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Dromio of Syracuse gets the money but in returning with it falls in with his own master and gives it to him. The two Syracusans, believing themselves bewitched, prepare for a hasty departure. Adriana believes her husband and his slave to be mad and has them placed under restraint.

ACT V

Two merchants and Adriana, seeing Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse on the street, believe them to be the Ephesians, and they are obliged to seek sanctuary in a priory. The abbess protects them. Adriana resolves to complain to the Duke and ask him to force the abbess to yield her husband to her. The Duke is passing just at this time on his way with Egeon to the place of execution, where the latter is to pay the death penalty. While Adriana is speaking to the Duke, Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus, having escaped from their captors, rush up and call upon the Duke to do them justice. Egeon thinks these are the son and slave whom he had brought up and is surprised when he is not recognized. At this moment the abbess and the Syracusans come from the priory and the errors are straightened out. The abbess proves to be Egeon's long-lost wife, Æmilia. Antipholus of Ephesus is reconciled to his wife, and Antipholus of Syracuse renews his suit with Adriana's sister. The Dromios rejoice over their reunion.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

ACT FIRST

SCENE I

A hall in the Duke's palace.

Enter Duke, Egeon, Jailer, Officers, and other
Attendants.

Ege. Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall,
And by the doom of death end woes and all.
Duke. Merchant of Syracuse, plead no more;
I am not partial to infringe our laws:
The enmity and discord which of late
Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your
duke

To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,
Who, wanting guilders to redeem their lives,
Have seal'd his rigorous statutes with their
bloods,

11

Excludes all pity from our threatening looks.
For, since the mortal and intestine jars
"Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us
It hath in solemn synods been decreed

8. A guilder was a coin valued from one shilling and sixpence to two shillings.-H. N. H.

Both by the Syracusians and ourselves,

To admit no traffic to our adverse towns:

Nay, more,

If any born at Ephesus be seen

At any Syracusian marts and fairs;
Again: if any Syracusian born
Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,
His goods confiscate to the duke's dispose;
Unless a thousand marks be levied,
To quit the penalty and to ransom him.
Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;

20

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

My woes end likewise with the evening sun.
Duke. Well, Syracusian, say, in brief, the cause
Why thou departed'st from thy native home, 30
And for what cause thou camest to Ephesus.
Ege. A heavier task could not have been imposed
Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable:
Yet, that the world may witness that my end
Was wrought by nature, not by vile offense,
I'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave.
In Syracusa was I born; and wed
Unto a woman, happy but for me,
And by me, had not our hap been bad.
With her I lived in joy; our wealth increased 40
By prosperous voyages I often made

To Epidamnum; till my factor's death,
And the great care of goods at random left,

42. "Epidamnum." The Ff. have Epidamium, but this is less

Drew me from kind embracements of my

spouse:

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 became 50
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 burthen, 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.

60

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

70

likely to be Shakespeare's form than Epidamnum, which is used in Warner's translation of the Menæchmi.-C. H. H.

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