danger
that his father was, but by good fortune he met a friend who told him
the peril an old merchant of Syracuse was in, and advised him to pass
for a merchant of Epidamnum; this Antipholus agreed to do, and he was
sorry to hear one of his own countrymen was in this danger, but he
little thought this old merchant was his own father.

The eldest son of AEgeon (who must be called Antipholus of Ephesus, to
distinguish him from his brother Antipholus of Syracuse) had lived at
Ephesus twenty years, and, being a rich man, was well able to have paid
the money for the ransom of his father's life; but Antipholus knew
nothing of his father, being so young when he was taken out of the sea
with his mother by the fishermen that he only remembered he had been so
preserved, but he had no recollection of either his father or his
mother; the fishermen who took up this Antipholus and his mother and the
young slave Dromio, having carried the two children away from her (to
the great grief of that unhappy lady), intending to sell them.

Antipholus and Dromio were sold by them to Duke Menaphon, a famous
warrior, who was uncle to the Duke of Ephesus, and he carried the boys
to Ephesus when he went to visit the duke his nephew.

The Duke of Ephesus taking a liking to young Antipholus, when he grew
up, made him an officer in his army, in which he distinguished himself
by his great bravery in the wars, where he saved the life of his patron
the duke, who rewarded his merit by marrying him to Adriana, a rich lady
of Ephesus; with whom he was living (his slave Dromio still attending
him) at the time his father came there.

Antipholus of Syracuse, when he parted with his friend, who advised him
to say he came from Epidamnum, gave his slave Dromio some money to carry
to the inn where he intended to dine, and in the meantime he said he
would walk about and view the city, and observe the manners of the
people.

Dromio was a pleasant fellow, and when Antipholus was dull and
melancholy he used to divert himself with the odd humours and merry
jests of his slave, so that the freedoms of speech he allowed in Dromio
were greater than is usual between masters and their servants.

When Antipholus of Syracuse had sent Dromio away, he stood awhile
thinking over his solitary wanderings in search of his mother and his
brother, of whom in no place where he landed could he hear the least
tidings; and he said sorrowfully to himself, "I am like a drop of water