Comedies of Publius Terentius Afer (1870)/Andria/Act IV
ACT IV.
Scene 1.—Charinus—Pamphilus—Davus.
Cha. Oh! is it credible, or to be found,
Or did one ever hear of treachery,
Innate in the black heart, to match with this—
To gloat on ills of others and to reap
From thence advantages? Ah, even so,
There is a race of man so treacherous,
Who first blush to deny you—yet fall off
At the first show of false necessity
Unwilling for a while—then yielding to
Their interests—and straightway launching out
In impudent and insolent discourse—
Who are you? and, what may you be to me?
Or, what are mine to you? I am myself,
My nearest relative; but if you ask,
Oh! where then is good faith? they do not blush.
When there was no occasion, then they blushed;
And now there is occasion they blush not.
What shall I do—shall I go find him out,
Expostulate, and overwhelm with words?
You will reply—what good can come of that?
Much—he is troubled and I am avenged.
Pam. Charinus, I have lost, unwittingly,
Thee and myself, unless the gods assist us.
Cha. How, lost unwittingly? You find a cause
Sufficient, and you break your word.
Pam. What cause sufficient?
Cha. Cease now to delude
With further words.
Pam. Charinus, what means this?
Cha. I told you I adored her—and away.
You love her also—my unhappy chance
To judge of other's natures by my own.
Pam. Wrong—you are wrong.
Cha. Was not your happiness
Sufficiently complete, unless you had
Another's misery to triumph o'er.
Go, wed her!
Pam. Wed her? Ah! you do not know
The misery in which that carnifex
Of mine has now involved me hopelessly!
Cha. Not wonderful, when he obeys his lord.
Pam. You would not say so if you knew the truth,
Nor if you knew my heart.
Cha. I know them well.
You long opposed your father: he was wroth,
So wrathful, that to-day you have submitted,
Consenting to espouse.
Pam. It was not so.
You do not know the truth: this marriage was
Only a feint—a stratagem to prove me—
There was no wife.
Cha. And you coerced yourself.
Pam. Wait, hear the rest.
Cha. The rest is that you marry.
Pam. Why will you kill me with your bitter thoughts?
He never ceased to press me to this deed,
Submission to my father—and to yield,
And I at last consented.
Cha. Who is he?
Pam. Davus.
Cha. Davus.
Pam. Davus has done the wrong.
Cha. Wherefore?
Pam. Methinks the gods were wrath with me.
I know not else why I obeyed his counsels.
Cha. Davus, did you do this?
Dav. I did.
Cha. Then why?
May the gods' curse light on you for the deed.
Tell me—if every bitter enemy
Had counselled so, what worse they could have done.
Dav. I was deceived; but I do not give in.
Cha. That, I believe.
Dav. The project has gone wrong,
We must essay another. Do not think
Because we are rebuffed that we are beaten.
Pam. So much the contrary, I am convinced
That if you manage well as heretofore,
Out of one marriage you may make me twain.
Dav. Pamphilus, I am your slave—and I am bound
To labour day and night on your behalf,
To peril life itself to profit you.
And it behoves you, Pamphilus, to bear
The event, as it may turn out, good or bad.
I do not spare myself—I do my best,
Find but another better, and dismiss me.
Pam. Most readily—but it is requisite
You leave me where you found me: where I was.
Dav. I will.
Pam. But now, at need.
Dav. Hist! hark a while,
The hinges of Glycerium's portal creak.
Pam. But that does not concern you.
Dav. I will see.
Pam. Well, and your plan?
Dav. Master, my plan is this.
ACT IV.—Scene 2.—Mysis—Pamphilus—Charinus—Davus.
Mys. Wherever he may be, he sure I'll find him
And bring him hither. Do not fret,—my soul,
And trouble so the flesh.
Pam. Mysis—how now?
Mys. Ah! Pamphilus,—met at a happy time,
I come to seek you.
Pam. Well, and what is it?
Mys. My mistress wishes most impetuously
To see you, Pamphilus: she prays you go,
If that you love her, go!
Pam. This evil grows.
I am undone, undone—behold your work.
She in her misery now supplicates,
Because she hears the rumour of this deed.
Cha. How happy in quiescence had you been,
Had he been quiet.
Dav. Go on—enrage him more—
As if he had not woes enough to bear.
Mys. Ah! edepol she has, and that afflicts her,
Her spirits are depressed and miserably.
Pam. Mysis, I swear, by the great gods I swear,
I will desert her—never. Come what may,
The enmity of all the world, I care not;
For I besought her love, I have her love,
We love each other well—no force shall part;
Nothing, save death, shall separate us twain.
Mys. I breathe again.
Pam. Apollo's oracles
Are not more sure than this—this will I do.
If that my father can be made believe,
I am not the obstruction, that will do.
If he will not—then I declare myself
Unwilling and recalcitrant, Charinus.
Cha. Equal are we in misery.
Dav. I seek a remedy.
Cha. And you are capable, methinks, to find one.
Dav. And I have an impediment prepared.
Pam. It must be now, directly.
Dav. And it shall.
Cha. What is it?
Dav. Lest you blurt, I shall not tell.
This is my master's matter.
Cha. Be it so.
Pam. Tell me the matter.
Dav. Is the day so long
That I have time to stand and prate about it,
I must be up and doing. Go away—
Go both of you—your presence hinders me.
Pam. I will go see Glycerium.
Dav. And you.
Cha. Shall I tell truth?
Dav. Confound it—some long story.
Cha. What will become of me?
Dav. Be off with you.
You must be now contented with reprieve
Hereafter for your wooings.
Cha. But, Davè—Davè.
Dav. Well, what?
Cha. Win her for me.
Dav. Ridiculous!
Cha. But come and tell me, if your plot succeeds.
Dav. Why so? and if I fail.
Cha. If you fail not.
Dav. Why then I will.
Cha. And I shall be at home.
Dav. My sis, do you stop here and wait for me.
Mys. How so?
Dav. You must.
Mys. Well, hurry then.
Dav. I will.
ACT IV.—Scene 3—Mysis.
Is mortal happiness e'er durable?
Faith of the gods! I thought that Pamphilus
Was the best blessing could befall my mistress,
A friend, a lover, and a husband, all
Combined, to make her happy—and, behold!
Oh, what a load of human misery!
Assuredly less pleasure than of pain
Has fallen to her lot by loving him.
Davus comes out—my man! holloa, I say,
Where do you bear that babe?
ACT IV.—Scene 4.—Mysis—Davus.
Dav. Now, Mysis, waken wits, and look alive;
I want your aid, your wit, and self-possession.
Mys. What is it all about?
Dav. Quick—take the babe,
And go depose him, now, before our gate.
Mys. Upon the ground?
Dav. Snatch the verbena there
From off the altar—make a bed of those.
Mys. Why not do that yourself?
Dav. If I must swear
To our old master, that I did not do it,
I shall make oath with a more liquid conscience.
Mys. I see. Oppressed by new religious qualms.
Give me the babe.
Dav. Now set about it quick,
And ask me afterwards the reasons why.
Proh Jupiter!
Mys. What?
Dav. The father of the bride,
He comes—I change my mind—stop.
Mys. Wherefore stop?
Dav. Mysis, I now am come from the right hand,
So I declare; support me with your word,
Don't contradict, say nothing but at need.
Mys. I understand you not, but what of that?
If I can serve your turn in anything,
And you see more than I—I will assist,
For fear to cast obstructions in your path.
ACT IV.—Scene 5.—Chremes—Mysis—Davus.
Chr. I want to get things ready to return,
Now they are all prepared; but what is this?
Hercle! a boy babe. Woman, say, did you
Depose him here.
Mys. Where is he, where?
Chr. Why not respond to me?
Mys. Where is he, where?
What, run away and left me? fie for shame!
Dav. Faith of the gods! why, what a turmoil reigns
Now in the Forum! How men litigate,
And how all things are dear! Ah! what to think of things
I do not know.
Mys. But why leave me alone?
Dav. What do you prate about? Holloa! How now,
Mysis, whose babe is this? Who brought it here?
Mys. Eh? Are you mad, or what—to ask me that?
Dav. Who can I ask else? You alone are here.
Chr. I wonder whence he is.
Dav. Reply, will you,
To what I ask.
Mys. Ah!
Dav. [to Mysis.] Jump on this right hand.
Mys. Are you mad—yourself?
Dav. [to Mysis.] Now, if you speak a word
Save in reply to me—I say, beware!
Mys. You menace me?
Dav. Whence is he? Speak out plain.
Mys. From home.
Dav. Ah, ah, ah!—impudent beyond belief!
Chr. This is the Andrian's damsel, as I think.
Dav. What do you think to play upon us so:
Are we such likely persons to be duped?
Chr. I came here in good time.
Dav. I say, my girl,
Just carry off tliis brat before tbe gate.
[Aside.] Don't move a jot; stand just now as you are.
Mys. May gods uproot you! How you frighten me!
Dav. Is it to you I speak, or not?
Mys. Eh, what?
What do you want?
Dav. A pretty question that—
Who owns the brat you laid there, tell me that?
Mys. As if you did not know.
Dav. As if I did not know—
Answer me straight.
Mys. Well, then, of your—
Dav. Your who?
Mys. Your Pamphilus.
Dav. Our Pamphilus
How so?
Mys. How so.—say, is it not so? Eh?
Chr. With reason I have ever feared this match.
Dav. Oh! libel, libellous and actionable!
Mys. Why bawl you so!
Dav. Did I not yesterday
See you bear this thing home?
Mys. O villain, rogue!
Dav. But it is truth. Why, I saw Canthara
With bundle 'neath her robe.
Mys. Pol! I am glad
Matrons freeborn[1] were present at the birth.
Dav. You know not him on whom you play these pranks.
You think if Chremes saw before these gates
That baby, that he would not give his daughter.
He would give her the more quickly.
Chr. Hercle, no!
That would I not.
Dav. Now, I tell you what—
If you don't take him off at once, I'll roll
Him in the street, and you into the gutter.
Mys. Pol, you are drunk!
Dav. One roguery, you see,
Capped by another; now the rumour runs
She is a citizen of Attica.
Chr. Hem!
Dav. And consequently, by the law, his wife.
Mys. Ah! I beseech you, is she not his wife?
Chr. Faith, I have nearly been the laughing-stock
Of all the town.
Dav. Who speaks? O Chremes, here!
You come when needed.
Chr. I have heard it all.
Dav. What, heard it all?
Chr. Commencement to the end.
Dav. What heard it all? The wicked one! we must
Have her interrogated on the cross.
You thought that you were only fooling me,
But he was here.
Mys. Unhappy I! My master,
I told the truth.
Chr. I know it all, I know—
Is Simo now within?
Dav. Simo is now within.
ACT IV.—Scene 6.—Mysis—Davus.
Mys. Do not come near me—keep away—you beast,
Pol! If Glycerium knew what you have said—
Dav. Hist! silly one! Do you not see our drift?
Mys. What drift? Not I.
Dav. He is the sire-in-law,
And in that manner, don't you see, we have
Informed him what we wanted.
Mys. Hem! But you
Should have forewarned me.
Dav. Ah, nay, not at all!
That which is done in nature, out of hand,
Is better than premeditated art.
ACT IV.—Scene 7.—Crito—Mysis—Davus.
Cri. Chrysis, they tell me, lodges in this street,
Who better loved dishonest luxury
Than a good name with honest poverty.
All her effects, by law, belong to me,
For she, I hear, is dead. I must inquire,
Eh? salvè.
Mys. Whom do my eyes behold, eh?
Is this not Crito, cousin unto Chrysis?
Cri. O Mysis, salvè!
Mys. And salvè also Crito!
Cri. And so, poor Chrysis, eh?
Mys. Ah! the poor soul
Has left us wretched.
Cri. And ye, how do you live?
How are you off for means?
Mys. Who, we? Alas!
We live, as saith the proverb, how we can,
Who can't live how we would.
Cri. Glycerium,
Has she found out her friends?
Mys. Ah, would the gods—
Cri. Not found her friends. With inauspicious foot
Do I come here. Ah! had I only known,
I had stayed where I was. She ever passed
For sister of our Chrysis, and, no doubt,
Inherits all the chattels that she left.
I am a stranger here—to go to law,
Other examples I have witnessed, prove
The trouble and the cost. Besides, I think
She has a friend to aid her—for, look here,
She lives in style. Besides, I shall be deemed
A sycophant, a mendicant, in search
Of her inheritance; and, last of all,
I cannot rob the child.
Mys. O welcome guest!
Pol! Crito—with a heart as good as ever.
Cri. Since I am here, take me to see her face.
Mys. Most willingly.
Dav. And I will follow too,
And so keep out of my old master's way.
- ↑ Slaves could not bear testimony.