' 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 teasing jealousy of his wife's
temper, that often obliged Antipholus 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. 'Ay,' said the abbess, 'but perhaps not
enough.' Adriana, willing to convince the abbess that she had said
enough to Antipholus 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 kits 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
g