The Comedy of Errors
Act IV, Scene 4
A street.
Byam Shaw, 1901
- Enter Antipholus of Ephesus with the Officer.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1 - 9- Fear me not, man, I will not break away;
- I’ll give thee, ere I leave thee, so much money,
- To warrant thee, as I am ’rested for.
- My wife is in a wayward mood today,
- And will not lightly trust the messenger,
- That I should be attach’d in Ephesus;
- I tell you, ’twill sound harshly in her ears.
- Enter Dromio of Ephesus with a rope’s end.
- Here comes my man: I think he brings the money.
- How now, sir? Have you that I sent you for?
Dromio of Ephesus
10- Here’s that, I warrant you, will pay them all.
Antipholus of Ephesus
11- But where’s the money?
Dromio of Ephesus
12- Why, sir, I gave the money for the rope.
Antipholus of Ephesus
13- Five hundred ducats, villain, for a rope?
Dromio of Ephesus
14- I’ll serve you, sir, five hundred at the rate.
Antipholus of Ephesus
15- To what end did I bid thee hie thee home?
Dromio of Ephesus
16- To a rope’s end, sir, and to that end am I return’d.
Antipholus of Ephesus
17- And to that end, sir, I will welcome you.
- Beats Dromio.
Officer
18- Good sir, be patient.
Dromio of Ephesus
19- Nay, ’tis for me to be patient: I am in adversity.
Officer
20- Good now, hold thy tongue.
Dromio of Ephesus
21- Nay, rather persuade him to hold his hands.
Antipholus of Ephesus
22- Thou whoreson, senseless villain!
Dromio of Ephesus
23 - 24- I would I were senseless, sir, that I might not feel your
- blows.
Antipholus of Ephesus
25- Thou art sensible in nothing but blows, and so is an ass.
Dromio of Ephesus
26 - 35- I am an ass indeed; you may prove it by my long ears. I have
- serv’d him from the hour of my nativity to this instant, and
- have nothing at his hands for my service but blows. When I
- am cold, he heats me with beating; when I am warm, he cools
- me with beating. I am wak’d with it when I sleep, rais’d
- with it when I sit, driven out of doors with it when I go
- from home, welcom’d home with it when I return; nay, I bear
- it on my shoulders, as a beggar wont her brat; and I think
- when he hath lam’d me, I shall beg with it from door to
- door.
- Enter Adriana, Luciana, Courtezan, and a schoolmaster call’d
- Pinch.
Antipholus of Ephesus
36- Come go along, my wife is coming yonder.
Dromio of Ephesus
37 - 38- Mistress, respice finem, respect your end, or rather, the
- prophecy like the parrot, “beware the rope’s end.”
Antipholus of Ephesus
39- Wilt thou still talk?
- Beats Dromio.
Courtezan
40- How say you now? Is not your husband mad?
Adriana
41 - 44- His incivility confirms no less.
- Good Doctor Pinch, you are a conjurer,
- Establish him in his true sense again,
- And I will please you what you will demand.
Luciana
45- Alas, how fiery, and how sharp, he looks!
Courtezan
46- Mark, how he trembles in his ecstasy!
Doctor Pinch
47- Give me your hand, and let me feel your pulse.
Antipholus of Ephesus
48- There is my hand, and let it feel your ear.
- Strikes Pinch.
Doctor Pinch
49 - 52- I charge thee, Satan, hous’d within this man,
- To yield possession to my holy prayers,
- And to thy state of darkness hie thee straight:
- I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven!
Antipholus of Ephesus
53- Peace, doting wizard, peace! I am not mad.
Adriana
54- O that thou wert not, poor distressed soul!
Antipholus of Ephesus
55 - 59- You minion, you, are these your customers?
- Did this companion with the saffron face
- Revel and feast it at my house today,
- Whilst upon me the guilty doors were shut,
- And I denied to enter in my house?
Adriana
60 - 62- O husband, God doth know you din’d at home,
- Where would you had remain’d until this time,
- Free from these slanders and this open shame.
Antipholus of Ephesus
63- Din’d at home? Thou villain, what sayest thou?
Dromio of Ephesus
64- Sir, sooth to say, you did not dine at home.
Antipholus of Ephesus
65- Were not my doors lock’d up, and I shut out?
Dromio of Ephesus
66- Perdie, your doors were lock’d, and you shut out.
Antipholus of Ephesus
67- And did not she herself revile me there?
Dromio of Ephesus
68- Sans fable, she herself revil’d you there.
Antipholus of Ephesus
69- Did not her kitchen maid rail, taunt, and scorn me?
Dromio of Ephesus
70- Certes she did, the kitchen vestal scorn’d you.
Antipholus of Ephesus
71- And did not I in rage depart from thence?
Dromio of Ephesus
72 - 73- In verity you did, my bones bears witness,
- That since have felt the vigor of his rage.
Adriana
74- Is’t good to soothe him in these contraries?
Doctor Pinch
75 - 76- It is no shame; the fellow finds his vein,
- And yielding to him, humors well his frenzy.
Antipholus of Ephesus
77- Thou hast suborn’d the goldsmith to arrest me.
Adriana
78 - 79- Alas, I sent you money to redeem you,
- By Dromio here, who came in haste for it.
Dromio of Ephesus
80 - 81- Money by me? Heart and good will you might,
- But surely, master, not a rag of money.
Antipholus of Ephesus
82- Went’st not thou to her for a purse of ducats?
Adriana
83- He came to me, and I deliver’d it.
Luciana
84- And I am witness with her that she did.
Good sir, be patient.
John Masey Wright, circa 1800
Dromio of Ephesus
85 - 86- God and the rope-maker bear me witness
- That I was sent for nothing but a rope!
Doctor Pinch
87 - 89- Mistress, both man and master is possess’d:
- I know it by their pale and deadly looks.
- They must be bound and laid in some dark room.
Antipholus of Ephesus
90 - 91- Say wherefore didst thou lock me forth today?
- And why dost thou deny the bag of gold?
Adriana
92- I did not, gentle husband, lock thee forth.
Dromio of Ephesus
93 - 94- And, gentle master, I receiv’d no gold;
- But I confess, sir, that we were lock’d out.
Adriana
95- Dissembling villain, thou speak’st false in both.
Antipholus of Ephesus
96 - 100- Dissembling harlot, thou art false in all,
- And art confederate with a damned pack
- To make a loathsome abject scorn of me;
- But with these nails I’ll pluck out these false eyes
- That would behold in me this shameful sport.
- Enter three or four, and offer to bind him; he strives.
Adriana
101- O, bind him, bind him, let him not come near me.
Doctor Pinch
102- More company! The fiend is strong within him.
Luciana
103- Ay me, poor man, how pale and wan he looks!
Antipholus of Ephesus
104 - 106- What, will you murder me? Thou jailer, thou,
- I am thy prisoner. Wilt thou suffer them
- To make a rescue?
Officer
107 - 108- Masters, let him go:
- He is my prisoner, and you shall not have him.
Doctor Pinch
109- Go bind this man, for he is frantic too.
- They offer to bind Dromio of Ephesus.
Adriana
110 - 112- What wilt thou do, thou peevish officer?
- Hast thou delight to see a wretched man
- Do outrage and displeasure to himself?
Officer
113 - 114- He is my prisoner; if I let him go,
- The debt he owes will be requir’d of me.
Adriana
115 - 119- I will discharge thee ere I go from thee:
- Bear me forthwith unto his creditor,
- And knowing how the debt grows, I will pay it.
- Good Master Doctor, see him safe convey’d
- Home to my house. O most unhappy day!
Antipholus of Ephesus
120- O most unhappy strumpet!
Dromio of Ephesus
121- Master, I am here ent’red in bond for you.
Antipholus of Ephesus
122- Out on thee, villain, wherefore dost thou mad me?
Dromio of Ephesus
123 - 124- Will you be bound for nothing? Be mad, good master,
- Cry “The devil!”
Luciana
125- God help, poor souls, how idlely do they talk!
Adriana
126 - 127- Go bear him hence. Sister, go you with me.
- Exeunt Manent Officer, Adriana, Luciana, Courtezan.
- Say now, whose suit is he arrested at?
Officer
128- One Angelo, a goldsmith. Do you know him?
Adriana
129- I know the man; what is the sum he owes?
Officer
130- Two hundred ducats.
Adriana
131- Say, how grows it due?
Officer
132- Due for a chain your husband had of him.
Adriana
133- He did bespeak a chain for me, but had it not.
Courtezan
134 - 137- When as your husband all in rage today
- Came to my house, and took away my ring—
- The ring I saw upon his finger now—
- Straight after did I meet him with a chain.
Adriana
138 - 140- It may be so, but I did never see it.
- Come, jailer, bring me where the goldsmith is,
- I long to know the truth hereof at large.
- Enter Antipholus of Syracuse, with his rapier drawn, and
- Dromio of Syracuse.
Luciana
141- God for thy mercy! They are loose again.
Adriana
142 - 143- And come with naked swords: let’s call more help
- To have them bound again.
Officer
144- Away, they’ll kill us.
- Exeunt omnes but Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of
- Syracuse as fast as may be, frighted.
Antipholus of Syracuse
145- I see these witches are afraid of swords.
Dromio of Syracuse
146- She that would be your wife now ran from you.
Antipholus of Syracuse
147 - 148- Come to the Centaur, fetch our stuff from thence;
- I long that we were safe and sound aboard.
Dromio of Syracuse
149 - 153- Faith, stay here this night, they will surely do us no harm.
- You saw they speak us fair, give us gold: methinks they are
- such a gentle nation that, but for the mountain of mad flesh
- that claims marriage of me, I could find in my heart to stay
- here still, and turn witch.
Antipholus of Syracuse
154 - 155- I will not stay tonight for all the town:
- Therefore away, to get our stuff aboard.
- Exeunt.
John Dunstall as Dromio of Syracuse
Charles Grignion, printmaker; John Bell, publisher; Thomas Parkinson; 1776