spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her, Re-enter OFFICERS with ISABELLA; and PROmy faith and honour.

on to slander Lord Angelo? they have confessed
you did.
Duke. 'Tis false.

291

Escal. How! know you where you are? Duke. Respect to your great place! and let the devil

Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne! Where is the duke? 'tis he should hear me speak.

Away with him to prison! lay bolts enough ap him: let him speak no more. Away with th giglots too, and with the other confederate c panion!

Duke. To Provost] Stay, sir; stay awhile Ang. What, resists he? Help him, Lucia Lucio. Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; f sir! Why, you bald-pated, lying rascal, you m be hooded, must you? Show your knave's vise The duke's in us; and we will hear with a pox to you! show your sheep-biting fa you speak: and be hanged an hour! Will't not off? [Pulls off the friar's hood, and distors the Dat Duke. Thou art the first knave that e

Escal

Look you speak justly.

Duke. Boldly, at least. But, O, poor souls,
Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox? 300
Good night to your redress! Is the duke gone?
Then is your cause gone too. The duke's unjust,
Thus to retort your manifest appeal,
And put your trial in the villain's mouth
Which here you come to accuse.

Lucio. This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of.
Escal. Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd
friar,

Is't not enough thou hast suborn'd these women
To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth
And in the witness of his proper ear,
310
To call him villain? and then to glance from him
To the duke himself, to tax him with injustice?
Take him hence; to the rack with him! We'll

Escal. Slander to the state! Away with him to prison!

Ang. What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio?

Is this the man that you did tell us of?

Lucio. 'Tis he, my lord. Come hither, goodman baldpate: do you know me?

Duke. I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice: I met you at the prison, in the absence of the duke.

Lucio. O, did you so? And do you remember what you said of the duke? Duke. Most notedly, sir.

madest a duke.

First, provost, let me bail these gentle three.
[To Lucio] Sneak not away, sir; for the friar a

you

Must have a word anon. Lay hold on him.

Lucio. This may prove worse than hanging Duke. [To Escalus] What you have spos pardon: sit you down:

We'll borrow place of him. [To Angelo] Sir, your leave.

3

Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence,
That yet can do thee office? If thou hast,
Rely upon it till my tale be heard,
And hold no longer out.
Ang
O my dread lord,
I should be guiltier than my guiltiness,
To think I can be undiscernible,
When I perceive your grace, like power divine,
Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good princ
No longer session hold upon my shame,
But let my trial be mine own confession :
Immediate sentence then and sequent death
Is all the grace I beg.

Duke.

Come hither, Mariana. Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman?;& Ang. I was, my lord.

Duke. Go take her hence, and marry he instantly.

Do you the office, friar; which consummate, Return him here again. Go with him, provest [Exeunt Angelo, Mariana, Friar Pete and Prozest. Escal. My lord, I am more amazed at h dishonour

Than at the strangeness of it.

Duke.

Come hither. Isabel
Your friar is now your prince: as I was then
Advertising and holy to your business,
Not changing heart with habit, I am still
Attorney'd at your service.
Isab.
O, give me pardon, 39

Lucio. Do you so, sir? And was the duke a That I, your vassal, have employ'd and pain'd fleshmonger, a fool, and a coward, as you then, Your unknown sovereignty! reported him to be? Duke.

341

Duke. You must, sir, change persons with me, ere you make that my report: you, indeed, spoke so of him; and much more, much worse. Lucio. O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the nose for thy speeches? Duke. I protest I love the duke as I love myself.

Ang Hark, how the villain would close now, after his treasonable abuses!

Escal. Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away with him to prison! Where is the provost?

You are pardon'd, Isabel
And now, dear maid, be you as free to us.
Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart;
And you may marvel why I obscured myself,
Labouring to save his life, and would not rather
Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power
Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid,
It was the swift celerity of his death,
Which I did think with slower foot came or, 400
That brain'd my purpose. But, peace be with
him!

That life is better life, past fearing death,

Than that which lives to fear: make it your A due sincerity govern'd his deeds,

though by confiscation they are ours, vedinstate and widow you withal,

y you a better husband. ari.

Till he did look on me: since it is so,

Let him not die. My brother had but justice,
In that he did the thing for which he died:
For Angelo,

His act did not o'ertake his bad intent,
And must be buried but as an intent

O my dear lord, 430 And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart 480 ave no other, nor no better man. That I crave death more willingly than mercy; e. Never crave him; we are definitive. 'Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it. Mari Gentle my liege,[Kneeling. Drake. You do but lose your labour. Re-enter PROVOST, with BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO Asy with him to death! [To Lucio] Now, sir, muffled, and JULIET. th you

Mari. O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take may part:

me your knees, and all my life to come sad you all my life to do you service. cake. Against all sense you do importune

her:

Duke.
Prov.
This, my lord.
Duke. There was a friar told me of this man.
Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul,
That apprehends no further than this world,
And squarest thy life according.

Which is that Barnardine?

demn'd:

Thou'rt con

But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all;
And pray thee take this mercy to provide
For better times to come. Friar, advise him; 400
I leave him to your hand. What muffled fellow's
that?

Prov. This is another prisoner that I saved,
Who should have died when Claudio lost his head;
As like almost to Claudio as himself.

Duke.

[Unmuffles Claudio. [To Isabella] If he be like your brother, for his sake

Is he pardon'd; and, for your lovely sake,
Give me your hand and say you will be mine,

Look that you love your wife; her worth worth Remit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison:

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.

SOLINUS, duke of Ephesus.
ELEON, a merchant of Syracuse.
ANTIPHOLU'S of Ephesus,
ANTHOLES of Syracuse,

DRAMATIS PERSONEÆ.

twin brothers, and
sons to geon and
Æmilia.

Drown of Ephesus,
IMO of Syracuse,
FUTHAZAR, a merchant.
Avto, a goldsmith.
First Merchant, friend to Antipholus of Syracuse.

twin brothers, and attend-
ants on the two Antipho-
luses.

ACT I.

Ph in solemn synods been decreed, by the Syracusians and ourselves,

but no traffic to our adverse towns: zore,

y born at Ephesus be seen Aay Syracusian marts and fairs; Again if any Syracusian born

e to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,
ods confiscate to the duke's dispose,
sus a thousand marks be levied,
Got the penalty and to ransom him.
vrak tance, valued at the highest rate,
amat unto a hundred marks;

refore by law thou art condemn'd to die.
Yet this my comfort: when your words
are done.

Second Merchant, to whom Angelo is a debtor.
PINCH, a schoolmaster.

EMILIA, wife to Ægeon, an abbess at Ephesus.
ADRIANA, wife to Antipholus of Ephesus.
LUCIANA, her sister.

LUCE, servant to Adriana.
A Courtezan.

Gaoler, Officers, and other Attendants.
SCENE: Ephesus.

With her I lived in joy; our wealth increased 40
To Epidamnum; till my factor's death
voyages I often made

Το

Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse:
And the great care of goods at random left
From whom my absence was not six months old
Before herself, almost at fainting under
The pleasing punishment that women bear,
Had made provision for her following me
And soon and safe arrived where I was.
There had she not been long but she becaine
A joyful mother of two goodly sons;
And, which was strange the one so like the other
As could not be distinguish'd but by names.
That very hour and in the self-same inn
A meaner woman was delivered

Of such a burden, male twins, both alike:
Those, for their parents were exceeding poor,
I bought and brought up to attend my sons.
My wife, not meanly proud of two such boys,
Made daily motions for our home return:
Unwilling I agreed; alas! too soon
We came aboard.

A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd,
Before the always wind-obeying deep

50

60

71

20 Gave any tragic instance of our harm:
But longer did we not retain much hope:
For what obscured light the heavens did grant
Did but convey unto our fearful minds
A doubtful warrant of immediate death;
Which though myself would gladly have embraced,
Yet the incessant weepings of my wife,
Weeping before for what she saw must come,
And piteous plainings of the pretty babes,
That mourn'd for fashion, ignorant what to fear,
Forced me to seek delays for them and me.
And this it was, for other means was none:
The sailors sought for safety by our boat,
And left the ship, then sinking-ripe, to us:
My wife, more careful for the latter-born,
Had fasten'd him unto a small spare mast,
Such as seafaring men provide for storms;
To him one of the other twins was bound,
Whilst I had been like heedful of the other:
The children thus disposed, my wife and I,
Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix'd,
Fasten'd ourselves at either end the mast;

*e end likewise with the evening sun.
Well, Syracusian, say in brief the cause
u departed'st from thy native home
30
fe what cause thou camest to Ephesus.
gr. A heavier task could not have been
rosed

to speak my griefs unspeakable:

world may witness that my end rt by nature, not by vile offence, her what my sorrow gives me leave. vracusa was I born, and wed

a woman, happy but for me,

me, had not our hap been bad.

80