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Without addition or diminishing, |
As take from me thyself, and not me too. |
How dearly would it touch thee to the quick, |
Should'st thou but hear I were licentious, |
And that this body, consecrate to thee, |
By ruffian lust should be contaminate! |
Wouldst thou not spit at me and spurn at me, |
And hurl the name of husband in my face, |
And tear the stain'd skin off my harlot-brow, |
And from my false hand cut the wedding-ring, |
And break it with a deep-divorcing vow? |
I know thou canst, and therefore see thou do it. |
I am possess'd with an adulterate blot; |
My blood is mingled with the crime of lust; |
For if we two be one, and thou play false, |
I do digest the poison of thy flesh, |
Being strumpeted by thy contagion. |
Keep then fair league and truce with thy true bed; |
I live dis-stain'd, thou undishonoured. |
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE. Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not: |
In Ephesus I am but two hours old, |
As strange unto your town as to your talk, |
Who, every word by all my wit being scann'd, |
Wants wit in all one word to understand. |
LUCIANA. Fie, brother, how the world is chang'd with you! |
When were you wont to use my sister thus? |
She sent for you by Dromio home to dinner. |
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE. By Dromio? |
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. By me? |
ADRIANA. By thee; and this thou didst return from him- |
That he did buffet thee, and in his blows |
Denied my house for his, me for his wife. |
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE. Did you converse, sir, with this gentlewoman? |
What is the course and drift of your compact? |
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. I, Sir? I never saw her till this time. |
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE. Villain, thou liest; for even her very words |
Didst thou deliver to me on the mart. |
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. I never spake with her in all my life. |
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE. How can she thus, then, call us by our names, |
Unless it be by inspiration? |
ADRIANA. How ill agrees it with your gravity |
To counterfeit thus grossly with your slave, |
Abetting him to thwart me in my mood! |
Be it my wrong you are from me exempt, |
But wrong not that wrong with a more contempt. |
Come, I will fasten on this sleeve of thine; |
Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine, |
Whose weakness, married to thy stronger state, |
Makes me with thy strength to communicate. |
If aught possess thee from me, it is dross, |
Usurping ivy, brier, or idle moss; |
Who all, for want of pruning, with intrusion |
Infect thy sap, and live on thy confusion. |
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE. To me she speaks; she moves me for her theme. |
What, was I married to her in my dream? |
Or sleep I now, and think I hear all this? |
What error drives our eyes and ears amiss? |
Until I know this sure uncertainty, |
I'll entertain the offer'd fallacy. |
LUCIANA. Dromio, go bid the servants spread for dinner. |
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. O, for my beads! I cross me for sinner. |
This is the fairy land. O spite of spites! |
We talk with goblins, owls, and sprites. |
If we obey them not, this will ensue: |
They'll suck our breath, or pinch us black and blue. |
LUCIANA. Why prat'st thou to thyself, and answer'st not? |
Dromio, thou drone, thou snail, thou slug, thou sot! |
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. I am transformed, master, am not I? |
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE. I think thou art in mind, and so am I. |
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. Nay, master, both in mind and in my shape. |
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE. Thou hast thine own form. |
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. No, I am an ape. |
LUCIANA. If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an ass. |
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. 'Tis true; she rides me, and I long for grass. |
'Tis so, I am an ass; else it could never be |
But I should know her as well as she knows me. |
ADRIANA. Come, come, no longer will I be a fool, |
To put the finger in the eye and weep, |
Whilst man and master laughs my woes to scorn. |
Come, sir, to dinner. Dromio, keep the gate. |
Husband, I'll dine above with you to-day, |
And shrive you of a thousand idle pranks. |
Sirrah, if any ask you for your master, |
Say he dines forth, and let no creature enter. |
Come, sister. Dromio, play the porter well. |
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE. Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell? |
Sleeping or waking, mad or well-advis'd? |
Known unto these, and to myself disguis'd! |
I'll say as they say, and persever so, |
And in this mist at all adventures go. |
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. Master, shall I be porter at the gate? |
ADRIANA. Ay; and let none enter, lest I break your pate. |
LUCIANA. Come, come, Antipholus, we dine too late. |
<Exeunt |
<<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM |
SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS |
PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE |
WITH PERMISSION. ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE |
DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS |
PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED |
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