Comedy of Errors (version 2) — Act 2
ACT II. _SCENE I.
The house of _ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus_.
_ _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.
_Luc.
_ Perhaps some merchant hath invited him, And from the mart he’s somewhere gone to dinner.
5 Good sister, let us dine, and never fret: A man is master of his liberty: Time is their master; and when they see time, They’ll go or come: if so, be patient, sister.
_Adr.
_ Why should their liberty than ours be more?
10 _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.
_Adr.
_ There’s none but asses will be bridled so.
_Luc.
_ Why, headstrong liberty is lash’d with woe.
15 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, Are their males’ subjects and at their controls: Men, more divine, the masters of all these, 20 Lords of the wide world and wild watery seas, Indued with intellectual sense and souls, Of more pre-eminence than fish and fowls, Are masters to their females, and their lords: Then let your will attend on their accords.
25 _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.
_Luc.
_ Ere I learn love, I’ll practise to obey.
_Adr.
_ How if your husband start some other where?
30 _Luc.
_ Till he come home again, I would forbear.
_Adr.
_ Patience unmoved!
no marvel though she pause;
They can be meek that have no other cause.
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry; 35 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, With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me;
But, if thou live to see like right bereft, 40 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.
_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 45 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: Beshrew his hand, I scarce could understand it.
_Luc.
_ Spake he so doubtfully, thou couldst not feel his 50 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?
55 It seems he hath great care to please his wife.
_Dro.
E.
_ Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad.
_Adr.
_ Horn-mad, thou villain!
_Dro.
E.
_ I mean not cuckold-mad;
But, sure, he is stark mad.
When I desired him to come home to dinner, 60 He ask’d me for a thousand marks in gold: ‘’Tis dinner-time,’ quoth I; ‘My gold!
’ quoth he: ‘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?
’ 65 ‘The pig,’ quoth I, ‘is burn’d;’ ‘My gold!
’ quoth he: ‘My mistress, sir,’ quoth I; ‘Hang up thy mistress!
I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress!
’ _Luc.
_ Quoth who?
_Dro.
E.
_ Quoth my master: 70 ‘I know,’ quoth he, ‘no house, no wife, no mistress.
’ So that my errand, due unto my tongue, I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders;
For, in conclusion, he did beat me there.
_Adr.
_ Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him home.
75 _Dro.
E.
_ Go back again, and be new beaten home?
For God’s sake, send some other messenger.
_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.
80 _Adr.
_ Hence, prating peasant!
fetch thy master home.
_Dro.
E.
_ Am I so round with you as you with me, 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.
_ 85 _Luc.
_ Fie, how impatience lowereth in your face!
_Adr.
_ His company must do his minions grace, 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: 90 Are my discourses dull?
barren my wit?
If voluble and sharp discourse be marr’d, 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: 95 What ruins are in me that can be found, By him not ruin’d?
then is he the ground Of my defeatures.
My decayed fair A sunny look of his would soon repair: But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale, 100 And feeds from home; poor I am but his stale.
_Luc.
_ Self-harming jealousy!
fie, beat it hence!
_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?
105 Sister, you know he promised me a chain;
Would that alone, alone he would detain, So he would keep fair quarter with his bed!
I see the jewel best enamelled Will lose his beauty; yet the gold bides still, 110 That others touch, and often touching will Wear gold: and no man that hath a name, 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.
115 _Luc.
_ How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!
[_Exeunt.
_ NOTES: II, 1.
The house ...
Ephesus.
] Pope.
The same (i. e. A publick place).
Capell, and passim.
11: _o’ door_] Capell.
_adore_ F1 F2 F3.
_adoor_ F4.
12: _ill_] F2 F3 F4.
_thus_ F1.
15: _lash’d_] _leashed_ “a learned lady” conj.
ap.
Steevens.
_lach’d_ or _lac’d_ Becket conj.
17: _bound, ...
sky:_] _bound: ...
sky,_ Anon.
conj.
19: _subjects_] _subject_ Capell.
20, 21: _Men ...
masters ...
Lords_] Hanmer.
_Man ...
master ...
Lord_ Ff.
21: _wild watery_] _wilde watry_ F1.
_wide watry_ F2 F3 F4.
22, 23: _souls ...
fowls_] F1.
_soul ...
fowl_ F2 F3 F4.
30: _husband start_] _husband’s heart’s_ Jackson conj.
_other where_] _other hare_ Johnson conj.
See note (III).
31: _home_] om.
Boswell (ed.
1821).
39: _wouldst_] Rowe.
_would_ Ff.
40: _see_] _be_ Hanmer.
41: _fool-begg’d_] _fool-egg’d_ Jackson conj.
_fool-bagg’d_ Staunton conj.
_fool-badged_ Id.
conj.
44: SCENE II.
Pope.
_now_] _yet_ Capell.
45: _Nay_] _At hand?
Nay_ Capell.
_and_] om.
Capell.
45, 46: _two ...
two_] _too ...
two_ F1.
50-53: _doubtfully_] _doubly_ Collier MS. 53: _withal_] _therewithal_ Capell.
_that_] om.
Capell, who prints lines 50-54 as four verses ending _feel ...
I ...
therewithal ...
them.
_ 59: _he is_] _he’s_ Pope.
om.
Hanmer.
61: _a thousand_] F4.
_a hundred_ F1 _a 1000_ F2 F3.
64: _home_] Hanmer.
om.
Ff.
68: _I know not thy mistress_] _Thy mistress I know not_ Hanmer.
_I know not of thy mistress_ Capell.
_I know thy mistress not_ Seymour conj.
_out on thy mistress_] F1 F4.
_out on my mistress_ F2 F3.
_’out on thy mistress,’ Quoth he_ Capell.
_I know no mistress;
out upon thy mistress_ Steevens conj.
70: _Quoth_] _Why, quoth_ Hanmer.
71-74: Printed as prose in Ff.
Corrected by Pope.
73: _bare_] _bear_ Steevens.
_my_] _thy_ F2.
74: _there_] _thence_ Capell conj.
85: _I last_] _I’m to last_ Anon.
conj.
[Exit.
] F2.
87: SCENE III.
Pope.
93: _blunts_] F1.
_blots_ F2 F3 F4.
107: _alone, alone_] F2 F3 F4.
_alone, a love_ F1.
_alone, alas!
_ Hanmer.
_alone, O love,_ Capell conj.
_alone a lone_ Nicholson conj.
110: _yet the_] Ff.
_and the_ Theobald.
_and tho’_ Hanmer.
_yet though_ Collier.
111: _That others touch_] _The tester’s touch_ Anon.
(Fras.
Mag.
) conj.
_The triers’ touch_ Singer.
_and_] Ff.
_yet_ Theobald.
_an_ Collier.
_though_ Heath conj.
111, 112: _will Wear_] Theobald (Warburton).
_will, Where_] F1.
112, 113: F2 F3 F4 omit these two lines.
See note (IV).
112: _and no man_] F1.
_and so no man_ Theobald.
_and e’en so man_ Capell.
_and so a man_ Heath conj.
113: _By_] F1.
_But_ Theobald.
115: _what’s left away_] _(what’s left away)_ F1.
_(what’s left) away_ F2 F3 F4.
_SCENE II.
A public place.
_ _Enter _ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse_.
_ _Ant.
S.
_ The gold I gave to Dromio is laid up Safe at the Centaur; and the heedful slave Is wander’d forth, in care to seek me out By computation and mine host’s report.
I could not speak with Dromio since at first 5 I sent him from the mart.
See, here he comes.
_Enter _DROMIO of Syracuse_.
_ How now, sir!
is your merry humour alter’d?
As you love strokes, so jest with me again.
You know no Centaur?
you receiv’d no gold?
Your mistress sent to have me home to dinner?
10 My house was at the Phœnix?
Wast thou mad, That thus so madly thou didst answer me?
_Dro.
S.
_ What answer, sir?
when spake I such a word?
_Ant.
S.
_ Even now, even here, not half an hour since.
_Dro.
S.
_ I did not see you since you sent me hence, 15 Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me.
_Ant.
S.
_ Villain, thou didst deny the gold’s receipt, And told’st me of a mistress and a dinner;
For which, I hope, thou felt’st I was displeased.
_Dro.
S.
_ I am glad to see you in this merry vein: 20 What means this jest?
I pray you, master, tell me.
_Ant.
S.
_ Yea, dost thou jeer and flout me in the teeth?
Think’st thou I jest?
Hold, take thou that, and that.
[_Beating him.
_ _Dro.
S.
_ Hold, sir, for God’s sake!
now your jest is earnest: Upon what bargain do you give it me?
25 _Ant.
S.
