DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
Nay, ’tis for me to be patient. I am in adversity.
OFFICER.
Good now, hold thy tongue.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
Nay, rather persuade him to hold his hands.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS.
Thou whoreson, senseless villain.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
I would I were senseless, sir, that I might not feel your blows.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS.
Thou art sensible in nothing but blows, and so is an ass.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
I am an ass indeed; you may prove it by my long ears. I have served him from the hour of my nativity to this instant, and have nothing at his hands for my service but blows. When I am cold, he heats me with beating; when I am warm he cools me with beating. I am waked with it when I sleep, raised with it when I sit, driven out of doors with it when I go from home, welcomed home with it when I return. Nay, I bear it on my shoulders as a beggar wont her brat; and I think when he hath lamed me, I shall beg with it from door to door.
Enter Adriana, Luciana, Courtesan and a Schoolmaster called Pinch.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS.
Come, go along, my wife is coming yonder.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
Mistress, respice finem, respect your end, or rather, the prophesy like the parrot, “Beware the rope’s end.”