SCENE II. The house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus. The Comedy of Errors  Shakespeare homepage  |  Comedy of Errors  | Act 4, Scene 2 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE II. The house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus. 

 Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA  ADRIANA  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 

 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. 

 LUCIANA  Then pleaded I for you. 

 ADRIANA  And what said he? 

 LUCIANA  That love I begg'd for you he begg'd of me. 

 ADRIANA  With what persuasion did he tempt thy love? 

 LUCIANA  With words that in an honest suit might move. 

 First he did praise my beauty, then my speech. 

 ADRIANA  Didst 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. 

 He is deformed, 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? 

 No evil lost is wail'd 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 curse. 



 Enter DROMIO of Syracuse  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. 

 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 button'd up with steel; 

 A fiend, a fury, pitiless and rough; 

 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 dryfoot well; 

 One that before the judgement 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. 

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

 DROMIO OF SYRACUSE  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. 

 Will you send him, mistress, redemption, the money in his desk? 

 ADRIANA  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? 

 DROMIO OF SYRACUSE  Not on a band, but on a stronger thing; 

 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. 

 ADRIANA  The hours come back! that did I never hear. 

 DROMIO OF SYRACUSE  O, yes; if any hour meet a sergeant, a' turns back for 

 very fear. 

 ADRIANA  As if Time were in debt! how fondly dost thou reason! 

 DROMIO OF SYRACUSE  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? 

 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  ADRIANA  Go, Dromio; there's the money, bear it straight; 

 And bring thy master home immediately. 

 Come, sister: I am press'd down with conceit-- 

 Conceit, my comfort and my injury. 



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