Duke.
Yet once again proclaim it publickly,
If any friend will pay the sum for him
He shall not die, so much we tender him.

Adr.
Justice, most sacred Duke, against the Abbess.

Duke.
She is a virtuous and a reverend lady;
It cannot be that she hath done thee wrong.

Adr.
May it please your Grace, Antipholis my husband,
Whom I made lord of me and all I had,
At your important letters, this ill day
A most outrageous fit of madness took him,
That desp'rately he hurry'd through the street,
With him his bondman all as mad as he,
Doing displeasure to the citizens,
By rushing in their houses; bearing thence
Rings, jewels, any thing his rage did like.
Once did I get him bound, and sent him home,
Whilst to take order for the wrongs I went,
That here and there his fury had committed:
Anon, I wot not by what strong escape,
He broke from those that had the guard of him,
And with his mad attendant and himself,
Each one with ireful passion, with drawn swords
Met us again, and madly bent on us,
Chas'd us away; 'till raising of more aid
We came again to bind them; then they fled
Into this abbey, whither we pursu'd them,
And here the Abbess shuts the gates on us,
And will not suffer us to fetch him out,
Nor send him forth that we may bear him hence.
Therefore, most gracious Duke, with thy command,
Let him be brought forth, and born hence for help.

Duke.
Long since thy husband serv'd me in my wars,
And I to thee ingag'd a Prince's word,
When thou didst make him master of thy bed,
To do him all the grace and good I could.
Go some of you knock at the abbey gate,

And bid the lady Abbess come to me.
I will determine this before I stir.

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