QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Antipholus
CONTEXT:
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
My liege, I am advisèd what I say,
Neither disturbed with the effect of wine,
Nor heady-rash, provoked with raging ire,
Albeit my wrongs might make one wiser mad.
This woman locked me out this day from dinner.
That goldsmith there, were he not packed with her,
Could witness it, for he was with me then,
Who parted with me to go fetch a chain,
Promising to bring it to the Porpentine,
Where Balthasar and I did dine together.
Our dinner done and he not coming thither,
I went to seek him. In the street I met him,
And in his company that gentleman.
There did this perjured goldsmith swear me down
That I this day of him received the chain,
Which, God he knows, I saw not; for the which
He did arrest me with an officer.
I did obey, and sent my peasant home
For certain ducats. He with none returned.
Then fairly I bespoke the officer
To go in person with me to my house.
By th’ way we met
My wife, her sister, and a rabble more
Of vile confederates. Along with them
They brought one Pinch, a hungry, lean-faced villain,
A mere anatomy, a mountebank,
A threadbare juggler, and a fortune-teller,
A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch,
A living dead man. This pernicious slave,
Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer,
And, gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse,
And with no face (as ’twere) outfacing me,
Cries out I was possessed. Then all together
They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence,
And in a dark and dankish vault at home
There left me and my man, both bound together,
Till gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder,
I gained my freedom and immediately
Ran hither to your Grace, whom I beseech
To give me ample satisfaction
For these deep shames and great indignities.

DUTCH:
Mijn vorst en heer! ik weet wel wat ik zeg;
‘k Ben niet door wijn beneveld, hen niet dol,
Niet blind door woede, schoon, wat mij weêrvoer,
Genoeg ware, om een wijs man gek te maken.

MORE:
Advisèd=Considered, of sound mind
Heady-rash=Provoked by passion
Packed=In league
With an=With the help of an
Pernicious=Harmful
In sunder=Apart
Compleat:
Advised=Geraaden, beraaden, bedacht
Heady=Hoofdig, koppig
Rash=Voorbaarig, haastig, onbedacht, roekeloos
To pack (up)=t’zamen pakken
Pernicious=Schaadelyk, verderflyk
To rive asunder=Opscheuren, opsplyten, opbarsten
To put asunder=Elk byzonder zetten, van één scheiden

Topics: advice, caution, anger, madness