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Home » Quotes » Comedy of Errors » Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall

Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall

Egeon 
Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall,
And by the doom of death end woes and all.
Duke 
Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more.
I am not partial to infringe our laws.

Yet this my comfort: when your words are done,
My woes end likewise with the evening sun.

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 sealed his rigorous statutes with their bloods,
Excludes all pity from our threat’ning 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 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 levièd
To quit the penalty and to ransom him.
Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;
Therefore by law thou art condemned to die.
Egeon
Yet this my comfort: when your words are done,
My woes end likewise with the evening sun.
Duke 
Well, Syracusian, say in brief the cause
Why thou departedst from thy native home
And for what cause thou cam’st to Ephesus.

Source:
Act 1
Scene 1
Line 1

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