ADRIANA And in assemblies too.

ABBESS Ay, but not enough.

ADRIANA

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.

Alone, it was the subject of my theme.

In company I often glancèd it.

Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.

ABBESS

And thereof came it that the man was mad.

The venom clamours of a jealous woman

Poisons 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 sayst his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings.

Unquiet meals make ill digestions.

Thereof the raging fire offever bred,

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

Thou sayst 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

Hath scared thy husband from the use of wits.

LUCIANA

She never reprehended him but mildly

When he demeaned himself rough, rude, and wildly.

(To Adriana) Why bear you these rebukes, and answer

not?

ADRIANA

She did betray me to my own reproof.—

Good people, enter, and lay hold on him.

ABBESS

No, not a creature enters in my house.

ADRIANA

Then let your servants bring my husband forth.

ABBESS

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 essaying it.

ADRIANA

I will attend my husband, be his nurse,

Diet his sickness, for it is my office,

And will have no attorney but myself.

And therefore let me have him home with me.

ABBESS

Be patient, for I will not let him stir

Till I have used the approved means I have,

With wholesome syrups, 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.

ADRIANA

I will not hence, and leave my husband here;

And ill it doth beseem your holiness

To separate the husband and the wife.

ABBESS

Be quiet and depart. Thou shalt not have him.

⌈Exit into the priory⌉

LUCIANA (to Adriana)

Complain unto the Duke of this indignity.

ADRIANA

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.

SECOND MERCHANT

By this, I think, the dial point’s at five.

Anon, I’m 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.

ANGELO Upon what cause?

SECOND MERCHANT

To see a reverend Syracusian merchant,

Who put unluckily into this bay

Against the laws and statutes of this town,

Beheaded publicly for his offence.

ANGELO

See where they come. We will behold his death.

LUCIANA

Kneel to the Duke before he pass the abbey.

Enter Solinus Duke of Ephesus, and Egeon the merchant of Syracuse, 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.

ADRIANA (kneeling)

Justice, most sacred Duke, against the Abbess!

DUKE

She is a virtuous and a reverend lady.

It cannot be that she hath done thee wrong.

ADRIANA

May it please your grace, Antipholus my husband,

Who 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 desp’rately 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, anything 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 ⌈raising Adriana⌉

Long since, thy husband served me in my wars,