Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Adaptations; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Stories, plots, etc. -- Juvenile literature
When the married Antipholus was denied entrance into his own house
(those within supposing him to be already there), he had gone away very
angry, believing it to be one of his wife's jealous freaks, to which
she was very subject, and remembering that she had often falsely
accused him of visiting other ladies, he, to be revenged on her for
shutting him out of his own house, determined to go and dine with this
lady, and she receiving him with great civility, and his wife having so
highly offended him, Antipholus promised to give her a gold chain,
which he had intended as a present for his wife; it was the same chain
which the goldsmith by mistake had given to his brother. The lady liked
so well the thoughts of having a fine gold chain, that she gave the
married Antipholus a ring; which when, as she supposed (taking his
brother for him), he denied, and said he did not know her, and left her
in such a wild passion, she began to think he was certainly out of his
senses; and presently she resolved to go and tell Adriana that her
husband was mad. And while she was telling it to Adriana, he came,
attended by the jailor (who allowed him to come home to get the money
to pay the debt), for the purse of money, which Adriana had sent by
Dromio, and he had delivered to the other Antipholus.
Adriana believed the story the lady told her of her husband's madness
must be true, when he reproached her for shutting him out of his own
house; and remembering how he had protested all dinner-time that he was
not her husband, and had never been in Ephesus till that day, she had
no doubt that he was mad; she therefore paid the jailor the money, and
having discharged him, she ordered her servants to bind her husband
with ropes, and had him conveyed into a dark room, and sent for a
doctor to come and cure him of his madness: Antipholus all the while
hotly exclaiming against this false accusation, which the exact
likeness he bore to his brother had brought upon him. But his rage only
the more confirmed them in the belief that he was mad; and Dromio
persisting in the same story, they bound him also, and took him away
along with his master.
Soon after Adriana had put her husband into confinement, a servant came
to tell her that Antipholus and Dromio must have broken loose from
their keepers, for that they were both walking at liberty in the next
street. On hearing this, Adriana ran out to fetch him home, taking some
people with her to secure her husband again; and her sister went along
with her. When they came to the gates of a convent in their
neighbourhood, there they saw Antipholus and Dromio, as they thought
being again deceived by the likeness of the twin-brothers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account