And now Adriana came up to him, and claimed him as her lunatic husband, who had escaped from his keepers; and the men she brought with her were going to lay violent hands on Antipholis and Dromio; but they ran into the convent, and Antipholis begged the abbess to give him shelter in her house.

And now came out the lady abbess herself to enquire into the cause of this disturbance.  She was a grave and venerable lady, and wise to judge of what she saw, and she would not too hastily give up the man who had sought protection in her house; so she strictly questioned the wife about the story she told of her husband’s madness, and she said, “What is the cause of this sudden distemper of your husband’s?  Has he lost his wealth at sea?  Or is it the death of some dear friend that has disturbed his mind?” Adriana replied, that no such things as these had been the cause.  “Perhaps,” said the abbess, “he has fixed his affections on some other lady than you his wife; and that has driven him to this state.”  Adriana said she had long thought the love of some other lady was the cause of his frequent absences from home.  Now it was not his love for another, but the teazing jealousy of his wife’s temper, that often obliged Antipholis to leave his home; and (the abbess suspecting this from the vehemence of Adriana’s manner) to learn the truth, she said, “You should have reprehended him for this.”  “Why, so I did,” replied Adriana.  “Aye,” said the abbess, “but perhaps not enough.”  Adriana, willing to convince the abbess that she had said enough to Antipholis on this subject, replied, “It was the constant subject of our conversation:  in bed I would not let him sleep for speaking of it.  At table I would not let him eat for speaking of it.  When I was alone with him, I talked of nothing else; and in company I gave him frequent hints of it.  Still all my talk was how vile and bad it was in him to love any lady better than me.”

The lady abbess, having drawn this full confession from the jealous Adriana, now said, “And therefore comes it that your husband is mad.  The venomous clamour of a jealous woman is a more deadly poison than a mad dog’s tooth.  It seems his sleep was hindered by your railing; no wonder that his head is light; and his meat was sauced with your upbraidings; unquiet meals make ill digestions, and that has thrown him into this fever.  You say his sports were disturbed by your brawls; being debarred from the enjoyment of society and recreation, what could ensue but dull melancholy and comfortless despair?  The consequence is then, that your jealous fits have made your husband mad.”

Luciana would have excused her sister, saying, she always reprehended her husband mildly; and she said to her sister, “Why do you hear these rebukes without answering them?” But the abbess had made her so plainly perceive her fault, that she could only answer, “She has betrayed me to my own reproof.”

Adriana, though ashamed of her own conduct, still insisted on having her husband delivered up to her; but the abbess would suffer no person to enter her house, nor would she deliver up this unhappy man to the care of the jealous wife, determining herself to use gentle means for his recovery, and she retired into her house again, and ordered her gates to be shut against them.