University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

Enter APŒCIDES and PERIPHANES.
APŒCIDES.
It is the way with most men: they're asham'd
Without occasion: when they should be so,
Then shame deserts them. Such a man are you.
What need you be asham'd to take for wife
One of good family, though her state be mean?
The less, since, as you say, you have at home,
A daughter by her—

Per.
I respect my son.

Apoe.
In troth I thought, your shame was on account
Of your last wife; whose grave you never see,
But straight you make a sacrifice to Pluto—
Nor without reason, since you had the luck
To outlive the vixen!

Per.
O, while she was with me,
I was an Hercules; and his sixth labour
Was not more hard than that which I endur'd.

Per.
Money's the best endowment.—Come—

Apoe.
I grant you,
Could one but have it snug, without the wife.