puts out her hand to stop them. “No, not a creature enters in my house.”
“Then let your servants bring my husband forth.”
“Neither: he took this place for sanctuary, And it shall privilege him from your hands Till I have brought him to his wits again, Or lose my labour in assaying it.”
“I will attend my husband, be his nurse, Diet his sickness, for it is my office, And will have no attorney but myself; And therefore let me have him home with me.”
“Be patient; for I will not let him stir Till I have used the approved means I have, With wholesome syrups, drugs and holy prayers, To make of him a formal man again: It is a branch and parcel of mine oath, A charitable duty of my order. Therefore depart and leave him here with me.”
“I will not hence and leave my husband here: And ill it doth beseem your holiness To separate the husband and the wife.”
“Be quiet and depart: thou shalt not have him.”
Emelia returns to the abbey and Luciana turns to her sister. “Complain unto the duke of this indignity.”
“Come, go: I will fall prostrate at his feet And never rise until my tears and prayers Have won his grace to come in person hither And take perforce my husband from the abbess.”
The merchant also encourages Adriana to address the Duke. “By this, I think, the dial points at five: Anon, I'm sure, the duke himself in person Comes this way to the melancholy vale, The place of death and sorry execution, Behind the ditches of the abbey here.”
Angelo has not been following the local gossip. “Upon what cause?”
“To see a reverend Syracusian merchant, Who put unluckily into this bay Against the laws and statutes of this town, Beheaded publicly for his offence.”
“See where they come: we will behold his death.”
Luciana instructs them each, “Kneel to the duke before he pass the abbey.”
Duke Solinus enters with several of his officers, and the imprisoned Aegeon. The Duke addresses the group gathering in front of the abbey. “Yet once again proclaim it publicly, If any friend will pay the sum for him, He shall not die; so much we tender him.”
Adriana interrupts the Duke, “Justice, most sacred duke, against the abbess!”
“She is a virtuous and a reverend lady: It cannot be that she hath done thee wrong.”
“May it please your grace, Antipholus, my husband, Whom I made lord of me and all I had, At your important letters,--this ill day A most outrageous fit of madness took him; That desperately he hurried through the street, With him his bondman, all as mad as he-- Doing displeasure to the citizens By rushing in their houses, bearing thence Rings, jewels, any thing his rage did like. Once did I get him bound and sent him home, Whilst to take order for the wrongs I went, That here and there his fury had committed. Anon, I wot not by what strong escape, He broke from those that had the guard of him; And with his mad attendant and himself, Each one with ireful passion, with drawn swords, Met us again and madly bent on us, Chased us away; till, raising of more aid, We came again to bind them. Then they fled Into this abbey, whither we pursued them: And here the abbess shuts the gates on us And will not suffer us to fetch him out, Nor send him forth that we may bear him hence. Therefore, most gracious duke, with thy command Let him be brought forth and borne hence for help.”
“Long since thy husband served me in my wars, And I to thee engaged a prince's word, When thou didst make him master of thy bed, To do him all the grace and good I could. Go, some of you, knock at the abbey-gate And bid the lady abbess come to me. I will determine this before I stir.”
A servant comes rushing onto the crowded street. “O mistress, mistress, shift and save yourself! My master and his man are both broke loose, Beaten the maids a-row and bound the doctor Whose beard they have singed off with brands of fire; And ever, as it blazed, they threw on him Great pails of puddled mire to quench the hair: My master preaches patience to him and the while His man with scissors nicks him like a fool, And sure, unless you send some present help, Between them they will kill the conjurer.”
Adriana cannot make sense of his strange words. “Peace, fool! thy master and his man are here, And that is false thou dost report to us.”
“Mistress, upon my life, I tell you true; I have not breathed almost since I did see it. He cries for you, and vows, if he can take you, To scorch your face and to disfigure you…Hark, hark! I hear him, mistress. fly, be gone!”
Duke Solinus instructs Adriana, “Come, stand by me; fear nothing. Guard with halberds (ax-like weapons)!”
Adriana yells out, “Ay me, it is my husband! Witness you, That he is borne about invisible: Even now we housed him in the abbey here; And now he's there, past thought of human reason.”
Antipholus and Dromio (of Ephesus) enter the street and stand before the Duke. Antipholus addresses him, “Justice, most gracious duke, O, grant me justice! Even for the service that long since I did thee, When I bestrid thee in the wars and took Deep scars to save thy life; even for the blood That then I lost for thee, now grant me justice.”
Aegeon has been standing by silently, and suddenly gasps. “Unless the fear of death doth make me dote, I see my son Antipholus and Dromio.”
Antipholus ignores this stranger, and speaks to the Duke again, “Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there! She whom thou gavest to me to be my wife, That hath abused and dishonour'd me Even in the strength and height of injury! Beyond imagination is the wrong That she this day hath shameless thrown on me.”
The Duke addresses him, “Discover how, and thou shalt find me just.”
“This day, great duke, she shut the doors upon me, While she with harlots feasted in my house.”
“A grievous fault! Say, woman, didst thou so?”
Adriana is shocked at the accusation. “No, my good lord: myself, he and my sister To-day did dine together. So befall my soul As this is false he burdens me withal!”
Luciana defends her sister. “Ne'er may I look on day, nor sleep on night, But she tells to your highness simple truth!”
Angelo can no longer stand by silently. “O perjured woman! They are both forsworn: In this the madman justly chargeth them.”
“My liege, I am advised what I say, Neither disturbed with the effect of wine, Nor heady-rash, provoked with raging ire, Albeit my wrongs might make one wiser mad. This woman lock'd me out this day from dinner: That goldsmith there, were he not pack'd with her, Could witness it, for he was with me then; Who parted with me to go fetch a chain, Promising to bring it to the Porpentine, Where Balthazar and I did dine together. Our dinner done, and he not coming thither, I went to seek him: in the street I met him And in his company that gentleman. There did this perjured goldsmith swear me down That I this day of him received the chain, Which, God he knows, I saw not: for the which He did arrest me with an officer. I did obey, and sent my peasant home For certain ducats: he with none return'd Then fairly I bespoke the officer To go in person with me to my house. By the way we met My wife, her sister, and a rabble more Of vile confederates. Along with them They brought one Dr. Pinch, a hungry lean-faced villain, A mere anatomy, a mountebank, A threadbare juggler and a fortune-teller, A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch, A dead-looking man: this pernicious slave, Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer, And, gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse, And with no face, as 'twere, outfacing me, Cries out, I was possess'd. Then all together They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence And in a dark and dankish vault at home There left me and my man, both bound together; Till, gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder, I gain'd my freedom, and immediately Ran hither to your grace; whom I beseech To give me ample satisfaction For these deep shames and great indignities.”
Angelo agrees. “My lord, in truth, thus far I witness with him, That he dined not at home, but was lock'd out.”
The Duke asks Angelo, “But had he such a chain of thee or no?”
“He had, my lord: and when he ran in here, These people saw the chain about his neck.”
The merchant adds, ??
?Besides, I will be sworn these ears of mine Heard you confess you had the chain of him After you first forswore it on the mart: And thereupon I drew my sword on you; And then you fled into this abbey here, From whence, I think, you are come by miracle.”
Antipholus interrupts again. “I never came within these abbey-walls, Nor ever didst thou draw thy sword on me: I never saw the chain, so help me Heaven! And this is false you burden me withal.”
The Duke is very confused. “Why, what an intricate impeach is this! I think you all have drunk of Circe's cup. If here you housed him, here he would have been; If he were mad, he would not plead so coldly: You say he dined at home; the goldsmith here Denies that saying. Sirrah, what say you?”
Dromio responds to the Duke, “Sir, he dined with her there, at the Porpentine.”
The Courtesan nods in agreement. “He did, and from my finger snatch'd that ring.”
Antipholus responds, “'Tis true, my liege; this ring I had of her.”
The Duke’s confusion is growing. “Saw'st thou him enter at the abbey here?”
The Courtesan nods again. “As sure, my liege, as I do see your grace.”
“Why, this is strange. Go call the abbess hither. I think you are all mated or stark mad.”
At a break in the conversation Aegeon finally speaks again. “Most mighty duke, vouchsafe me speak a word: Haply I see a friend will save my life And pay the sum that may deliver