persia, and want guilders for my voyage: Therefore make present satisfaction, 5 Or I’ll attach you by this officer.

_Ang._ Even just the sum that I do owe to you Is growing to me by Antipholus; And in the instant that I met with you He had of me a chain: at five o’clock 10 I shall receive the money for the same. Pleaseth you walk with me down to his house, I will discharge my bond, and thank you too.

_Enter _ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus_ and _DROMIO of Ephesus_ from the courtezan’s._

_Off._ That labour may you save: see where he comes.

_Ant. E._ While I go to the goldsmith’s house, go thou 15 And buy a rope’s end: that will I bestow Among my wife and her confederates, For locking me out of my doors by day.-- But, soft! I see the goldsmith. Get thee gone; Buy thou a rope, and bring it home to me. 20

_Dro. E._ I buy a thousand pound a year: I buy a rope. [_Exit._

_Ant. E._ A man is well holp up that trusts to you: I promised your presence and the chain; But neither chain nor goldsmith came to me. Belike you thought our love would last too long, 25 If it were chain’d together, and therefore came not.

_Ang._ Saving your merry humour, here’s the note How much your chain weighs to the utmost carat, The fineness of the gold, and chargeful fashion, Which doth amount to three odd ducats more 30 Than I stand debted to this gentleman: I pray you, see him presently discharged, For he is bound to sea, and stays but for it.

_Ant. E._ I am not furnish’d with the present money; Besides, I have some business in the town. 35 Good signior, take the stranger to my house, And with you take the chain, and bid my wife Disburse the sum on the receipt thereof: Perchance I will be there as soon as you.

_Ang._ Then you will bring the chain to her yourself? 40

_Ant. E._ No; bear it with you, lest I come not time enough.

_Ang._ Well, sir, I will. Have you the chain about you?

_Ant. E._ An if I have not, sir, I hope you have; Or else you may return without your money.

_Ang._ Nay, come, I pray you, sir, give me the chain: 45 Both wind and tide stays for this gentleman, And I, to blame, have held him here too long.

_Ant. E._ Good Lord! you use this dalliance to excuse Your breach of promise to the Porpentine. I should have chid you for not bringing it, 50 But, like a shrew, you first begin to brawl.

_Sec. Mer._ The hour steals on; I pray you, sir, dispatch.

_Ang._ You hear how he importunes me;--the chain!

_Ant. E._ Why, give it to my wife, and fetch your money.

_Ang._ Come, come, you know I gave it you even now. 55 Either send the chain, or send me by some token.

_Ant. E._ Fie, now you run this humour out of breath. Come, where’s the chain? I pray you, let me see it.

_Sec. Mer._ My business cannot brook this dalliance. Good sir, say whether you’ll answer me or no: 60 If not, I’ll leave him to the officer.

_Ant. E._ I answer you! what should I answer you?

_Ang._ The money that you owe me for the chain.

_Ant. E._ I owe you none till I receive the chain.

_Ang._ You know I gave it you half an hour since. 65

_Ant. E._ You gave me none: you wrong me much to say so.

_Ang._ You wrong me more, sir, in denying it: Consider how it stands upon my credit.

_Sec. Mer._ Well, officer, arrest him at my suit.

_Off._ I do; and charge you in the duke’s name to obey me. 70

_Ang._ This touches me in reputation. Either consent to pay this sum for me, Or I attach you by this officer.

_Ant. E._ Consent to pay thee that I never had! Arrest me, foolish fellow, if thou darest. 75

_Ang._ Here is thy fee; arrest him, officer. I would not spare my brother in this case, If he should scorn me so apparently.

_Off._ I do arrest you, sir: you hear the suit.

_Ant. E._ I do obey thee till I give thee bail. 80 But, sirrah, you shall buy this sport as dear As all the metal in your shop will answer.

_Ang._ Sir, sir, I shall have law in Ephesus, To your notorious shame; I doubt it not.

_Enter _DROMIO of Syracuse_, from the bay._

_Dro. S._ Master, there is a bark of Epidamnum 85 That stays but till her owner comes aboard, And then, sir, she bears away. Our fraughtage, sir, I have convey’d aboard; and I have bought The oil, the balsamum, and aqua-vitæ. The ship is in her trim; the merry wind 90 Blows fair from land: they stay for nought at all But for their owner, master, and yourself.

_Ant. E._ How now! a madman! Why, thou peevish sheep, What ship of Epidamnum stays for me?

_Dro. S._ A ship you sent me to, to hire waftage. 95

_Ant. E._ Thou drunken slave, I sent thee for a rope, And told thee to what purpose and what end.

_Dro. S._ You sent me for a rope’s end as soon: You sent me to the bay, sir, for a bark.

_Ant. E._ I will debate this matter at more leisure, 100 And teach your ears to list me with more heed. To Adriana, villain, hie thee straight: Give her this key, and tell her, in the desk That’s cover’d o’er with Turkish tapestry There is a purse of ducats; let her send it: 105 Tell her I am arrested in the street, And that shall bail me: hie thee, slave, be gone! On, officer, to prison till it come.

[_Exeunt Sec. Merchant, Angelo, Officer, and Ant. E._

_Dro. S._ To Adriana! that is where we dined, Where Dowsabel did claim me for her husband: 110 She is too big, I hope, for me to compass. Thither I must, although against my will, For servants must their masters’ minds fulfil. [_Exit._

NOTES: IV, 1.

8: _growing_] _owing_ Pope. 12: _Pleaseth you_] Ff. _Please you but_ Pope. _Please it you_ Anon. conj. 14: _may you_] F1 F2 F3. _you may_ F4. 17: _her_] Rowe. _their_ Ff. _these_ Collier MS. 26: _and_] om. Pope. 28: _carat_] Pope. _charect_ F1. _Raccat_ F2 F3 F4. _caract_ Collier. 29: _chargeful_] _charge for_ Anon. conj. 41: _time enough_] _in time_ Hanmer. 46: _stays_] _stay_ Pope. _this_] F1. _the_ F2 F3 F4. 47: _to blame_] F3. _too blame_ F1 F2 F4. 53: _the chain!_] Dyce. _the chain,_ Ff. _the chain--_ Johnson. 56: _Either_] _Or_ Pope. _me by_] _by me_ Heath conj. 60: _whether_] _whe’r_ Ff. _where_ Rowe. _if_ Pope. 62: _what_] F1. _why_ F2 F3 F4. 67: _more_] F1. om. F2 F3 F4. 70: Printed as verse by Capell. 73: _this_] F1. _the_ F2 F3 F4. 74: _thee_] F1. om. F2 F3 F4. _for_ Rowe. 85: SCENE II. Pope. _there is_] Pope. _there’s_ Ff. 87: _And then, sir,_] F1. _Then, sir,_ F2 F3 F4. _And then_ Capell. _she_] om. Steevens. 88: _bought_] F1. _brought_ F2 F3 F4. 98: _You sent me_] _A rope! You sent me_ Capell. _You sent me, Sir,_ Steevens.

_SCENE II. The house of _ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus_._

_Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA._

_Adr._ Ah, 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, 5 Of his heart’s meteors tilting in his face?

_Luc._ First he denied you had in him no right.

_Adr._ He meant he did me none; the more my spite.

_Luc._ Then swore he that he was a stranger here.

_Adr._ And true he swore, though yet forsworn he were. 10

_Luc._ Then pleaded I for you.

_Adr._ And what said he?

_Luc._ That love I begg’d for you he begg’d of me.

_Adr._ With what persuasion did he tempt thy love?

_Luc._ With words that in an honest suit might move. First he did praise my beauty, then my speech. 15

_Adr._ Didst speak him fair?

_Luc._ Have patience, I beseech.

_Adr._ I 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; 20 Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind; Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.

_Luc._ Who would be jealous, then, of such a one? No evil lost is wail’d when it is gone.

_Adr._ Ah, but I think him better than I say, 25 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.

_Enter _DROMIO of Syracuse_._

_Dro. S._ Here! go; the desk, the purse! sweet, now, make haste.

_Luc._ How hast thou lost thy breath?

_Dro. S._ By running fast. 30

_Adr._ Where is thy master, Dromio? is he well?

_Dro. S._ No, 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; 35 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. 40

_Adr._ Why, man, what is the matter?

_Dro. S._ I do not know the matter: he is ’rested on the case.

_Adr._ What, is he arrested? Tell me at whose suit.

_Dro. S._ I know not at whose suit he is arrested well; But he’s in a suit of buff which ’rested him, that can I tell. 45 Will you send him, mistress, redemption, the money in his desk?

_Adr._ Go 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?

_Dro. S._ Not on a band, but on a stronger thing; 50 A chain, a chain! Do you not hear it ring?

_Adr._ What, the chain?

_Dro. S._ No, no, the bell: ’tis time that I were gone: It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes one.

_Adr._ The hours come back! that did I never hear. 55

_Dro. S._ O, yes; if any hour meet a sergeant, ’a turns back for very fear.

_Adr._ As if Time were in debt! how fondly dost thou reason!

_Dro. S._ Time 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? 60 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?

_Re-enter LUCIANA with a purse._

_Adr._ Go, Dromio; there’s the money, bear it straight; And bring thy master home immediately. Come, sister: I am press’d down with conceit,-- 65 Conceit, my comfort and my injury.

[_Exeunt._

NOTES: IV, 2.