Enter Adriana and Luciana. ADRIANA
Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?
Might’st thou perceive austerely in his eye
That he did plead in earnest, yea or no?
Looked he or red or pale, or sad or merrily?
What observation mad’st thou in this case 5
Of his heart’s meteors tilting in his face? LUCIANA
First he denied you had in him no right. ADRIANA
He meant he did me none; the more my spite. LUCIANA
Then swore he that he was a stranger here. ADRIANA
And true he swore, though yet forsworn he were. 10 LUCIANA
Then pleaded I for you. ADRIANA And what said he? LUCIANA
That love I begged for you he begged of me. ADRIANA
With what persuasion did he tempt thy love? LUCIANA
With words that in an honest suit might move. 15
First he did praise my beauty, then my speech. ADRIANA
Did’st speak him fair? LUCIANA Have patience, I beseech. ADRIANA
I cannot, nor I will not hold me still.
My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will. 20
He is deformèd, crooked, old, and sere,
Ill-faced, worse-bodied, shapeless everywhere,
Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind,
Stigmatical in making, worse in mind. LUCIANA
Who would be jealous, then, of such a one? 25
No evil lost is wailed when it is gone. ADRIANA
Ah, but I think him better than I say,
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 30
curse. | At E. Antipholus’s house, the women are a mess. Luciana tells Adriana about E. Antipholus’s proclamations of love. Adriana wants every dirty detail of her husband’s trespass. Luciana admits that S. Antipholus’s words were exactly the right kind to win a girl—if a girl were to be won, of course. This continues on for a while, with Adriana declaring her hatred for E. Antipholus, even as she still prays for him. |
Enter Dromio of Syracuse with the key. DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Here, go—the desk, the purse! Sweet, now make
haste. LUCIANA
How hast thou lost thy breath? DROMIO OF SYRACUSE By running fast. 35 ADRIANA
Where is thy master, Dromio? Is he well? DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
No, he’s in Tartar limbo, worse than hell.
A devil in an everlasting garment hath him,
One whose hard heart is buttoned up with steel;
A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough; 40
A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff;
A backfriend, a shoulder clapper, one that
countermands
The passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands;
A hound that runs counter and yet draws dryfoot 45
well,
One that before the judgment carries poor souls to
hell. ADRIANA Why, man, what is the matter? DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
I do not know the matter. He is ’rested on the case. 50 ADRIANA
What, is he arrested? Tell me at whose suit. DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
I know not at whose suit he is arrested well,
But is in a suit of buff which ’rested him; that can I
tell.
Will you send him, mistress, redemption—the 55
money in his desk? ADRIANA
Go fetch it, sister. Luciana exits. This I wonder at,
That he, unknown to me, should be in debt.
Tell me, was he arrested on a band? DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Not on a band, but on a stronger thing: 60
A chain, a chain. Do you not hear it ring? ADRIANA What, the chain? DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
No, no, the bell. ’Tis time that I were gone.
It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes
one. 65 ADRIANA
The hours come back. That did I never hear. DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
O yes, if any hour meet a sergeant, he turns back
for very fear. ADRIANA
As if time were in debt. How fondly dost thou
reason! 70 DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Time is a very bankrout 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?
If he be in debt and theft, and a sergeant in the 75
way,
Hath he not reason to turn back an hour in a day? Enter Luciana, with the purse. ADRIANA
Go, Dromio. There’s the money. Bear it straight,
And bring thy master home immediately. Dromio exits. Come, sister, I am pressed down with conceit: 80
Conceit, my comfort and my injury. They exit. | S. Dromio arrives, out of breath, and blathers on about Antipholus being held by...a fiend, a fairy, a wolf, a hound—you name it. He's clearly distressed and babbling. Adriana surmises that Antipholus has been jailed. She has her sister grab the bail money so S. Dromio can go to his aid. When S. Dromio leaves, Adriana is left wondering why her husband is locked up. |