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
Dromio was a pleasant fellow, and when Antipholus was dull and
melancholy he used to divert himself with the odd humors and merry
jests of his slave, so that the freedoms of speech he allowed in
Dromio were greater than is usual between masters and their servants.
When Antipholus of Syracuse had sent Dromio away he stood awhile
thinking over his solitary wanderings in search of his mother and his
brother, of whom in no place where he landed could he hear the least
tidings, and he said sorrowfully to himself, "I am like a drop of
water in the ocean, which seeking to find its fellow drop, loses
itself in the wide sea. So I, unhappily, to find a mother and a
brother, do lose myself."
While he was thus meditating on his weary travels, which had hitherto
been so useless, Dromio (as he thought) returned. Antipholus,
wondering that he came back so soon, asked him where he had left the
money. Now it was not his own Dromio, but the twin brother that lived
with Antipholus of Ephesus, that he spoke to. The two Dromios and the
two Antipholuses were still as much alike as Ægeon had said they were
in their infancy; therefore no wonder Antipholus thought it was his
own slave returned, and asked him why he came back so soon. Dromio
replied, "My mistress sent me to bid you come to dinner. The capon
burns, and the pig falls from the spit, and the meat will be all cold
if you do not come home." "These jests are out of season," said
Antipholus, "where did you leave the money?" Dromio still answering
that his mistress had sent him to fetch Antipholus to dinner, "What
mistress?" said Antipholus. "Why, your worship's wife, sir," replied
Dromio. Antipholus having no wife, he was very angry with Dromio, and
said, "Because I familiarly sometimes chat with you, you presume to
jest with me in this free manner. I am not in a sportive humor now.
Where is the money? we being strangers here, how dare you trust so
great a charge from your own custody?" Dromio hearing his master, as
he thought him, talk of their being strangers, supposed Antipholus was
jesting, and replied merrily, "I pray you, sir, jest as you sit at
dinner: I had no charge but to fetch you home, to dine with my
mistress and her sister." Now Antipholus lost all patience, and beat
Dromio, who ran home, and told his mistress that his master had
refused to come to dinner, and said that he had no wife.
Adriana, the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, was very angry, when she
heard that her husband said he had no wife; for she was of a jealous
temper, and she said her husband meant that he loved another lady
better than herself; and she began to fret and say unkind words of
jealousy and reproach of her husband; and her sister Luciana, who
lived with her, tried in vain to persuade her out of her groundless
suspicions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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