The Comedy Of Errors

1 Enter Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse and a Merchant.
2 MERCHANT.
3 Therefore give out you are of Epidamnum,
4 Lest that your goods too soon be confiscate.
5 This very day a Syracusian merchant
6 Is apprehended for arrival here,
7 And, not being able to buy out his life,
8 According to the statute of the town
9 Dies ere the weary sun set in the west.
10 There is your money that I had to keep.
11 ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
12 Go bear it to the Centaur, where we host,
13 And stay there, Dromio, till I come to thee.
14 Within this hour it will be dinnertime;
15 Till that, I’ll view the manners of the town,
16 Peruse the traders, gaze upon the buildings,
17 And then return and sleep within mine inn,
18 For with long travel I am stiff and weary.
19 Get thee away.
20 DROMIO OF SYRACUSE.
21 Many a man would take you at your word,
22 And go indeed, having so good a mean.
23 [_Exit Dromio._]
24 ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
25 A trusty villain, sir, that very oft,
26 When I am dull with care and melancholy,
27 Lightens my humour with his merry jests.
28 What, will you walk with me about the town,
29 And then go to my inn and dine with me?
30 MERCHANT.
31 I am invited, sir, to certain merchants,
32 Of whom I hope to make much benefit.
33 I crave your pardon. Soon, at five o’clock,
34 Please you, I’ll meet with you upon the mart,
35 And afterward consort you till bedtime.
36 My present business calls me from you now.
37 ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
38 Farewell till then: I will go lose myself,
39 And wander up and down to view the city.
40 MERCHANT.
41 Sir, I commend you to your own content.
42 [_Exit Merchant._]
43 ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
44 He that commends me to mine own content
45 Commends me to the thing I cannot get.
46 I to the world am like a drop of water
47 That in the ocean seeks another drop,
48 Who, failing there to find his fellow forth,
49 Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself.
50 So I, to find a mother and a brother,
51 In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.
52 Enter Dromio of Ephesus.
53 Here comes the almanac of my true date.
54 What now? How chance thou art return’d so soon?
55 DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
56 Return’d so soon? rather approach’d too late.
57 The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit;
58 The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell;
59 My mistress made it one upon my cheek.
60 She is so hot because the meat is cold;
61 The meat is cold because you come not home;
62 You come not home because you have no stomach;
63 You have no stomach, having broke your fast;
64 But we that know what ’tis to fast and pray,
65 Are penitent for your default today.
66 ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
67 Stop in your wind, sir, tell me this, I pray:
68 Where have you left the money that I gave you?
69 DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
70 O, sixpence that I had o’ Wednesday last
71 To pay the saddler for my mistress’ crupper:
72 The saddler had it, sir, I kept it not.
73 ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
74 I am not in a sportive humour now.
75 Tell me, and dally not, where is the money?
76 We being strangers here, how dar’st thou trust
77 So great a charge from thine own custody?
78 DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
79 I pray you jest, sir, as you sit at dinner:
80 I from my mistress come to you in post;
81 If I return, I shall be post indeed,
82 For she will score your fault upon my pate.
83 Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock,
84 And strike you home without a messenger.
85 ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
86 Come, Dromio, come, these jests are out of season,
87 Reserve them till a merrier hour than this.
88 Where is the gold I gave in charge to thee?
89 DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
90 To me, sir? why, you gave no gold to me!
91 ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
92 Come on, sir knave, have done your foolishness,
93 And tell me how thou hast dispos’d thy charge.
94 DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
95 My charge was but to fetch you from the mart
96 Home to your house, the Phoenix, sir, to dinner.
97 My mistress and her sister stay for you.
98 ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
99 Now, as I am a Christian, answer me
100 In what safe place you have bestow’d my money,
101 Or I shall break that merry sconce of yours
102 That stands on tricks when I am undispos’d;
103 Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me?
104 DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
105 I have some marks of yours upon my pate,
106 Some of my mistress’ marks upon my shoulders,
107 But not a thousand marks between you both.
108 If I should pay your worship those again,
109 Perchance you will not bear them patiently.
110 ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
111 Thy mistress’ marks? what mistress, slave, hast thou?
112 DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
113 Your worship’s wife, my mistress at the Phoenix;
114 She that doth fast till you come home to dinner,
115 And prays that you will hie you home to dinner.
116 ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
117 What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face,
118 Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.
119 DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
120 What mean you, sir? for God’s sake hold your hands.
121 Nay, an you will not, sir, I’ll take my heels.
122 [_Exit Dromio._]
123 ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
124 Upon my life, by some device or other
125 The villain is o’er-raught of all my money.
126 They say this town is full of cozenage,
127 As nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,
128 Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,
129 Soul-killing witches that deform the body,
130 Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,
131 And many such-like liberties of sin:
132 If it prove so, I will be gone the sooner.
133 I’ll to the Centaur to go seek this slave.
134 I greatly fear my money is not safe.
135 [_Exit._]