Dro. S. Run, master, run; for God's sake, take a

house.1

This is some priory ;-in, or we are spoiled.

[Exeunt ANTIPH. and DRO. to the priory.

Enter the 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 am sorry now, that I did draw on him. Abb. How long hath this possession held the man? Adr. This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad, And much different from the man he was;

But, till this afternoon, his passion

Ne'er brake into extremity of rage.

Abb. Hath he not lost much wealth by wreck of sea? Buried some dear friend? Hath not else his eye Strayed his affection in unlawful love? A sin prevailing much in youthful men, Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing. Which of these sorrows is he subject to?

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

Abb.

Ay, but not rough enough. Adr. As roughly as my modesty would let me.

Abb. Haply, in private.

Adr.

Abb. Ay, but not enough.

2

And in assemblies too.

Adr. It was the copy of our conference. In bed, he slept not for my urging it;

At board, he fed not for my urging it;

1 i. e. go into a house: we still say that a dog takes the water.

2 Copy in the present instance is probably copie, plenty, copious source, an old Latinism, many times used by Ben Jonson. The word is spelled copie in the folio; and in King Henry V., where it means pattern, example, it is spelled copy.

Alone, it was the subject of my theme;
In company, I often glanced it;

Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.

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

Poison more deadly than a mad dog's tooth.

It seems his sleeps were hindered by thy railing;

And thereof comes it that his head is light.

Thou say'st his meat was sauced 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 say'st his sports were hindered by thy brawls;
Sweet recreation barred, what doth ensue,
But moody and dull melancholy,

(Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair,)
And, at her heels, a huge infectious troop
Of pale distemperatures, and foes to life?
In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest,
To be disturbed, would mad or man or beast;
The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
Have scared thy husband from the use of wits.
Luc. She never reprehended him but mildly,
When he demeaned 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 enters in my house.
Adr. Then, let your servants bring my husband forth.
Abb. 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 labor in assaying it.

Adr. I will attend my husband, be his nurse, Diet his sickness, for it is my office,

1

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 stir,
Till I have used the approved means I have,

1 i. e. substitute.

With wholesome sirups, 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 beseem your holiness,

To separate the husband and the wife.

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

[Exit Abbess. Luc. Complain unto the duke of this indignity. Adr. 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. Mer. By this, I think, the dial points at five. Anon, I am 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. Ang. Upon what cause?

Mer. To see a reverend Syracusan merchant,

Who put unluckily into this bay

Against the laws and statutes of this town,

Beheaded publicly for his offence.

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

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

Enter Duke, attended; ÆGEON, bareheaded; with the Headsman and other Officers.

Duke. Yet once again proclaim it publicly,

If any friend will pay the sum for him,

He shall not die; so much we tender him.

Adr. Justice, most sacred duke, against the abbess !

1 i. e. to bring him back to his senses, and the accustomed forms of sober behavior. In Measure for Measure, "informal women" is used for just the contrary.

2 i. e. dismal:-" dismolde and sorrie, atra funestus."

Duke. She is a virtuous and a reverend lady; It cannot be, that she hath done thee wrong.

Adr. 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.
Duke. 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.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. 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.

Adr. Peace, fool; thy master and his man are here; And that is false, thou dost report to us.

Serv. 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.

[Cry within. Hark, hark, I hear him, mistress; fly, begone. Duke. Come, stand by me; fear nothing. Guard

with halberds!

Adr. Ah 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.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS and DROMIO of Ephesus.

Ant. E. 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.
Ege. Unless the fear of death doth make me dote,
I see my son Antipholus, and Dromio.

1 i. e. successively, one after another.