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Comedy Of Errors
by
“Nonsense!” said Adriana, “he’s in the abbey.”
“As sure as I live I speak the truth,” said the servant.
Antipholus of Syracuse had not come out of the abbey, before his brother of Ephesus prostrated himself in front of the Duke, exclaiming, “Justice, most gracious Duke, against that woman.” He pointed to Adriana. “She has treated another man like her husband in my own house.”
Even while he was speaking AEgeon said, “Unless I am delirious, I see my son Antipholus.”
No one noticed him, and Antipholus of Ephesus went on to say how the doctor, whom he called “a threadbare juggler,” had been one of a gang who tied him to his slave Dromio, and thrust them into a vault whence he had escaped by gnawing through his bonds.
The Duke could not understand how the same man who spoke to him was seen to go into the abbey, and he was still wondering when AEgeon asked Antipholus of Ephesus if he was not his son. He replied, “I never saw my father in my life;” but so deceived was AEgeon by his likeness to the brother whom he had brought up, that he said, “Thou art ashamed to acknowledge me in misery.”
Soon, however, the Abbess advanced with Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse.
Then cried Adriana, “I see two husbands or mine eyes deceive me;” and Antipholus, espying his father, said, “Thou art AEgeon or his ghost.”
It was a day of surprises, for the Abbess said, “I will free that man by paying his fine, and gain my husband whom I lost. Speak, AEgeon, for I am thy wife AEmilia.”
The Duke was touched. “He is free without a fine,” he said.
So AEgeon and AEmilia were reunited, and Adriana and her husband reconciled; but no one was happier than Antipholus of Syracuse, who, in the Duke’s presence, went to Luciana and said, “I told you I loved you. Will you be my wife?”
Her answer was given by a look, and therefore is not written.
The two Dromios were glad to think they would receive no more beatings.