This chain, which now you wear fo openly;
Befides the charge, the fhame, imprisonment,
You have done wrong to this my honest friend,
Who but for ftaying on our controverfie
Had hoifted fail, and put to fea to-day:
This chain you had of me, can you deny it?
S. Ant. I think I had, I never did deny it.
Mer. Yes, that you did, Sir, and forfwore it too.
S. Ant. Who heard me to deny it or forfwear it?
Mer. These ears of mine thou knoweft well did hear thee;
Fie on thee, wretch, 'tis pity that thou liv'ft

To walk where any honeft men refort.

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

Against thee presently, if thou dar'st stand.

Mer. I dare, and do defie thee for a villain. [They draw. SCENE

II.

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 Dremio too, and bear them to my house.

S. Dro. Run, mafter, run, for God's fake take a house ; This is fome Priory; in, or we are spoil'd.

[Exeunt to the Priory. SCENE III. Enter Lady Abbess.

Abb. Be quiet, people, wherefore throng you hither?
Adr. To fetch my poor dictracted hufband 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, fower, 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 sea ?
Bury'd fome dear friend? hath not elfe his eye
Stray'd his affection in unlawful love?

A fin prevailing much in youthful men,

Who

1

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 off 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 modesty would let me.
Abb. Haply in private.

Adr. And in affemblies too.

Abb. Ay, 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 3.
Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.

Abb. And thereof came it that the man was mad.
The venom'd 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 thereof comes it that his head is light.

Thou say'st his meat was fauc'd with thy upbraidings,
Unquiet meals make ill digestions,

Thereof the raging fire of fever bred;

And what's a fever but a fit of madness?

Thou fay'ft his fports were hinder'd with thy brawls.
Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth enfue,
But moody, moping, and dull melancholy,
A'kin to grim and comfortless despair,
And at her heels a huge infectious troop
Of pale diftemperatures, and foes to life?
In food, fport, and life-preferving reft

To be difturb'd would mad or man or beaft:
The confequence is then, thy jealous fits
Have fcar'd thy husband from the ufe of wits.
Luc. She never reprehended him but mildly,

When he demean'd himself rough, rude and wildly.

Why

By copy here is to be understood abundance, fulness, as copia fig nifies in Latin: and in this fenie Ben. Jebron and other Authors of that time frequently use it.

Why bear you those 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 enters in my house.
Adr. Then let your fervants bring my husband 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 afsaying it.

Adr. I will attend my husband, be his nurse,
Diet his fickness, for it is my office,
And will have no attorney but my self,
And therefore let me have him home with me.
Abb. Be patient, for I will not let him stir,
'Till I have us'd th' approved means I have,
With wholfome fyrups, 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 feparate the hufband and the wife.

Abb. Be quiet and depart, thou shalt not have him.

[Exit Abb.

Luc. Complain unto the Duke of this indignity.
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 person hither,
And take perforce my husband from the Abbefs.
Enter Merchant and Angelo.

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 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,
VOL. II.

Be

Beheaded publickly for his offence.

Ang. See where they come, we will behold his death. Luc. Kneel to the Duke before he pafs the abbey. SCENE III. Enter the Duke, and Ægeon barebeaded, with the Headfman, and other Officers.

Duke. Yet once again proclaim it publickly, If any friend will pay the fum for him

He fhall not die, fo much we tender him.

Adr. Juftice, most facred Duke, against the Abbefs.
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 husband, Whom I made lord of me and all I had

At your important letters, this ill day

A moft outrageous fit of madness took him,
That defp'rately he hurry'd through the ftreet,
With him his bondman all as mad as he,
Doing difpleasure 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 strong escape,
He broke from thofe that had the guard of him,
And with his mad attendant 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 purfued 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 born hence for help.

Duke. Long fince thy husband serv'd me in my wars, And I to thee ingag'd a Prince's word,

When thou didst make him mafter of thy bed,
To do him all the grace and good I could.
Go fome of you knock at the abbey-gate,

And

And bid the lady Abbels come to me.

I will determine this before I ftir.

SCENE IV. Enter a Meffenger.

Meff. O mistress, mistress, fhift and fave your felf;
My mafter and his man are both broke loose,
Beaten the maids a-row, and bound the doctor,
Whofe 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, 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 false thou doft report to us.

Me. Miftrefs, upon my life I tell you true,

I have not breath'd almost fince I did fee it.
He crys for you, and vows if he can take you,
To fcorch your face, and to disfigure you.
[Cry within.
Hark, hark, I hear him, miftrefs; fly, be gone.

Duke, Come, ftand by me, fear nothing: guard with halberds.

Adr. Ay me, it is my husband; witness you,

That he is born about invifible.

Ev'n now we hous'd him in the abbey here,

And now he's there, past thought of human reason.
SCENE V.

Ljuftice.

Enter Antipholis and Dromio of Ephefus.. E. Ant. Juftice, moft gracious Duke, oh, grant me Even for the fervice that long fince I did thee, When I beftrid thee in the wars, and took Deep scars to fave thy life, even for the blood That then I loft for thee, now grant me justice.

Egeon. Unless the fear of death doth make me dote,

I fee my fon Antipholis and Dromio.

E. Ant. Juftice, fweet Prince, against that woman there; She whom thou gav'ft to me to be my wife;

That hath abused and difhonour'd me,
Ev'n in the ftrength and height of injury:
Beyond imagination is the wrong

That