Opening of the book
Dramatis Personae
Solinus, duke of Ephesus
Aegeon, a merchant of Syracuse
Antipholus of Ephesus, twin brother and son to Aegeon and Aemilia
Antipholus of Syracuse, twin brother and son to Aegeon and Aemilia
Dromio of Ephesus, twin brother, and attendant on the two Antipholuses
Dromio of Syracuse, twin brother, and attendant on the two Antipholuses
Balthazar, a merchant
Angelo, a goldsmith
First Merchant, friend to Antipholus of Syracuse
Second Merchant, to whom Angelo is a debtor
Pinch, a schoolmaster
Aemilia, wife to Aegeon, an abbess at Ephesus
Adriana, wife to Antipholus of Ephesus
Luciana, her sister
Luce, servant to Adriana
A courtesan
Gaoler, officers, and other attendants
Scene: Ephesus
Act I
Scene I
A hall in the DǼƫŧ’Ǫ palace.
(Enter DǼƫŧ, AŧƄŧLjƿ, GĵLjƯŧǡ, OżfiŕŧǡǪ, and other Attendants.)
AŧƄŧLjƿ
Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall
And by the doom of death end woes and all.
DǼƫŧ
Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more;
I am not partial to infringe our laws:
The enmity and discord which of late
Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke
To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,
Who wanting guilders to redeem their lives
Have seal’d his rigorous statutes with their bloods,
Excludes all pity from our threatening looks.
For, since the mortal and intestine jars
’Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,
It hath in solemn synods been decreed,
Both by the Syracusians and ourselves,
To admit no traffic to our adverse towns:
Nay, more,
If any born at Ephesus be seen
At any Syracusian marts and fairs;
Again: if any Syracusian born
Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,
His goods confiscate to the duke’s dispose,
Unless a thousand marks be levied,
Keep listening free
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