Mer. These ears of mine, thou knoweft, did hear

thee:

Fy on thee, wretch! 'tis pity, that thou liv'st
To walk where any honeft men refort.

S. Ant. Thou art a villain, to impeach me thus.
I'll mine honour and my honesty
prove

Against thee presently, if thou dar'ft stand.

Mer. I dare, and do defy thee for a villain.

SCENE II.

[They draw.

Enter Adriana, Luciana, Courtezan, and others.

Adr. Hold, hurt him not, for God's fake; he is mad;

Some get within him, take his fword away:

Bind Dromio too, and bear them to my house.

S. Dro. Run, mafter, run; for God's fake, take a

houfe.

This is fome Priory-In, or we are spoil'd.

[Exeunt to the Priory.

Enter Lady Abbess.

Abb. Be quiet, people; wherefore throng you hither? Adr. To fetch my poor distracted husband hence; Let us come in, that we may bind him fast,

And bear him home for his recovery.

Ang. I knew, he was not in his perfect wits. Mer. I'm forry now, that I did draw on him. Abb. How long hath this poffeffion held the man? Adr. This week he hath been heavy, sower, fad, And much, much different from the man he was: But, till this afternoon, his paffion

Ne'er brake into extremity of rage.

Abb. Hath he not loft much wealth by wreck at fea? Bury'd fome dear friend? hath not elfe his eye Stray'd his affection in unlawful love?

A

A fin, prevailing much in youthful men,
Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing."
Which of these forrows is he fubject to?

Adr. To none of these, except it be the last;
Namely, fome love, that drew him oft from home.
Abb. You fhould for that have reprehended him.
Adr. Why, fo I did.

Abb. Ay, but not rough enough.

Adr. As roughly, as my modefty would let me.
Abb. Haply, in private.

Adr. And in affemblies too.
Abb. Ay, but not enough.

Adr. It was the copy of our conference.
In bed, he flept not for my urging it;
At board, he fed not for my urging it;
Alone, it was the fubject of my theam;
In company, I often glanc'd at it;
Still did I tell him, it was vile and bad.

Abb. And therefore came it, that the man was mad. The venom clamours of a jealous woman

Poifon more deadly, than a mad dog's tooth.!

It seems, his fleeps were hinder'd by thy railing;
And therefore comes it, that his head is light.
Thou say'st, his meat was fauc'd with thy upbraidings;
Unquiet meals make ill digeftions;

Therefore the raging fire of fever bred;

And what's a fever, but a fit of madness?
Thou fay'ft, his sports were hinder'd by thy brawls.
Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth enfue,
But moody and dull melancholy,

• Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair?
And at her heels a huge infectious troop
Of pale diftemperatures, and foes to life.
In food, in fport, and life-preferving reft,

This was the foolish

8. Kinfman to grim and comfort- the next. lefs dfpair? Shakespear infertion of the firft Editors. I eould never make melancholy a have therefore put it into hooks, WARBURTON. male in this line, and a female in as fpurious. To

To be disturb'd, would mad orman or beaft:
The confequence is then, thy jealous fits
Have scared thy hufband from the ufe of wits.
Luc. She never reprehended him but mildly,
When he demean'd himself rough, rude and wildly.
-Why bear you these rebukes, and answer not?
Adr. She did betray me to my own reproof.
-Good people, enter, and lay hold on him.
Abb. No, not a creature enter in 'my house.
Adr. Then, let your fervants bring my hufband forth.
Abb. Neither; he took this place for fanctuary,
And it fhall privilege him from your hands,
'Till I have brought him to his wits again,
Or lofe my labour in affaying it.

Adr. I will attend my husband, be his nurse,
Diet his fickness, for it is my office;
And will have no attorney but myself;
And therefore let me have him home with me.
Abb. Be patient, for I will not let him ftir,
'Till I have us'd th' approved means I have,
With wholsome firups, 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.

Adr. I will not hence, and leave my husband here;
And ill it doth befeem your holiness
To separate the husband and the wife.

Abb. Be quiet and depart, thou fhalt not have him.
Luc. Complain unto the Duke of this indignity.
[Exit Abbefs.

Adr. Come, go; I will fall proftrate at his feet,
And never rife, until my tears and prayers
Have won his Grace to come in perfon hither;
And take perforce my husband from the Abbefs.
Mer. By this, I think, the dial points at five:
Anon, I'm fure, the Duke himself in perfon
Comes this way to the melancholy vale;

The

The place of death and forry execution,
Behind the ditches of the abbey here.
Ang. Upon what cause?

Mer. To fee a reverend Syracufan merchant,
Who put unluckily into this bay

Against the laws and ftatutes of this town,
Beheaded publickly for his offence.

Ang. See, where they come; we will behold his death.

Luc. Kneel to the Duke, before he pass the abbey.

Enter the Duke, and Ægeon bare-headed; with the Headfman, and other Officers.

Duke. Yet once again proclaim it publickly,

If friend will any

pay the fum for him,

He fhall not die, fo much we tender him.

Adr. Juftice, most facred Duke, against the Abbess:
Duke. She is a virtuous and a reverend Lady;
It cannot be, that she hath done thee wrong.
Adr. May it please your Grace, Antipholis my huf-
band,

(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 defp'rately he hurry'd 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 fent him home,
Whilft to take order for the wrongs I went,
That here and there his fury had committed:
Anon, I wot not by what ftrong escape,
He broke from those that had the guard of him:

And,

And, with his mad attendant 9 mad himself,
Each one with ireful paffion, with drawn fwords,
Met us again, and, madly bent on us,
Chas'd us away; 'till raifing of more aid,
We came again to bind them; then they fled
Into this abbey, whither we purfu'd them;
And here the Abbefs fhuts the gates on us,
And will not fuffer us to fetch him out,

Nor fend him forth, that we may bear him hence.
Therefore, moft gracious Duke, with thy command,
Let him be brought forth, and borne hence for help..
Duke. Long fince thy hufband ferv'd me in my wars.
And I to thee engag'd a Prince's word,

(When thou didst make him master of thy bed,)
To do him all the grace and good I could.
Go, fome of you, knock at the abbey-gate;
And bid the lady Abbefs come to me.
I will determine this, before I ftir.

Mess. O mistress, mistress, fhift and fave yourself;
My mafter and his man are both broke loose,
Beaten the maids a-row, and bound the doctor,
Whose beard they have fing'd off with brands of fire;
And ever as it blaz'd, they threw on him

Great pails of puddled mire to quench the hair;
My mafter preaches patience to him, and the while
His man with fciffars nicks him like a fool :
And, fure, unless you fend fome present help,
Between them they will kill the conjurer.

Adr. Peace, fool, thy mafter and his man are here, And that is falfe, thou doft report to us.

9 And, with his mad attendant read, AND himfelf,] We should

VOL. III.

M

MAD himself..
WARBURTON.

Melf.