With circumftance and oaths fo to deny
This Chain, which now you wear fo openly;
Befides the charge, the fhame, imprisonment,i
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, 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'ft ftand.
Mer. I dare, and do defie thee for a villain.

[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 sword away:

Bind Dromio 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 fpoil'd.

[Exeunt to the Priory.

Enter Lady Abbefs.

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 faft,

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

No'er

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 elle his eye
Stray'd his affection in unlawful love?

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

Adr. To none of thefe, except it be the laft;
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. (20).
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, often glanc'd at it;
I
dat

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

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

Poifon more deadly, than a mad dog's tooth.
It feems, his fleeps were hinder'd by thy railings

(20) It was the Copy of our Conference:] We are not to understand this Word here, as it is now used, in Oppofition to an Original; any Thing done after a Pattern; but we are to take it in the nearest Senfe to the Latine Word Copia, from which it is derived. Adriana would fay, her Reproofs were the Burden, the Fulness of her Conference, all the Subject of her Talk. And in thefe Acceptations the Word Copie was ufed by Writers before our Author's time, as well as by his Contemporaries. So Hall, in his Reign of K. Henry Vth. p. 8. fays;

If you vanquish the Numidians, you shall have Copic of Beafts. i. e. plenty.

And fo B. Jonfon in his Every Man out of his Humour;

that, being a Woman, She was bleft with no more Copy of Wit, but to ferve bis Humour thus.

And, again, in his Cynthia's Revels.

to be fure to have daily about him Copy and Variety of Co

lours.
And in many other Paffages of his Works.

E 2

And

And thereof comes it, that his head is light.
Thou fay'ft, his meat was fauc'd with thy upbraidings;
Unquiet meals make ill digeftions;

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 by thy brawls.
Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth enfue,
But moodie and dull melancholy,

Kinfman 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,
To be difturb'd, would mad or man or beaft:
The confequence is then, thy jealous fits
Have scared thy husband from the ufe 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 fervants 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 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 my felf;

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 feparate the husband and the wife.

Abb.

Abb. Be quiet and depart, thou shalt not have him. Luc. Complain unto the Duke of this indignity, [Exit Ábbels. Adr. Come, go; I will fall proftrate at his feet, And never rise, 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 place of death and forry execution, (21) 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 Egeon bare-headed; 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, moft facred Duke, against the Abbels.
Duke. She is a virtuous and a reverend lady;
It cannot be, that the hath done thee wrong.
Adr. May it please your Grace, Antipholis my hus
band,

(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 street,
With him his bondman all as mad as he,

(21) The Place of Death and forry Execution.] i. e. difmal, lamentable, to be griev'd at. In the like Acceptations our Poet employs it again, where Macbeth, after the Murder of Duncan, is looking on his own bloody Hands.

This is a forry Sight.

E 3

Doing

Doing difpleafare to the citizens,

By ruthing 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,

A

That here and there his fury had committed:
Anon, I wot not by what ftrong escape,

He broke from thofe, that had the guard of him;
And, with his mad attendant and 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, molt gracious Duke, with thy command,
Let him be brought forth and borne hence for help.
Duke. Long fince thy husband ferv'd me in my wars,
And I to thee ingag'd a Prince's word,

(When thou didnt make him mafter 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 Abbels come to me,
will determine this, before I ftir.

Enter a Melenger.

Me O mistress, miftrefs, fhift and fave your felf, My mafter and his man are both broke loote, Beaten the maids a-row, and bound the doctor, Whole beard they have fing'd off with brands of fire; And ever as it blaz'd, they threw on him

r';

Great pails of puddled miré 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:

Meff