Act 4, Scene 2: The house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.

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.

    Exeunt