Dromio of Syracuse Lines

Question 1

(1.2) [ANT. S] This gold, bear it to the Centaur, where we lodge
And stay there, Dromio, till I come to thee.
Within this hour it will be dinner-time;
Till that, I’ll view the manners of the town,
Peruse the traders, gaze upon the buildings,
And then return and sleep within mine inn;
For with long travel I am stiff and weary.
Get thee away.

Answer 1

Many a man would take you at your word
And go indeed, having so good a mean.

Question 2

(2.2) [ANT. S] … Now sir, is your merry humour altered?
As you love strokes, so jest with me again.
You know no Centaur? You received no gold?
Your mistress sent to have me ‘home to dinner’?
My house was at the Phoenix? Wast thou mad,
That thus so madly thou didst answer me?

Answer 2

What answer, sir? When spake I such a word?

Question 3

(2.2) [ANT. S] Even now, even here, not half an hour since.

Answer 3

I did not see you since you sent me hence,
Home to the Centaur with the gold you gave me.

Question 4

(2.2) [ANT. S] Villain, thou didst deny the gold’s receipt,
And told’st me of a mistress and a dinner,
For which I hope thou felt’st I was displeased.

Answer 4

I am glad to see you in this merry vein;
What means this jest? I pray you, master, tell me.

Question 5

(2.2) [ANT. S] Think’st thou I jest? Hold, take thou that [beats Dromio], and that!

Answer 5

Well, sir, I thank you.

Question 6

(2.2) [ANT. S] Thank me, sir, for what?

Answer 6

Marry, sir, for this something that you gave me for nothing.

Question 7

(2.2) [ANT. S] By Dromio?

Answer 7

By me?

Question 8

(2.2) [ANT. S] Did you converse, sir, with this gentlewoman?

Answer 8

I, sir? I never saw her till this time.

Question 9

(2.2) [ANT. S] Villain, thou lie’st! For even her very words
Didst thou deliver to me on the mart.

Answer 9

I never spake with her in all my life.

Question 10

(2.2) [LUCIANA] Dromio, go bid the servants spread for dinner.

Answer 10

O, for my beads! I cross me [crossing himself] for a 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.
[to Antipholus] I am transformed, master, am I not?

Question 11

(2.2) [ANT. S] I think thou art in mind, and so am I.

Answer 11

Nay, master, both in mind and in my shape.

Question 12

(2.2) [LUCIANA] If thou art changed to aught, ‘tis to an ass.

Answer 12

‘Tis so, I am an ass, else it could never be
But I should know her as well as she knows me.

Question 13

(2.2) [ANT. S] Am I in earth, in heaven or in hell?
Sleeping or waking? Mad or well advised?
Known unto these, and to myself disguised?
I’ll say as they say, and persever so,
And in this mist at all adventures go.

Answer 13

Master, shall I be porter at the gate?

Question 14

(3.1) [ANT. E] But soft, my door is locked. [to Dromio E.] Go bid them let us in.

Answer 14

Go, get thee from the door.

Question 15

(3.1) [DROMIO E.] My master stays in the street.

Answer 15

Let him walk from whence he came, lest he catch cold on’s feet.

Question 16

(3.1) [ANT. E] Who talks within there? Ho, open the door!

Answer 16

Right, sir, I’ll tell you when, an you’ll tell me wherefore.

Question 17

(3.1) [ANT. E] ‘Wherefore’? For my dinner: I have not dined today.

Answer 17

Nor today here you must not; come again when you may.

Question 18

(3.1) [ANT. E] What art thou that keep’st me out from the house I own?

Answer 18

The porter for this time, sir, and my name is Dromio.

Question 19

(3.1) [ADRIANA] Who is that at the door that keeps all this noise?

Answer 19

By my troth, your town is troubled with unruly boys.

Question 20

(3.1) [ANT. E] There is something in the wind, that we cannot get in.
Go fetch me something: I’ll break ope the gate.

Answer 20

Break any breaking here, and I’ll break your knave’s pate.

Question 21

(3.1) [DROMIO E] A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind;
Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind.

Answer 21

It seems thou want’st breaking. Out upon thee, hind!

Question 22

(3.1) [DROMIO E] Here’s too much ‘Out upon thee!’ I pray thee let me in.

Answer 22

Ay, when fowls have no feathers and fish have no fin.

Question 23

(3.2) [ANT. S] Why, how now, Dromio, where run’st thou so fast?

Answer 23

Do you know me, sir? Am I Dromio? Am I your man? Am I myself?

Question 24

(3.2) [ANT. S] Thou art Dromio, thou art my man, thou art thyself.

Answer 24

I am an ass, I am a woman’s man, and besides myself.

Question 25

(3.2) [ANT. S] What woman’s man? And how besides thyself?

Answer 25

Marry, sir, besides myself I am due to a woman: one that claims me, one that haunts me, one that will have me.

Question 26

(3.2) [ANT. S] What claim lays she to thee?

Answer 26

Marry, sir, such claim as you would lay to your house; and she would have me as a beast–not that, I being a beast, she would have me, but that she, being a very beastly creature, lays claim to me.

Question 27

(3.2) [ANT. S] What is she?

Answer 27

A very reverend body: I have but lean luck in the match, and yet is she a wondrous fat marriage.

Question 28

(3.2) [ANT. S] How dost thou mean, a ‘fat marriage’?

Answer 28

Marry, sir, she’s the kitchen wench, and all grease; and I know not what use to put her to but to make a lamp of her, and run from her by her own light. If she lives till doomsday, she’ll burn a week longer than the whole world.

Question 29

(3.2) [ANT. S] What’s her name?

Answer 29

Nell, sir, but her name and three quarters–that’s an ell and three quarters–will not measure her from hip to hip.

Question 30

(3.2) [ANT. S] Then she bears some breadth?

Answer 30

No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip: she is spherical, like a globe. I could find out countries in her.

Question 31

(3.2) [ANT. S] In what part of her body stands England?

Answer 31

I looked for the chalky cliffs, but I could find no whiteness in them.

Question 32

(3.2) [ANT. S] Where Spain?

Answer 32

Faith, I saw it not, but I felt it hot in her breath.

Question 33

(3.2) [ANT. S] Where stood Belgia, the Netherlands?

Answer 33

O, sir, I did not look so low. To conclude, this drudge or diviner laid claim to me, called me ‘Dromio’, swore I was assured to her, told me what privy marks I had about me–as the mark of my shoulder, the mole in my neck, the great wart on my left arm–that I, amazed, ran from her as a witch.

Question 34

(3.2) [ANT. S] Go, hie thee presently, post to the road;
An if the wind blow any way from shore,
I will not harbour in this town tonight.
If any bark put forth, come to the mart,
Where I will walk till thou return to me.
If everyone knows us, and we know none,
‘Tis time, I think, to trudge, pack and be gone.

Answer 34

As from a bear a man would run for life,
So fly I from her that would be my wife.

Question 35

(4.1) [ANGELO] Sir, sir, I shall have law in Ephesus,
To your notorious shame, I doubt it not.

Answer 35

Master, there’s a bark of Epidamium
That stays but till her owner comes aboard;
And then, sir, she bears away. Our freightage, sir,
I have conveyed aboard.

Question 36

(4.1) [ANT. E] How now? A madman? Why, thou peevish sheep,
What ship of Epidamium stays for me?

Answer 36

A ship you sent me to, to hire waftage.

Question 37

(4.1) [ANT. E] Thou drunken slave, I sent thee for a rope.

Answer 37

You sent me to the bay, sir, for a bark.

Question 38

(4.1) [ANT. E] …Give her this key, and tell her, in the desk
That’s covered o’er with Turkish tapestry,
There is a purse of ducats: let her send it.
Tell her I am arrested in the street
And that shall bail me. Hie thee, slave. Be gone!
– On, officer, to prison, till it come.

Answer 38

‘To Adriana’: that is where we dined,
Where Dowsabel did claim me for her husband;
Thither I must, although against my will,
For servants must their masters’ minds fulfil.

Question 39

(4.2) [ADRIANA] Ah, but I think him better than I say,
My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.

Answer 39

Here, go–the desk, the purse! Sweet now, make haste!

Question 40

(4.2) [LUCIANA] How hast thou lost thy breath?

Answer 40

By running fast.

Question 41

(4.2) [ADRIANA] Where is thy master, Dromio? Is he well?

Answer 41

No, he’s in harsh confinement, worse than hell:
A devil in an everlasting garment hath him,
One whose hard heart is buttoned up with steel;
One that before the Judgement carries poor souls to hell.

Question 42

(4.2) [ADRIANA] Why, man, what is the matter?

Answer 42

I do not know the matter; he is ‘rested on the case.

Question 43

(4.2) [ADRIANA] What, is he arrested? Tell me at whose suit?

Answer 43

I know not at whose suit he is arrested well;
But is in a suit of buff which ‘rested him, that I can tell.
Will you send him, mistress, redemption–the money in his desk?

Question 44

(4.2) [ADRIANA] Go, fetch it, sister. –This I wonder at,
That he unknown to me should be in debt.
Tell me, was he arrested on a band?

Answer 44

Not on a band, but on a stronger thing:
A chain, a chain–do you not hear it ring?

Question 45

(4.2) [ADRIANA] What, the chain?

Answer 45

No, no, the bell: ‘tis time that I were gone.

Question 46

(4.3) [ANT. S] … Even now a tailor called me in his shop,
And showed me silks that he had bought for me,
Sure, these are but imaginary wiles,
And Lapland sorcerers inhabit here.

Answer 46

Master, [presenting the purse] here’s the gold you sent me for.

Question 47

(4.3) [ANT. S] What gold is this?

Answer 47

Tis for he that came behind you, sir, like an evil angel, and bid you forsake your liberty.

Question 48

(4.3) [ANT. S] I understand thee not.

Answer 48

No?

Question 49

(4.3) [ANT. S] What, thou mean’st an officer?

Answer 49

Ay, sir.

Question 50

(4.3) [ANT. S] Well, sir, rest in your foolery. Is there any ships put forth tonight? May we be gone?

Answer 50

Why, sir, I brought you word an hour since that the bark Expedition put forth tonight, and then were you hindered by the sergeant. [offers the purse] Here are the ducats that you sent for to deliver you.

Question 51

(4.3) [ANT. S] Satan, avoid! I charge thee, tempt me not!

Answer 51

Master, is this Mistress Satan?

Question 52

(4.3) [ANT. S] It is the devil.

Answer 52

Nay, she is worse, she is the devil’s dam. Come not near her!

Question 53

(4.3) [COURTESAN] Your man and you are marvellous merry, sir.
Will you go with me? We’ll mend our dinner here.

Answer 53

Master, if you do, bespeak a long spoon.

Question 54

(4.3) [ANT. S] Why, Dromio?

Answer 54

Marry, he must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.

Question 55

(4.3) [COURTESAN] Give me the ring of mine you had at dinner,
Or for my diamond the chain you promised,
And I’ll be gone, sir, and not trouble you.

Answer 55

Some devils ask but the parings of one’s nail, a rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin, a nut, a cherry-stone; but she, more covetous, would have a chain. Master, be wise: an if you give it her, the devil will shake her chain and fright us with it.

Question 56

(4.4) [ANT. S] I see these witches are afraid of swords.

Answer 56

She that would be your wife now ran from you.

Question 57

(4.4) [ANT. S] Come to the Centaur; fetch our stuff from thence:
I long that we were safe and sound aboard.

Answer 57

Faith, stay here this night; they will surely do us no harm. You saw they speak us fair, give us gold: methinks they are such a gentle nation that, but for the mountain of mad flesh that claims marriage of me, I would find in my heart to stay here still and turn witch.

Question 58

(5.1) [ADRIANA] Hold, hurt him not, for God’s sake; he is mad!
Some get within him, take his sword away.
Bind Dromio too, and bear them to my house.

Answer 58

Run, master, run; for God’s sake, take a house!
This is some priory: in, or we are spoiled!

Question 59

(5.1) [DUKE] One of these men is genius to the other;
And so of these, which is the natural man
And which the spirit? Who deciphers them?

Answer 59

I, sir, am Dromio; command him away.

Question 60

(5.1) [ANT. S] Egeon, art thou not? Or else his ghost.

Answer 60

O my old master!–Who hath bound him here?

Question 61

(5.1) [DUKE] With all my heart I’ll gossip at this feast.

Answer 61

Master, shall I fetch your stuff from shipboard?

Question 62

(5.1) [ANT. E] Dromio, what stuff of mine hast thou embarked?

Answer 62

Your goods that lay at host, sir, in the Centaur.

Question 63

(5.1) [ANT. S] He speaks to me;–I am your master, Dromio.
Come, go with us; we’ll look to that anon.
Embrace thy brother there; rejoice with him.

Answer 63

There is a fat friend at your master’s house,
That kitchened me for you today at dinner;
She now shall me by sister, not my wife.

Question 64

(5.1) [DROMIO E] Methinks you are my glass and not my brother:
I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth.
Will you walk in to see their gossiping?

Answer 64

Not I, sir; you are my elder.

Question 65

(5.1) [DROMIO E] That’s a question: how shall we try it?

Answer 65

We’ll draw cuts for the senior; till then, lead thou first.