The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old FavoritesTappan, Eva March
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The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old Favorites
Tappan, Eva March
Children's stories; Literature -- Adaptations
This day of grace did seem no great favor to Ægeon, for not knowing
any man in Ephesus, there seemed to him but little chance that any
stranger would lend or give him a thousand marks to pay the fine; and
helpless and hopeless of any relief, he retired from the presence of
the duke in the custody of a jailer.
Ægeon supposed he knew no person in Ephesus; but at the very time he
was in danger of losing his life through the careful search he was
making after his youngest son, that son and his eldest son also were
both in the city of Ephesus.
Ægeon's sons, besides being exactly alike in face and person, were
both named alike, being both called Antipholus, and the two twin
slaves were also both named Dromio. Ægeon's youngest son, Antipholus
of Syracuse, he whom the old man had come to Ephesus to seek, happened
to arrive at Ephesus with his slave Dromio that very same day that
Ægeon did; and he being also a merchant of Syracuse, he would have
been in the same danger that his father was, but by good fortune he
met a friend who told him the peril an old merchant of Syracuse was
in, and advised him to pass for a merchant of Epidamnum; this
Antipholus agreed to do, and he was sorry to hear one of his own
countrymen was in this danger, but he little thought this old merchant
was his own father.
The oldest son of Ægeon (who must be called Antipholus of Ephesus, to
distinguish him from his brother Antipholus of Syracuse) had lived at
Ephesus twenty years, and, being a rich man, was well able to have
paid the money for the ransom of his father's life; but Antipholus
knew nothing of his father, being so young when he was taken out of
the sea with his mother by the fishermen that he only remembered he
had been so preserved, but he had no recollection of either his father
or his mother; the fishermen who took up this Antipholus and his
mother and the young slave Dromio having carried the two children away
from her (to the great grief of that unhappy lady), intending to sell
them.
Antipholus and Dromio were sold by them to duke Menaphon, a famous
warrior, who was uncle to the duke of Ephesus, and he carried the boys
to Ephesus, when he went to visit the duke his nephew.
The duke of Ephesus taking a liking to young Antipholus, when he grew
up, made him an officer in his army, in which he distinguished himself
by his great bravery in the wars, where he saved the life of his
patron the duke, who rewarded his merit by marrying him to Adriana, a
rich lady of Ephesus, with whom he was living (his slave Dromio still
attending him) at the time his father came there.
Antipholus of Syracuse, when he parted with his friend, who advised
him to say he came from Epidamnum, gave his slave Dromio some money to
carry to the inn where he intended to dine, and in the meantime he
said he would walk about and view the city, and observe the manners of
the people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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