Page 1726 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Today did dine together. So befall my soul,
As this is false he burdens me withal.

LUCIANA

Ne’er may I look on day nor sleep on night [210]
But she tells to your highness simple truth.

ANGELO

[aside]
O perjured woman! They are both forsworn;
In this the madman justly chargeth them.

ANTIPHOLUS E.

My liege, I am advisèd what I say,
Neither disturbed with the effect of wine [215]
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, [220]
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, [225]
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. [230]
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 the way we met [235]
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, [240]
A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch,