Act 5, Scene 1

The same.

[Enter MERCHANT and ANGELO.]
Angelo
1312 I am sorry, sir, that I have hinder'd you;
1313 But I protest he had the chain of me,
1314 Though most dishonestly he doth deny it.
Merchant
1315 How is the man esteem'd here in the city?
Angelo
1316 Of very reverend reputation, sir;
1317 Of credit infinite, highly belov'd,
1318 Second to none that lives here in the city:
1319 His word might bear my wealth at any time.
Merchant
1320 Speak softly: yonder, as I think, he walks.
[Enter ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE and DROMIO OF SYRACUSE.]
Angelo
1321 'Tis so; and that self chain about his neck
1322 Which he forswore most monstrously to have.
1323 Good sir, draw near to me, I'll speak to him.—
1324 Signior Andpholus, I wonder much
1325 That you would put me to this shame and trouble;
1326 And, not without some scandal to yourself,
1327 With circumstance and oaths so to deny
1328 This chain, which now you wear so openly:
1329 Beside the charge, the shame, imprisonment,
1330 You have done wrong to this my honest friend;
1331 Who, but for staying on our controversy,
1332 Had hoisted sail and put to sea to-day;
1333 This chain you had of me; can you deny it?
Antipholus of Syracuse
1334 I think I had: I never did deny it.
Merchant
1335 Yes, that you did, sir, and forswore it too.
Antipholus of Syracuse
1336 Who heard me to deny it or forswear it?
Merchant
1337 These ears of mine, thou know'st, did hear thee.
1338 Fie on thee, wretch! 'tis pity that thou liv'st
1339 To walk where any honest men resort.
Antipholus of Syracuse
1340 Thou art a villain to impeach me thus;
1341 I'll prove mine honour and mine honesty
1342 Against thee presently, if thou dar'st stand.
Merchant
1343 I dare, and do defy thee for a villain.
[They draw.]
[Enter ADRIANA, LUCIANA, COURTEZAN, and others.]
Adriana
1344 Hold, hurt him not, for God's sake; he is mad.
1345 Some get within him, take his sword away:
1346 Bind Dromio too, and bear them to my house.
Dromio of Syracuse
1347 Run, master, run; for God's sake, take a house.
1348 This is some priory;—in, or we are spoil'd.
[Exeunt ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE and DROMIO OF SYRACUSE to the priory.]
[Enter the ABBESS.]
Abbess (Emilia)
1349 Be quiet, people. Wherefore throng you hither?
Adriana
1350 To fetch my poor distracted husband hence:
1351 Let us come in, that we may bind him fast,
1352 And bear him home for his recovery.
Angelo
1353 I knew he was not in his perfect wits.
Merchant
1354 I am sorry now that I did draw on him.
Abbess (Emilia)
1355 How long hath this possession held the man?
Adriana
1356 This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad,
1357 And much different from the man he was:
1358 But till this afternoon his passion
1359 Ne'er brake into extremity of rage.
Abbess (Emilia)
1360 Hath he not lost much wealth by wreck of sea?
1361 Buried some dear friend? Hath not else his eye
1362 Stray'd his affection in unlawful love?
1363 A sin prevailing much in youthful men
1364 Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing.
1365 Which of these sorrows is he subject to?
Adriana
1366 To none of these, except it be the last;
1367 Namely, some love that drew him oft from home.
Abbess (Emilia)
1368 You should for that have reprehended him.
Adriana
1369 Why, so I did.
Abbess (Emilia)
1370 Ay, but not rough enough.
Adriana
1371 As roughly as my modesty would let me.
Abbess (Emilia)
1372 Haply in private.
Adriana
1373 And in assemblies too.
Abbess (Emilia)
1374 Ay, but not enough.
Adriana
1375 It was the copy of our conference.
1376 In bed, he slept not for my urging it;
1377 At board, he fed not for my urging it;
1378 Alone, it was the subject of my theme;
1379 In company, I often glanced it;
1380 Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.
Abbess (Emilia)
1381 And thereof came it that the man was mad:
1382 The venom clamours of a jealous woman
1383 Poisons more deadly than a mad dog's tooth.
1384 It seems his sleeps were hindered by thy railing:
1385 And thereof comes it that his head is light.
1386 Thou say'st his meat was sauc'd with thy upbraidings:
1387 Unquiet meals make ill digestions;
1388 Thereof the raging fire of fever bred;
1389 And what's a fever but a fit of madness?
1390 Thou say'st his sports were hinder'd by thy brawls:
1391 Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue
1392 But moody and dull melancholy,—
1393 Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair,—
1394 And, at her heels, a huge infectious troop
1395 Of pale distemperatures and foes to life?
1396 In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest,
1397 To be disturb'd would mad or man or beast:
1398 The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
1399 Hath scar'd thy husband from the use of's wits.
Luciana
1400 She never reprehended him but mildly,
1401 When he demean'd himself rough, rude, and wildly.—
1402 Why bear you these rebukes, and answer not?
Adriana
1403 She did betray me to my own reproof.—
1404 Good people, enter, and lay hold on him.
Abbess (Emilia)
1405 No, not a creature enters in my house.
Adriana
1406 Then let your servants bring my husband forth.
Abbess (Emilia)
1407 Neither: he took this place for sanctuary,
1408 And it shall privilege him from your hands
1409 Till I have brought him to his wits again,
1410 Or lose my labour in assaying it.
Adriana
1411 I will attend my husband, be his nurse,
1412 Diet his sickness, for it is my office,
1413 And will have no attorney but myself;
1414 And therefore let me have him home with me.
Abbess (Emilia)
1415 Be patient; for I will not let him stir
1416 Till I have used the approved means I have,
1417 With wholesome syrups, drugs, and holy prayers,
1418 To make of him a formal man again:
1419 It is a branch and parcel of mine oath,
1420 A charitable duty of my order;
1421 Therefore depart, and leave him here with me.
Adriana
1422 I will not hence and leave my husband here;
1423 And ill it doth beseem your holiness
1424 To separate the husband and the wife.
Abbess (Emilia)
1425 Be quiet, and depart: thou shalt not have him.
[Exit ABBESS.]
Luciana
1426 Complain unto the duke of this indignity.
Adriana
1427 Come, go; I will fall prostrate at his feet,
1428 And never rise until my tears and prayers
1429 Have won his grace to come in person hither
1430 And take perforce my husband from the abbess.
Merchant
1431 By this, I think, the dial points at five:
1432 Anon, I'm sure, the duke himself in person
1433 Comes this way to the melancholy vale;
1434 The place of death and sorry execution,
1435 Behind the ditches of the abbey here.
Angelo
1436 Upon what cause?
Merchant
1437 To see a reverend Syracusian merchant,
1438 Who put unluckily into this bay
1439 Against the laws and statutes of this town,
1440 Beheaded publicly for his offence.
Angelo
1441 See where they come: we will behold his death.
Luciana
1442 Kneel to the duke before he pass the abbey.
[Enter the DUKE, attended; AEGEON, bareheaded; with the HEADSMAN and other OFFICERS.]
Duke Solinus
1443 Yet once again proclaim it publicly,
1444 If any friend will pay the sum for him,
1445 He shall not die; so much we tender him.
Adriana
1446 Justice, most sacred duke, against the abbess!
Duke Solinus
1447 She is a virtuous and a reverend lady;
1448 It cannot be that she hath done thee wrong.
Adriana
1449 May it please your grace, Antipholus, my husband,—
1450 Who I made lord of me and all I had,
1451 At your important letters,—this ill day
1452 A most outrageous fit of madness took him;
1453 That desp'rately he hurried through the street,—
1454 With him his bondman all as mad as he,—
1455 Doing displeasure to the citizens
1456 By rushing in their houses, bearing thence
1457 Rings, jewels, anything his rage did like.
1458 Once did I get him bound and sent him home,
1459 Whilst to take order for the wrongs I went,
1460 That here and there his fury had committed.
1461 Anon, I wot not by what strong escape,
1462 He broke from those that had the guard of him;
1463 And, with his mad attendant and himself,
1464 Each one with ireful passion, with drawn swords,
1465 Met us again, and, madly bent on us,
1466 Chased us away; till, raising of more aid,
1467 We came again to bind them: then they fled
1468 Into this abbey, whither we pursued them:
1469 And here the abbess shuts the gates on us,
1470 And will not suffer us to fetch him out,
1471 Nor send him forth that we may bear him hence.
1472 Therefore, most gracious duke, with thy command
1473 Let him be brought forth and borne hence for help.
Duke Solinus
1474 Long since thy husband serv'd me in my wars;
1475 And I to thee engag'd a prince's word,
1476 When thou didst make him master of thy bed,
1477 To do him all the grace and good I could.—
1478 Go, some of you, knock at the abbey-gate,
1479 And bid the lady abbess come to me:
1480 I will determine this before I stir.
[Enter a SERVANT.]
Servant
1481 O mistress, mistress, shift and save yourself!
1482 My master and his man are both broke loose,
1483 Beaten the maids a-row, and bound the doctor;
1484 Whose beard they have singed off with brands of fire;
1485 And ever as it blazed they threw on him
1486 Great pails of puddled mire to quench the hair:
1487 My master preaches patience to him, while
1488 His man with scissors nicks him like a fool:
1489 And, sure, unless you send some present help,
1490 Between them they will kill the conjurer.
Adriana
1491 Peace, fool, thy master and his man are here;
1492 And that is false thou dost report to us.
Servant
1493 Mistress, upon my life, I tell you true:
1494 I have not breath'd almost since I did see it.
1495 He cries for you, and vows, if he can take you,
1496 To scorch your face, and to disfigure you:
[Cry within.]
Servant
1497 Hark, hark, I hear him, mistress; fly, be gone!
Duke Solinus
1498 Come, stand by me; fear nothing. Guard with halberds.
Adriana
1499 Ah me, it is my husband! Witness you
1500 That he is borne about invisible.
1501 Even now we hous'd him in the abbey here,
1502 And now he's there, past thought of human reason.
[Enter ANTIPHOLUS and DROMIO OF EPHESUS.]
Antipholus of Ephesus
1503 Justice, most gracious duke; oh, grant me justice!
1504 Even for the service that long since I did thee,
1505 When I bestrid thee in the wars, and took
1506 Deep scars to save thy life; even for the blood
1507 That then I lost for thee, now grant me justice.
Aegeon
1508 Unless the fear of death doth make me dote,
1509 I see my son Antipholus, and Dromio.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1510 Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there.
1511 She whom thou gav'st to me to be my wife;
1512 That hath abused and dishonour'd me
1513 Even in the strength and height of injury!
1514 Beyond imagination is the wrong
1515 That she this day hath shameless thrown on me.
Duke Solinus
1516 Discover how, and thou shalt find me just.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1517 This day, great duke, she shut the doors upon me,
1518 While she with harlots feasted in my house.
Duke Solinus
1519 A grievous fault. Say, woman, didst thou so?
Adriana
1520 No, my good lord;—myself, he, and my sister,
1521 To-day did dine together. So befall my soul
1522 As this is false he burdens me withal!
Luciana
1523 Ne'er may I look on day nor sleep on night
1524 But she tells to your highness simple truth!
Angelo
1525 O peflur'd woman! they are both forsworn.
1526 In this the madman justly chargeth them.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1527 My liege, I am advised what I say;
1528 Neither disturb'd with the effect of wine,
1529 Nor, heady-rash, provok'd with raging ire,
1530 Albeit my wrongs might make one wiser mad.
1531 This woman lock'd me out this day from dinner:
1532 That goldsmith there, were he not pack'd with her,
1533 Could witness it, for he was with me then;
1534 Who parted with me to go fetch a chain.
1535 Promising to bring it to the Porcupine,
1536 Where Balthazar and I did dine together.
1537 Our dinner done, and he not coming thither,
1538 I went to seek him. In the street I met him,
1539 And in his company that gentleman.
1540 There did this perjur'd goldsmith swear me down,
1541 That I this day of him receiv'd the chain,
1542 Which, God he knows, I saw not: for the which
1543 He did arrest me with an officer.
1544 I did obey, and sent my peasant home
1545 For certain ducats: he with none return'd.
1546 Then fairly I bespoke the officer
1547 To go in person with me to my house.
1548 By the way we met
1549 My wife, her sister, and a rabble more
1550 Of vile confederates: along with them
1551 They brought one Pinch; a hungry lean-faced villain,
1552 A mere anatomy, a mountebank,
1553 A threadbare juggler, and a fortune-teller;
1554 A needy, hollow-ey'd, sharp-looking wretch;
1555 A living dead man; this pernicious slave,
1556 Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer;
1557 And gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse,
1558 And with no face, as 'twere, outfacing me,
1559 Cries out, I was possess'd: then altogether
1560 They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence;
1561 And in a dark and dankish vault at home
1562 There left me and my man, both bound together;
1563 Till, gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder,
1564 I gain'd my freedom, and immediately
1565 Ran hither to your grace; whom I beseech
1566 To give me ample satisfaction
1567 For these deep shames and great indignities.
Angelo
1568 My lord, in truth, thus far I witness with him,
1569 That he din'd not at home, but was lock'd out.
Duke Solinus
1570 But had he such a chain of thee, or no?
Angelo
1571 He had, my lord: and when he ran in here
1572 These people saw the chain about his neck.
Merchant
1573 Besides, I will be sworn these ears of mine
1574 Heard you confess you had the chain of him,
1575 After you first forswore it on the mart,
1576 And thereupon I drew my sword on you;
1577 And then you fled into this abbey here,
1578 From whence, I think, you are come by miracle.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1579 I never came within these abbey walls,
1580 Nor ever didst thou draw thy sword on me:
1581 I never saw the chain, so help me heaven!
1582 And this is false you burden me withal.
Duke Solinus
1583 What an intricate impeach is this!
1584 I think you all have drunk of Circe's cup.
1585 If here you hous'd him, here he would have been:
1586 If he were mad, he would not plead so coldly:—
1587 You say he din'd at home: the goldsmith here
1588 Denies that saying:—Sirrah, what say you?
Dromio of Ephesus
1589 Sir, he dined with her there, at the Porcupine.
Courtesan
1590 He did; and from my finger snatch'd that ring.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1591 'Tis true, my liege; this ring I had of her.
Duke Solinus
1592 Saw'st thou him enter at the abbey here?
Courtesan
1593 As sure, my liege, as I do see your grace.
Duke Solinus
1594 Why, this is strange:—Go call the abbess hither:
1595 I think you are all mated, or stark mad.
[Exit an Attendant.]
Aegeon
1596 Most mighty Duke, vouchsafe me speak a word;
1597 Haply, I see a friend will save my life
1598 And pay the sum that may deliver me.
Duke Solinus
1599 Speak freely, Syracusian, what thou wilt.
Aegeon
1600 Is not your name, sir, call'd Antipholus?
1601 And is not that your bondman Dromio?
Dromio of Ephesus
1602 Within this hour I was his bondman, sir,
1603 But he, I thank him, gnaw'd in two my cords:
1604 Now am I Dromio and his man unbound.
Aegeon
1605 I am sure you both of you remember me.
Dromio of Ephesus
1606 Ourselves we do remember, sir, by you;
1607 For lately we were bound as you are now.
1608 You are not Pinch's patient, are you, sir?
Aegeon
1609 Why look you strange on me? you know me well.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1610 I never saw you in my life, till now.
Aegeon
1611 Oh! grief hath chang'd me since you saw me last;
1612 And careful hours with Time's deformed hand,
1613 Have written strange defeatures in my face:
1614 But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?
Antipholus of Ephesus
1615 Neither.
Aegeon
1616 Dromio, nor thou?
Dromio of Ephesus
1617 No, trust me, sir, nor I.
Aegeon
1618 I am sure thou dost.
Dromio of Ephesus
1619 Ay, sir, but I am sure I do not; and whatsoever a man denies, you
1620 are now bound to believe him.
Aegeon
1621 Not know my voice! O time's extremity!
1622 Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue,
1623 In seven short years that here my only son
1624 Knows not my feeble key of untun'd cares?
1625 Though now this grained face of mine be hid
1626 In sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow,
1627 And all the conduits of my blood froze up,
1628 Yet hath my night of life some memory,
1629 My wasting lamps some fading glimmer left,
1630 My dull deaf ears a little use to hear:
1631 All these old witnesses,—I cannot err,—
1632 Tell me thou art my son Antipholus.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1633 I never saw my father in my life.
Aegeon
1634 But seven years since, in Syracusa, boy,
1635 Thou know'st we parted; but perhaps, my son,
1636 Thou sham'st to acknowledge me in misery.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1637 The duke and all that know me in the city,
1638 Can witness with me that it is not so:
1639 I ne'er saw Syracusa in my life.
Duke Solinus
1640 I tell thee, Syracusan, twenty years
1641 Have I been patron to Antipholus,
1642 During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa:
1643 I see thy age and dangers make thee dote.
[Enter the ABBESS, with ANTIPHOLUS SYRACUSAN and DROMIO SYRACUSAN.]
Abbess (Emilia)
1644 Most mighty duke, behold a man much wrong'd.
[All gather to see them.]
Adriana
1645 I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me.
Duke Solinus
1646 One of these men is genius to the other;
1647 And so of these. Which is the natural man,
1648 And which the spirit? Who deciphers them?
Dromio of Syracuse
1649 I, sir, am Dromio; command him away.
Dromio of Ephesus
1650 I, sir, am Dromio; pray let me stay.
Antipholus of Syracuse
1651 Aegeon, art thou not? or else his ghost?
Dromio of Syracuse
1652 O, my old master! who hath bound him here?
Abbess (Emilia)
1653 Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds,
1654 And gain a husband by his liberty.—
1655 Speak, old Aegeon, if thou be'st the man
1656 That hadst a wife once called Aemilia,
1657 That bore thee at a burden two fair sons:
1658 O, if thou be'st the same Aegeon, speak,
1659 And speak unto the same Aemilia!
Aegeon
1660 If I dream not, thou art Aemilia:
1661 If thou art she, tell me where is that son
1662 That floated with thee on the fatal raft?
Abbess (Emilia)
1663 By men of Epidamnum, he and I,
1664 And the twin Dromio, all were taken up:
1665 But, by and by, rude fishermen of Corinth
1666 By force took Dromio and my son from them,
1667 And me they left with those of Epidamnum:
1668 What then became of them I cannot tell;
1669 I to this fortune that you see me in.
Duke Solinus
1670 Why, here begins his morning story right:
1671 These two Antipholus', these two so like,
1672 And these two Dromios, one in semblance,—
1673 Besides her urging of her wreck at sea,—
1674 These are the parents to these children,
1675 Which accidentally are met together.
1676 Antipholus, thou cam'st from Corinth first?
Antipholus of Syracuse
1677 No, sir, not I; I came from Syracuse.
Duke Solinus
1678 Stay, stand apart; I know not which is which.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1679 I came from Corinth, my most gracious lord.
Dromio of Ephesus
1680 And I with him.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1681 Brought to this town by that most famous warrior,
1682 Duke Menaphon, your most renowned uncle.
Adriana
1683 Which of you two did dine with me to-day?
Antipholus of Syracuse
1684 I, gentle mistress.
Adriana
1685 And are not you my husband?
Antipholus of Ephesus
1686 No; I say nay to that.
Antipholus of Syracuse
1687 And so do I, yet did she call me so;
1688 And this fair gentlewoman, her sister here,
1689 Did call me brother.—What I told you then,
1690 I hope I shall have leisure to make good;
1691 If this be not a dream I see and hear.
Angelo
1692 That is the chain, sir, which you had of me.
Antipholus of Syracuse
1693 I think it be, sir; I deny it not.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1694 And you, sir, for this chain arrested me.
Angelo
1695 I think I did, sir: I deny it not.
Adriana
1696 I sent you money, sir, to be your bail,
1697 By Dromio; but I think he brought it not.
Dromio of Ephesus
1698 No, none by me.
Antipholus of Syracuse
1699 This purse of ducats I receiv'd from you,
1700 And Dromio my man did bring them me:
1701 I see we still did meet each other's man,
1702 And I was ta'en for him, and he for me,
1703 And thereupon these errors are arose.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1704 These ducats pawn I for my father here.
Duke Solinus
1705 It shall not need; thy father hath his life.
Courtesan
1706 Sir, I must have that diamond from you.
Antipholus of Ephesus
1707 There, take it; and much thanks for my good cheer.
Abbess (Emilia)
1708 Renowned duke, vouchsafe to take the pains
1709 To go with us into the abbey here,
1710 And hear at large discoursed all our fortunes:—
1711 And all that are assembled in this place,
1712 That by this sympathized one day's error
1713 Have suffer'd wrong, go, keep us company,
1714 And we shall make full satisfaction—
1715 Twenty-five years have I but gone in travail
1716 Of you, my sons; nor till this present hour
1717 My heavy burdens are delivered:—
1718 The duke, my husband, and my children both,
1719 And you the calendars of their nativity,
1720 Go to a gossips' feast, and go with me;
1721 After so long grief, such nativity!
Duke Solinus
1722 With all my heart, I'll gossip at this feast.
[Exeunt DUKE, ABBESS, AEGEON, Courtezan, Merchant, ANGELO, and Attendants.]
Dromio of Syracuse
1723 Master, shall I fetch your stuff from shipboard?
Antipholus of Ephesus
1724 Dromio, what stuff of mine hast thou embark'd?
Dromio of Syracuse
1725 Your goods that lay at host, sir, in the Centaur.
Antipholus of Syracuse
1726 He speaks to me; I am your master, Dromio:
1727 Come, go with us: we'll look to that anon:
1728 Embrace thy brother there; rejoice with him.
[Exeunt ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE and ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS, ADRIANA, and LUCIANA.]
Dromio of Syracuse
1729 There is a fat friend at your master's house,
1730 That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner:
1731 She now shall be my sister, not my wife.
Dromio of Ephesus
1732 Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother:
1733 I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth.
1734 Will you walk in to see their gossiping?
Dromio of Syracuse
1735 Not I, sir; you are my elder.
Dromio of Ephesus
1736 That's a question; how shall we try it?
Dromio of Syracuse
1737 We'll draw cuts for the senior: till then, lead thou first.
Dromio of Ephesus
1738 Nay, then, thus:
1739 We came into the world like brother and brother:
1740 And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1321stage direction note
“that self chain about his neck”
Angelo sees Antipholus of Syracuse wearing the gold chain he made for Antipholus of Ephesus. Because the twins are identical and both are now in Ephesus, Angelo mistakes the Syracusan for his actual customer — fuelling the confrontation that opens Act 5.
classical Plautus and Roman comedy
TLN 1334stage direction note
“I think I had: I never did deny it”
Antipholus of Syracuse honestly admits he received the chain and never denied it — he is telling the truth from his own experience. The confusion arises because it was he, not Antipholus of Ephesus, who actually got the chain from Angelo, while the Ephesian twin denied receiving a chain he never saw.
TLN 1340archaic vocab
“Thou art a villain to impeach me thus”
'Impeach' here means to accuse or charge with wrongdoing, not the modern sense of a formal process against a government official. Antipholus of Syracuse is calling the Merchant a scoundrel for accusing him of lying.
TLN 1347archaic vocab
“for God's sake, take a house”
'Take a house' means to take shelter in a building — here, the priory. Dromio of Syracuse urges his master to flee indoors before Adriana's party can seize them. 'We are spoil'd' means 'we are undone' or 'we are caught.'
TLN 1355cultural context
“How long hath this possession held the man”
The Abbess uses 'possession' in its theological sense: demonic possession, the state of being controlled by an evil spirit. In the period, erratic or violent behaviour — exactly what Antipholus of Ephesus has shown — was commonly attributed to a demon taking hold of a person's body and mind. The Doctor Pinch scene (earlier) staged an attempted exorcism on exactly this diagnosis.
biblical St Paul's Ephesus: magic and marriage
TLN 1375archaic vocab
“It was the copy of our conference”
'Copy' means the constant text, the repeated theme; 'conference' means conversation or discourse. Adriana is saying their every conversation came back to the same subject — his straying. The modern equivalent would be 'it was the whole substance of our talk.'
TLN 1382rhetorical device
“The venom clamours of a jealous woman”
The Abbess delivers a sustained speech blaming Adriana's nagging for her husband's madness. The rhetorical structure repeats three parallel accusations — sleep disturbed, food ruined, sports blocked — each ending with the same medical consequence (light head, fever, melancholy), a technique called anaphora. It is a persuasive performance that leaves Adriana speechless and Luciana noting she 'did betray me to my own reproof.'
TLN 1392cultural context
“moody and dull melancholy,— / Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair”
The Abbess diagnoses Antipholus with melancholy — in early modern medical theory, an excess of 'black bile' (one of the four bodily humours) that caused depression, madness, and despair. Melancholy was understood as literally a physical substance that darkened the blood and overcast the mind. The Abbess's chain of symptoms — disturbed sleep, bad digestion, barred recreation — all fit the period's clinical description of melancholy as the root cause of madness.
TLN 1403syntax grammar
“She did betray me to my own reproof”
Adriana means the Abbess tricked her into convicting herself: by getting Adriana to confess her nagging in detail, the Abbess then turned the confession into an accusation. 'Betray me to my own reproof' = lead me into self-condemnation. The syntax is compressed: 'she led me, by drawing out my words, to reprove myself.'
TLN 1407cultural context
“he took this place for sanctuary”
Church sanctuary was a legal right in medieval and early modern England: a person who fled to a consecrated church building could not be arrested there, and the clergy were obligated to shelter them for a set period (traditionally forty days). The Abbess invokes this ancient right to keep Antipholus of Syracuse inside the priory over Adriana's objection.
TLN 1412archaic vocab
“Diet his sickness, for it is my office, / And will have no attorney but myself”
'Diet' here is a verb meaning to regulate or prescribe food as medical treatment — a standard Elizabethan term for nursing care. 'Office' means duty or function. 'Attorney' means a substitute or agent acting in one's place. Adriana insists that caring for a sick husband is her own exclusive wifely role, and she will not delegate it to the Abbess.
TLN 1416cultural context
“the approved means I have, / With wholesome syrups, drugs, and holy prayers”
The Abbess plans to treat the supposed madman with both herbal medicine ('syrups, drugs') and religious ritual ('holy prayers'). This combination was standard in the period: illness of the mind was understood to have both bodily and spiritual dimensions, and convents and priories were recognized centers of medical care alongside prayer.
TLN 1431cultural context
“the dial points at five”
A 'dial' is a sundial or clock face. The Merchant notes that it is nearly five o'clock, when the Duke will pass by on his way to witness the execution of Aegeon. The play is notably careful about the time — everything has happened in a single day, partly to satisfy the classical 'unity of time' that Shakespeare observed more strictly here than in any other play.
TLN 1433cultural context
“the melancholy vale; / The place of death and sorry execution”
The 'melancholy vale' is the execution ground, a low-lying area outside the city walls where condemned criminals were put to death. Public executions were held at such designated places — in London, famously at Tyburn, outside the city. 'Sorry' here means sorrowful or wretched, not merely regrettable.
TLN 1451archaic vocab
“At your important letters”
'Important' here is an adjective meaning 'importunate' — urgent, pressing, insistent. Adriana is telling the Duke that she married Antipholus at the Duke's own persistent urging or recommendation. The word does not mean 'significant' in the modern sense.
TLN 1472cultural context
“most gracious duke, with thy command / Let him be brought forth”
Adriana is appealing to the Duke as the supreme secular authority of Ephesus. In Renaissance political thought, the Duke (the city-ruler or sovereign) has power over the Church only in temporal matters; the Abbess's claim of sanctuary is an ecclesiastical privilege that the Duke must adjudicate. His role as arbiter between Adriana's marital right and the Abbess's religious authority reflects the Elizabethan tension between state and church jurisdiction.
TLN 1481archaic vocab
“shift and save yourself”
'Shift' here is a verb meaning to move quickly, make haste, fend for yourself — the servant is telling Adriana to run and save herself. The phrase 'shift for yourself' (to manage by your own devices in a crisis) was a common Elizabethan idiom.
TLN 1483stage direction note
“Beaten the maids a-row, and bound the doctor; / Whose beard they have singed off with brands of fire”
The Servant reports that the freed Antipholus of Ephesus and Dromio of Ephesus have terrorized Adriana's household: beating the maids one after another ('a-row' = in a row, in succession), tying up Doctor Pinch, and burning off his beard with firebrands while pouring muddy water on him to put out the flames. This is pure Plautine farce — the stock revenge of the wrongly bound man on the quack who bound him.
classical Plautus and Roman comedy
TLN 1500cultural context
“he is borne about invisible”
Adriana believes she has just locked Antipholus of Syracuse inside the priory — but now Antipholus of Ephesus walks in from outside. From her point of view he has moved through solid walls while invisible, which she can only explain as supernatural. This is the comic peak of the mistaken-identity plot: the two Antipholuses are simultaneously in the same place from two different witnesses' perspectives.
classical Plautus and Roman comedy
TLN 1505archaic vocab
“When I bestrid thee in the wars, and took / Deep scars to save thy life”
'Bestrid' (past tense of 'bestride') means to stand over a fallen man and straddle him to protect him from being killed while he is down. When a soldier fell in battle, an enemy or a comrade might stand over him — straddling the body — to kill or shield him. Antipholus of Ephesus reminds the Duke that he once saved his life at the cost of his own wounds.
TLN 1518archaic vocab
“she with harlots feasted in my house”
'Harlots' in this period could mean prostitutes, but also more broadly 'scoundrels' or 'base persons' of either sex. Antipholus of Ephesus uses it loosely to mean that Adriana entertained low company — from his perspective the man she let in and fed at noon (in fact his twin brother) was a stranger and a villain.
TLN 1532archaic vocab
“were he not pack'd with her”
'Pack'd' means in conspiracy with, in league with, confederate. Antipholus of Ephesus suspects Angelo of being in a plot with Adriana to defraud him — which from his experience seems like the only rational explanation for the whole day's absurdity.
TLN 1544archaic vocab
“I did obey, and sent my peasant home / For certain ducats: he with none return'd”
'Peasant' is used here by Antipholus of Ephesus as a contemptuous term for his servant (Dromio of Ephesus), not a literal farm-worker. 'Ducats' are gold coins in wide use across Europe and common in Shakespeare's plays set in Mediterranean or Italian settings. Antipholus sent Dromio home to Adriana to fetch money for his bail — but the money went to Dromio of Syracuse instead, who gave it to his own Antipholus.
TLN 1552archaic vocab
“A mere anatomy, a mountebank, / A threadbare juggler, and a fortune-teller”
Antipholus of Ephesus sketches Doctor Pinch in a burst of contemptuous insults: 'anatomy' means a skeleton (a living emaciated man), 'mountebank' is a travelling quack-doctor who sells fake remedies from a platform ('banco' = bench), 'juggler' means a conjurer or trickster (not a circus juggler), and 'fortune-teller' completes the portrait of a fraudulent operator.
TLN 1583archaic vocab
“What an intricate impeach is this”
'Impeach' here is used as a noun meaning a formal accusation or charge (not the verb). 'Intricate' is the same as today. The Duke means: what a tangled, complicated accusation this whole situation presents. He cannot tell who is lying and who is telling the truth because both sides are equally certain and equally contradictory.
TLN 1584classical allusion
“I think you all have drunk of Circe's cup”
Circe was an enchantress in Homer's Odyssey who gave Odysseus's sailors a drugged cup that turned them into pigs. The Duke invokes her as the explanation for the whole day's madness: the only way this many respectable people can all be wrong and all be certain is if they have all been bewitched out of their senses. 'Circe's cup' became a standard phrase for bewilderment or enchantment.
classical Circe and her cup
TLN 1595wordplay
“I think you are all mated, or stark mad”
'Mated' carries two senses at once: confounded or bewildered (the dominant meaning here), and — given the play's constant preoccupation with marriage and mistaken wives — also 'paired, matched.' The Duke means they are all confused out of their wits, but the word quietly echoes the play's marital tangle. 'Stark mad' means completely, absolutely mad.
TLN 1611archaic vocab
“grief hath chang'd me since you saw me last; / And careful hours with Time's deformed hand, / Have written strange defeatures in my face”
'Careful' means full of care, anxiety, and sorrow — not conscientious. 'Defeatures' means disfigurements, features undone or altered by age and suffering. Aegeon says that grief and anxious years have so changed his face that his own son cannot recognize him.
TLN 1625rhetorical device
“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”
Aegeon uses a chain of sustained metaphors for old age: 'grained' face = deeply furrowed (grain = the wood-grain of wrinkles); 'winter's drizzled snow' = white hair or beard covering his face; 'conduits of my blood froze up' = veins grown cold and sluggish with age; 'my night of life' = the darkness of old age; 'wasting lamps' = eyes that are dimming, like candles burning down. The whole passage treats the human body as a landscape at the end of its seasons.
TLN 1646cultural context
“One of these men is genius to the other; / And so of these. Which is the natural man, / And which the spirit?”
A 'genius' in Roman belief was a man's attendant spirit — a divine double that accompanied each person through life. The Duke's bewildered question treats one Antipholus as real and the other as a ghostly counterpart or double. 'Natural man' means the actual flesh-and-blood human, as opposed to a spirit or demon in his likeness.
classical Plautus and Roman comedy
TLN 1653stage direction note
“Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds, / And gain a husband by his liberty”
The Abbess announces she will free Aegeon and — in the same breath — that she will 'gain a husband.' The audience has not yet been told who she is, but this line is the signal: Aegeon is her lost husband. This is the play's main anagnorisis (recognition), the moment the play's opening tragedy — the condemned old man separated from wife and family by shipwreck — is resolved in the same scene that closes the comedy.
classical Plautus and Roman comedy
TLN 1663stage direction note
“By men of Epidamnum, he and I, / And the twin Dromio, all were taken up”
Emilia fills in the gap from Act 1: after the shipwreck, she, Antipholus of Syracuse (the baby), and one Dromio twin were picked up by sailors from Epidamnum; then Corinthian fishermen forcibly seized her son and that Dromio, leaving her stranded with the Epidamnians. This explains how Antipholus of Syracuse grew up in Syracuse with Aegeon while the other twin ended up in Ephesus.
classical Plautus and Roman comedy
TLN 1712archaic vocab
“by this sympathized one day's error”
'Sympathized' here means mutually suffered or jointly experienced — all of those present have shared in and been caught up in the same day's confusion. The line gathers up the play's multiple victims into a community of bewilderment.
TLN 1715wordplay
“Twenty-five years have I but gone in travail / Of you, my sons; nor till this present hour / My heavy burdens are delivered”
Emilia plays on the double meaning of 'travail' (hard labour; and also 'travel,' the journey through life) and 'delivered' (set free from a burden; and also 'to give birth'). She has been in labour for twenty-five years with these sons she could not deliver — now, at this moment, she gives birth to them a second time by recognizing and reuniting with them. 'Burdens' continues the childbirth metaphor.
TLN 1719archaic vocab
“you the calendars of their nativity, / Go to a gossips' feast”
'Calendars of their nativity' means the Dromio twins, whose own births mark the same day as the Antipholus twins — they are living records (calendars) of that birth date. 'Gossips' feast' is a christening party or baptismal celebration — guests at a christening were 'gossips' (god-parents and close friends), and the feast followed the ceremony. Emilia invites everyone to celebrate the family reunion as a second christening.
TLN 1725archaic vocab
“Your goods that lay at host, sir, in the Centaur”
'Lay at host' means were stored or lodged at the inn — 'at host' is a phrase for being in the keeping of an innkeeper or host. The Centaur is the name of the inn where Antipholus of Syracuse has been staying, mentioned first in Act 1. Dromio of Syracuse is asking whether he should retrieve his master's belongings now that they are leaving Ephesus.
TLN 1732wordplay
“Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother: / I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth”
Dromio of Ephesus says to his twin: looking at you is like looking in a mirror ('glass'). Since they are identical, seeing the other Dromio is the first time he has ever seen his own face accurately reflected back at him. He concludes from the mirror-image that he must be handsome — with comic self-satisfaction.
classical Plautus and Roman comedy
TLN 1737cultural context
“We'll draw cuts for the senior: till then, lead thou first”
'Draw cuts' means to draw lots by pulling straws of different lengths — the person who drew the short straw (or 'cut') lost. The Dromios cannot tell which of them is the elder twin, so they propose to settle who leads by chance. The play ends with neither twin going first: they go 'hand in hand, not one before another' — a final comic image of the equality that was always there, obscured by the day's errors.