Besides, I will be sworn these ears of mine

Heard you confess you had the chain of him,

After you first forswore it on the mart,

And thereupon I drew my sword on you;

And then you fled into this abbey here,

From whence I think you are come by miracle.

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

I never came within these abbey walls,

Nor ever didst thou draw thy sword on me.

I never saw the chain, so help me heaven,

And this is false you burden me withal.

DUKE

Why, what an intricate impeach is this!

I think you all have drunk of Circe’s cup.

If here you housed him, here he would have been.

If he were mad, he would not plead so coldly.

(To Adriana) You say he dined at home, the goldsmith here

Denies that saying. (To Dromio) Sirrah, what say you?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS (pointing out the Courtesan)

Sir, he dined with her there, at the Porcupine.

COURTESAN

He did, and from my finger snatched that ring.

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

’Tis true, my liege, this ring I had of her.

DUKE (to Courtesan)

Saw’st thou him enter at the abbey here?

COURTESAN

As sure, my liege, as I do see your grace.

DUKE

Why, this is strange. Go call the Abbess hither.

I think you are all mated, or stark mad.

Exit one to the priory

EGEON (coming forward)

Most mighty Duke, vouchsafe me speak a word.

Haply I see a friend will save my life,

And pay the sum that may deliver me.

DUKE

Speak freely, Syracusian, what thou wilt.

EGEON (to Antipholus)

Is not your name, sir, called Antipholus?

And is not that your bondman Dromio?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

Within this hour I was his bondman, sir,

But he, I thank him, gnawed in two my cords.

Now am I Dromio, and his man, unbound.

EGEON

I am sure you both of you remember me.

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

Ourselves we do remember, sir, by you;

For lately we were bound as you are now.

You are not Pinch’s patient, are you, sir?

EGEON

Why look you strange on me? You know me well.

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

I never saw you in my life till now.

EGEON

O, grief hath changed me since you saw me last,

And careful hours with time’s deformed hand

Have written strange defeatures in my face.

But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS Neither.

EGEON Dromio, nor thou?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS No, trust me sir, nor I.

EGEON I am sure thou dost.

DROMIO OF EPHESUS Ay, sir, but I am sure I do not, and whatsoever a man denies, you are now bound to believe him.

EGEON

Not know my voice ? O time’s extremity,

Hast thou so cracked and splitted my poor tongue

In seven short years that here my only son

Knows not my feeble key of untuned cares?

Though now this grained face of mine be hid

In sap-consuming winter’s drizzled snow,

And all the conduits of my blood froze up,

Yet hath my night of life some memory,

My wasting lamps some fading glimmer left,

My dull deaf ears a little use to hear.

All these old witnesses, I cannot err,

Tell me thou art my son Antipholus.

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

I never saw my father in my life.

EGEON

But seven years since, in Syracusa bay,

Thou know‘st we parted. But perhaps, my son,

Thou sham’st to acknowledge me in misery.

ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS

The Duke, and all that know me in the city,

Can witness with me that it is not so.

I ne’er saw Syracusa in my life.

DUKE (to Egeon)

I tell thee, Syracusian, twenty years

Have I been patron to Antipholus,

During which time he ne’er saw Syracusa.

I see thy age and dangers make thee dote.

Enter ⌈from the priory⌉ the Abbess, with Antipholus of Syracuse, wearing the chain, and Dromio of Syracuse

ABBESS

Most mighty Duke, behold a man much wronged.

All gather to see them

ADRIANA

I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me.

DUKE

One of these men is genius to the other:

And so of these, which is the natural man,

And which the spirit? Who deciphers them?

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

I, sir, am Dromio. Command him away.

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

I, sir, am Dromio. Pray let me stay.

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Egeon, art thou not? Or else his ghost.

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE

O, my old master, who hath bound him here?

ABBESS

Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds,

And gain a husband by his liberty.

Speak, old Egeon, if thou beest the man

That hadst a wife once called Emilia,

That bore thee at a burden two fair sons.

O, if thou beest the same Egeon, speak,

And speak unto the same Emilia.

DUKE

Why, here begins his morning story right:

These two Antipholus’, these two so like,

And these two Dromios, one in semblance—

Besides his urging of her wreck at sea.

These are the parents to these children,

Which accidentally are met together.

EGEON

If I dream not, thou art Emilia.

If thou art she, tell me, where is that son

That floated with thee on the fatal raft?

ABBESS

By men of Epidamnum he and I

And the twin Dromio all were taken up.

But, by and by, rude fishermen of Corinth

By force took Dromio and my son from them,

And me they left with those of Epidamnum.

What then became of them I cannot tell;

I, to this fortune that you see me in.

DUKE (to Antipholus of Syracuse)

Antipholus, thou cam’st from Corinth first.