The Comedy of Errors - William Shakespeare (best summer reads .txt) 📗
- Author: William Shakespeare
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But, soft! I see the goldsmith. Get thee gone;
Buy thou a rope and bring it home to me. Dromio of Ephesus I buy a thousand pound a year: I buy a rope. Exit. Antipholus of Ephesus
A man is well holp up that trusts to you:
I promised your presence and the chain;
But neither chain nor goldsmith came to me.
Belike you thought our love would last too long,
If it were chain’d together, and therefore came not.
Saving your merry humour, here’s the note
How much your chain weighs to the utmost carat,
The fineness of the gold and chargeful fashion,
Which doth amount to three odd ducats more
Than I stand debted to this gentleman:
I pray you, see him presently discharged,
For he is bound to sea and stays but for it.
I am not furnish’d with the present money;
Besides, I have some business in the town.
Good signior, take the stranger to my house
And with you take the chain and bid my wife
Disburse the sum on the receipt thereof:
Perchance I will be there as soon as you.
An if I have not, sir, I hope you have;
Or else you may return without your money.
Nay, come, I pray you, sir, give me the chain:
Both wind and tide stays for this gentleman,
And I, to blame, have held him here too long.
Good Lord! you use this dalliance to excuse
Your breach of promise to the Porpentine.
I should have chid you for not bringing it,
But, like a shrew, you first begin to brawl.
Come, come, you know I gave it you even now.
Either send the chain or send by me some token.
Fie, now you run this humour out of breath,
Come, where’s the chain? I pray you, let me see it.
My business cannot brook this dalliance.
Good sir, say whether you’ll answer me or no:
If not, I’ll leave him to the officer.
You wrong me more, sir, in denying it:
Consider how it stands upon my credit.
This touches me in reputation.
Either consent to pay this sum for me
Or I attach you by this officer.
Consent to pay thee that I never had!
Arrest me, foolish fellow, if thou darest.
Here is thy fee; arrest him, officer.
I would not spare my brother in this case,
If he should scorn me so apparently.
I do obey thee till I give thee bail.
But, sirrah, you shall buy this sport as dear
As all the metal in your shop will answer.
Sir, sir, I shall have law in Ephesus,
To your notorious shame; I doubt it not.
Master, there’s a bark of Epidamnum
That stays but till her owner comes aboard
And then, sir, she bears away. Our fraughtage, sir,
I have convey’d aboard and I have bought
The oil, the balsamum and aqua-vitae.
The ship is in her trim; the merry wind
Blows fair from land: they stay for nought at all
But for their owner, master, and yourself.
How now! a madman! Why, thou peevish sheep,
What ship of Epidamnum stays for me?
Thou drunken slave, I sent thee for a rope
And told thee to what purpose and what end.
You sent me for a rope’s end as soon:
You sent me to the bay, sir, for a bark.
I will debate this matter at more leisure
And teach your ears to list me with more heed.
To Adriana, villain, hie thee straight:
Give her this key, and tell her, in the desk
That’s cover’d o’er with Turkish tapestry
There is a purse of ducats; let her send it:
Tell her I am arrested in the street
And that shall bail me: hie thee, slave, be gone!
On, officer, to prison till it come. Exeunt Second Merchant, Angelo, Officer, and Antipholus of Ephesus.
To Adriana! that is where we dined,
Where Dowsabel did claim me for her husband:
She is too big, I hope, for me to compass.
Thither I must, although against my will,
For servants must their masters’ minds fulfil. Exit.
The house of Antipholus of Ephesus.
Enter Adriana and Luciana. AdrianaAh, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?
Mightst thou perceive austerely in his eye
That he did plead in earnest? yea or no?
Look’d he or red or pale, or sad or merrily?
What observation madest thou in this case
Of his heart’s meteors tilting in his face?
With words that in an honest suit might move.
First he did praise my beauty, then my speech.
I cannot, nor I
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