The Comedy of Errors
ACT I SCENE I | A hall in DUKE SOLINUS’S palace. | |
[ Enter DUKE SOLINUS, AEGEON, Gaoler, Officers, and other Attendants ] | ||
AEGEON | Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall | |
And by the doom of death end woes and all. | ||
DUKE SOLINUS | Merchant of Syracuse, plead no more; | |
I am not partial to infringe our laws: | ||
The enmity and discord which of late | 5 | |
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, | ||
Excludes all pity from our threatening looks. | 10 | |
For, since the mortal and intestine jars | ||
‘Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us, | ||
It hath in solemn synods been decreed | ||
Both by the Syracusians and ourselves, | ||
To admit no traffic to our adverse towns Nay, more, | 15 | |
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, | 20 | |
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; | ||
Therefore by law thou art condemned to die. | 25 | |
AEGEON | Yet this my comfort: when your words are done, | |
My woes end likewise with the evening sun. | ||
DUKE SOLINUS | Well, Syracusian, say in brief the cause | |
Why thou departed’st from thy native home | ||
And for what cause thou camest to Ephesus. | 30 | |
AEGEON | 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 offence, | ||
I’ll utter what my sorrows give me leave. | 35 | |
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 | ||
By prosperous voyages I often made | 40 | |
To Epidamnum; till my factor’s death | ||
And the great care of goods at random left | ||
Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse: | ||
From whom my absence was not six months old | ||
Before herself, almost at fainting under | 45 | |
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 | ||
A joyful mother of two goodly sons; | 50 | |
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 burden, male twins, both alike: | 55 | |
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, | 60 | |
We came aboard. | ||
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; | 65 | |
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 embraced, | ||
Yet the incessant weepings of my wife, | 70 | |
Weeping before for what she saw must come, | ||
And piteous plainings of the pretty babes, | ||
That mourn’d for fashion, ignorant what to fear, | ||
Forced me to seek delays for them and me. | ||
And this it was, for other means was none: | 75 | |
The sailors sought for safety by our boat, | ||
And left the ship, then sinking-ripe, to us: | ||
My wife, more careful for the latter-born, | ||
Had fasten’d him unto a small spare mast, | ||
Such as seafaring men provide for storms; | 80 | |
To him one of the other twins was bound, | ||
Whilst I had been like heedful of the other: | ||
The children thus disposed, my wife and I, | ||
Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix’d, | ||
Fasten’d ourselves at either end the mast; | 85 | |
And floating straight, obedient to the stream, | ||
Was carried towards Corinth, as we thought. | ||
At length the sun, gazing upon the earth, | ||
Dispersed those vapours that offended us; | ||
And by the benefit of his wished light, | 90 | |
The seas wax’d calm, and we discovered | ||
Two ships from far making amain to us, | ||
Of Corinth that, of Epidaurus this: | ||
But ere they came,–O, let me say no more! | ||
Gather the sequel by that went before. | 95 | |
DUKE SOLINUS | Nay, forward, old man; do not break off so; | |
For we may pity, though not pardon thee. | ||
AEGEON | O, had the gods done so, I had not now | |
Worthily term’d them merciless to us! | ||
For, ere the ships could meet by twice five leagues, | 100 | |
We were encounterd by a mighty rock; | ||
Which being violently borne upon, | ||
Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst; | ||
So that, in this unjust divorce of us, | ||
Fortune had left to both of us alike | 105 | |
What to delight in, what to sorrow for. | ||
Her part, poor soul! seeming as burdened | ||
With lesser weight but not with lesser woe, | ||
Was carried with more speed before the wind; | ||
And in our sight they three were taken up | 110 | |
By fishermen of Corinth, as we thought. | ||
At length, another ship had seized on us; | ||
And, knowing whom it was their hap to save, | ||
Gave healthful welcome to their shipwreck’d guests; | ||
And would have reft the fishers of their prey, | 115 | |
Had not their bark been very slow of sail; | ||
And therefore homeward did they bend their course. | ||
Thus have you heard me sever’d from my bliss; | ||
That by misfortunes was my life prolong’d, | ||
To tell sad stories of my own mishaps. | 120 | |
DUKE SOLINUS | And for the sake of them thou sorrowest for, | |
Do me the favour to dilate at full | ||
What hath befall’n of them and thee till now. | ||
AEGEON | My youngest boy, and yet my eldest care, | |
At eighteen years became inquisitive | 125 | |
After his brother: and importuned me | ||
That his attendant–so his case was like, | ||
Reft of his brother, but retain’d his name– | ||
Might bear him company in the quest of him: | ||
Whom whilst I labour’d of a love to see, | 130 | |
I hazarded the loss of whom I loved. | ||
Five summers have I spent in furthest Greece, | ||
Roaming clean through the bounds of Asia, | ||
And, coasting homeward, came to Ephesus; | ||
Hopeless to find, yet loath to leave unsought | 135 | |
Or that or any place that harbours men. | ||
But here must end the story of my life; | ||
And happy were I in my timely death, | ||
Could all my travels warrant me they live. | ||
DUKE SOLINUS | Hapless AEgeon, whom the fates have mark’d | 140 |
To bear the extremity of dire mishap! | ||
Now, trust me, were it not against our laws, | ||
Against my crown, my oath, my dignity, | ||
Which princes, would they, may not disannul, | ||
My soul would sue as advocate for thee. | 145 | |
But, though thou art adjudged to the death | ||
And passed sentence may not be recall’d | ||
But to our honour’s great disparagement, | ||
Yet I will favour thee in what I can. | ||
Therefore, merchant, I’ll limit thee this day | 150 | |
To seek thy life by beneficial help: | ||
Try all the friends thou hast in Ephesus; | ||
Beg thou, or borrow, to make up the sum, | ||
And live; if no, then thou art doom’d to die. | ||
Gaoler, take him to thy custody. | 155 | |
Gaoler | I will, my lord. | |
AEGEON | Hopeless and helpless doth AEgeon wend, | |
But to procrastinate his lifeless end. | ||
[Exeunt] |
Next: The Comedy of Errors, Act 1, Scene 2