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Adriana

Comedy of Errors; Adriana is the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus and the sister of Luciana

Double Cherries and Drops of Water

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In A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Helena’s expression of love as a union that makes a couple one inseparable being —

We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our needles created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key,
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Love and Water

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The Comedy of Error’s concluding dialogue between Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse neatly ties up an underlying theme of this farce, that true love — brotherly, marital or other — renders the lovers indistinguishable, “Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother.” But this metaphor of the mirror at the end of the play is a shift from the similes of drops of water that recurred previously.
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Neither my husband nor the slave returned

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Adriana
Neither my husband nor the slave returned
That in such haste I sent to seek his master?
Sure, Luciana, it is two o’clock.
Luciana
Perhaps some merchant hath invited him,
And from the mart he’s somewhere gone to dinner.
Good sister, let us dine, and never fret.

So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
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Source:
Act 2
Scene 1
Line 1

Source Type:

Spoken by:
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Themes:
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Fie, how impatience loureth in your face

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Luciana
Fie, how impatience loureth in your face.
Adriana
His company must do his minions grace,
Whilst I at home starve for a merry look.

Since that my beauty cannot please his eye,
I’ll weep what’s left away, and weeping die.

Hath homely age th’ alluring beauty took
From my poor cheek?
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Source:
Act 2
Scene 1
Line 110

Source Type:

Spoken by:
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Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown

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Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown.
Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects.
I am not Adriana, nor thy wife.The time was onceHyperbaton when thou unurged wouldst vowAnastrophe
That never words were music to thine ear,
That never object pleasing in thine eye,
That never touch well welcome to thy hand,

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How ill agrees it with your gravity

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Adriana
How ill agrees it with your gravity
To counterfeit thus grossly with your slave,
Abetting him to thwart me in my mood.
Be it my wrong you are from me exempt,
But wrong not that wrong with a more contempt.

This is the fairy land. O spite of spites!
We talk with goblins, owls,
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Source:
Act 2
Scene 2
Line 179

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Spoken by:
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Figures of Speech:
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Who is that at the door that keeps all this noise?

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Adriana
Who is that at the door that keeps all this noise?
Dromio of Syracuse, within
By my troth, your town is troubled with unruly boys.
Antipholus of Ephesus
Are you there, wife? You might have come before.

A crow without feather? Master, mean you so?
For a fish without a fin,
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Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?

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Adriana
Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?
 Might’st thou perceive austerely in his eye
That he did plead in earnest, yea or no?
 Looked he or red or pale, or sad or merrily?
What observation mad’st thou in this case
Of his heart’s meteors tilting in his face?

He is deformèd, crooked, old, and sere,
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Source:
Act 4
Scene 2
Line 1

Source Type:
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Spoken by:
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Themes:

How long hath this possession held the man?

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Abbess
How long hath this possession held the man?
Adriana
This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad,
And much different from the man he was.
But till this afternoon his passion
Ne’er brake into extremity of rage.

The venom clamors of a jealous woman
Poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth.
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Source:
Act 5
Scene 1
Line 44

Source Type:

Spoken by:
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Most mighty duke, behold a man much wronged

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Abbess
Most mighty duke, behold a man much wronged.
 All gather to see them.
Adriana
I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me.

One of these men is genius to the other.
And so, of these, which is the natural man
And which the spirit?

Duke
One of these men is genius to the other.
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