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The Comedy of Errors (Folio 1, 1623)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Matthew Steggle
Not Peer Reviewed
The Comedie of Errors.
99

Exit one to the Abbesse.

Fa. Most mighty Duke, vouchsafe me speak a word:
Haply I see a friend will saue my life,
And pay the sum that may deliuer me.
1765Duke. Speake freely Siracusian what thou wilt.
Fath. Is not your name sir call'd Antipholus?
And is not that your bondman Dromio?
E.Dro. Within this houre I was his bondman sir,
But he I thanke him gnaw'd in two my cords,
1770Now am I Dromio, and his man, vnbound.
Fath. I am sure you both of you remember me.
Dro. Our selues we do remember sir by you:
For lately we were bound as you are now.
You are not Pinches patient, are you sir?
1775Father. Why looke you strange on me? you know
me well.
E.Ant. I neuer saw you in my life till now.
Fa. Oh! griefe hath chang'd me since you saw me last,
And carefull houres with times deformed hand,
1780Haue written strange defeatures in my face:
But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?
Ant. Neither.
Fat. Dromio, nor thou?
Dro. No trust me sir, nor I.
1785Fa. I am sure thou dost?
E.Dromio. I sir, but I am sure I do not, and whatso-
euer a man denies, you are now bound to beleeue him.
Fath. Not know my voice, oh times extremity
Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poore tongue
1790In seuen short yeares, that heere my onely sonne
Knowes not my feeble key of vntun'd cares?
Though now this grained face of mine be hid
In sap-consuming Winters drizled snow,
And all the Conduits of my blood froze vp:
1795Yet hath my night of life some memorie:
My wasting lampes some fading glimmer left;
My dull deafe eares a little vse to heare:
All these old witnesses, I cannot erre.
Tell me, thou art my sonne Antipholus.
1800Ant. I neuer saw my Father in my life.
Fa. But seuen yeares since, in Siracusa boy
Thou know'st we parted, but perhaps my sonne,
Thou sham'st to acknowledge me in miserie.
Ant. The Duke, and all that know me in the City,
1805Can witnesse with me that it is not so.
I ne're saw Siracusa in my life.
Duke. I tell thee Siracusian, twentie yeares
Haue I bin Patron to Antipholus,
During which time, he ne're saw Siracusa:
1810I see thy age and dangers make thee dote.

Enter the Abbesse with Antipholus Siracusa,
and Dromio Sir.

Abbesse. Most mightie Duke, behold a man much
wrong'd.
1815
All gather to see them.
Adr. I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceiue me.
Duke. One of these men is genius to the other:
And so of these, which is the naturall man,
And which the spirit? Who deciphers them?
1820S.Dromio. I Sir am Dromio, command him away.
E.Dro. I Sir am Dromio, pray let me stay.
S.Ant. Egeon art thou not? or else his ghost.

S.Drom. Oh my olde Master, who hath bound him
heere?
1825Abb. Who euer bound him, I will lose his bonds,
And gaine a husband by his libertie:
Speake olde Egeon, if thou bee'st the man
That hadst a wife once call'd Aemilia,
That bore thee at a burthen two faire sonnes?
1830Oh if thou bee'st the same Egeon, speake:
And speake vnto the same Aemilia.
Duke. Why heere begins his Morning storie right:
These two Antipholus, these two so like,
And these two Dromio's, one in semblance:
1835Besides her vrging of her wracke at sea,
These are the parents to these children,
Which accidentally are met together.
Fa. If I dreame not, thou art Aemilia,
If thou art she, tell me, where is that sonne
1840That floated with thee on the fatall rafte.
Abb. By men of Epidamium, he, and I,
And the twin Dromio, all were taken vp;
But by and by, rude Fishermen of Corinth
By force tooke Dromio, and my sonne from them,
1845And me they left with those of Epidamium.
What then became of them, I cannot tell:
I, to this fortune that you see mee in.
Duke. Antipholus thou cam'st from Corinth first.
S.Ant. No sir, not I, I came from Siracuse.
1850Duke. Stay, stand apart, I know not which is which.
E.Ant. I came from Corinth my most gracious Lord
E.Dro. And I with him.
E.Ant. Brought to this Town by that most famous
Warriour,
1855Duke Menaphon your most renowned Vnckle.
Adr. Which of you two did dine with me to day?
S.Ant. I, gentle Mistris.
Adr. And are not you my husband?
E.Ant. No, I say nay to that.
1860S.Ant. And so do I, yet did she call me so:
And this faire Gentlewoman her sister heere
Did call me brother. What I told you then,
I hope I shall haue leisure to make good,
If this be not a dreame I see and heare.
1865Goldsmith. That is the Chaine sir, which you had of
mee.
S.Ant. I thinke it be sir, I denie it not.
E.Ant. And you sir for this Chaine arrested me.
Gold. I thinke I did sir, I deny it not.
1870Adr. I sent you monie sir to be your baile
By Dromio, but I thinke he brought it not.
E.Dro. No, none by me.
S.Ant. This purse of Duckets I receiu'd from you,
And Dromio my man did bring them me:
1875I see we still did meete each others man,
And I was tane for him, and he for me,
And thereupon these errors are arose.
E.Ant. These Duckets pawne I for my father heere.
Duke. It shall not neede, thy father hath his life.
1880Cur. Sir I must haue that Diamond from you.
E.Ant. There take it, and much thanks for my good
cheere.
Abb. Renowned Duke, vouchsafe to take the paines
To go with vs into the Abbey heere,
1885And heare at large discoursed all our fortunes,
And all that are assembled in this place:
That by this simpathized one daies error
Haue suffer'd wrong. Goe, keepe vs companie,
I 2
And