Before 'The Phoenix'.
 Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA.

Adriana	Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?
		Mightst thou perceive austerely in his eye
	That he did plead in earnest, yea or no?
		Looked he or red or pale, or sad or merrily?
	What observation mad'st thou in this case,
	Of his heart's meteors tilting in his face?

Luciana	First he denied you had in him no right.

Adriana	He meant he did me none, the more my spite.

Luciana	Then swore he that he was a stranger here.

Adriana	And true he swore, though yet forsworn he were.

Luciana	Then pleaded I for you.

Adriana							And what said he?

Luciana	That love I begged for you, he begged of me.

Adriana	With what persuasion did he tempt thy love?

Luciana	With words that in an honest suit might move.
	First he did praise my beauty, then my speech.

Adriana	Didst speak him fair?

Luciana							Have patience, I beseech.

Adriana	I cannot, nor I will not, hold me still.
	My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will.
	He is deformd, crooked, old, and sere,
	Ill-faced, worse bodied, shapeless everywhere,
	Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind,
	Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.

Luciana	Who would be jealous, then, of such a one?
	No evil lost is wailed when it is gone.

Adriana	Ah, but I think him better than I say,
		And yet would herein others' eyes were worse.
	Far from her nest the lapwing cries away;
		My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.

                        Enter DROMIO OF SYRACUSE.

Dromio
of Syracuse	Here, go - the desk, the purse; sweat now, make haste.

Luciana	How hast thou lost thy breath?

Dromio
of Syracuse									By running fast.

Adriana	Where is thy master, Dromio? Is he well?

Dromio
of Syracuse	No, he's in Tartar limbo, worse than hell.
	A devil in an everlasting garment hath him,
	One whose hard heart is buttoned up with steel;
	A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough,
	A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff;
	A back-friend, a shoulder-clapper, one that countermands
	The passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands;
	A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well,
	One that, before the judgment, carries poor souls to hell.

Adriana	Why, man, what is the matter?

Dromio
of Syracuse	I do not know the matter; he is 'rested on the case.

Adriana	What, is he arrested? Tell me at whose suit?

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

Adriana	Go fetch it, sister.
												[Exit LUCIANA.
							This I wonder at,
	That he unknown to me should be in debt.
	Tell me, was he arrested on a band?

Dromio
of Syracuse	Not on a band, but on a stronger thing:
	A chain, a chain. - Do you not hear it ring?

Adriana	What, the chain?

Dromio
of Syracuse	No, no, the bell; 'tis time that I were gone;
	It was two ere I left him, and now the clock strikes one.

Adriana	The hours come back! - that did I never hear.

Dromio
of Syracuse	O yes, if any hour meet a sergeant, a' turns back for very
	fear.

Adriana	As if time were in debt - how fondly dost thou reason!

Dromio
of Syracuse	Time is a very bankrupt, and owes more than he's worth to
	season.
	Nay, he's a thief too: - have you not heard men say
	That time comes stealing on by night and day?
	If a' be in debt and theft, and a sergeant in the way,
	Hath he not reason to turn back an hour in a day?

                    Re-enter LUCIANA, with the money.

Adriana	Go, Dromio, there's the money. Bear it straight,
		And bring thy master home immediately.
	Come, sister, I am pressed down with conceit-
		Conceit, my comfort and my injury.
												[Exeunt.
