University of Virginia Library

SCENE VI.

Enter PALÆSTRIO.
Sceledrus! Hoa!

Sce.
Who is't that calls so menacing and loud?

Pal.
Lives there a falser knave, or any born
Under a planet more unlucky?

Sce.
Why?

Pal.
Prithee dig out those eyes, with which you see
What never was.

Sce.
What never was?

Pal.
I wouldn't
Give ev'n a rotten nut now for your life.

Sce.
Why, what's the matter?

Pal.
Ask you, what's the matter?

Sce.
Why not?

Pal.
Prithee cut out that tongue of thine,
Which prates so freely and at large.

Sce.
For why?

Pal.
Lo! she's at home, whom you affirm'd you saw
Next door embracing of another spark.

Sce.
I marvel you should chuse to feed on darnel,
When corn's so cheap

Pal.
What do you mean?

Sce.
Because
You are dim-sighted.

Pal.
Out, you rascal! you
Are not indeed dim-sighted, but stark blind:
For she's at home, I tell you.

Sce.
How! at home?

Pal.
She's most assuredly at home.

Sce.
Go, go,
You make an handle of me for your sport.

Pal.
So,—then my hands are dirty.

Sce.
Why?

Pal.
Because
I've handled such a dirty thing.

Sce.
A mischief
Light on your head!

Pal.
It will on your's, I promise you,
If you don't change your language, and your eyes.
But our door creaks.

Sce.
I watch it narrowly:
For she can pass no way but by the fore door.

Pal.
I tell you, she's at home.—I know not what
Strange fancies you're possess'd with.

Sce.
For myself
I see, and for myself I think, myself
I have most faith in; nor shall any one
Persuade me, that she is not in this house.
(Pointing to Periplectomenes's house.)
Here then I'll plant me, that she may'nt steal out
Without my knowledge.

Pal.
(Aside)
Oh,—the man's my own:—
I'll drive him from his strong hold. (To Sce.)
Shall I make you
Own you are simple-sighted?

Sce.
Do.

Pal.
And that
You neither think, nor see aright?

Sce.
I'd have you.

Pal.
Do you not say the lady's here?

Sce.
I'll swear
I saw her here, caressing of another.

Pal.
Do you not know, there's no communication
Betwixt our house and this?

Sce.
I know it.

Pal.
Neither
Terrace, nor garden,—nothing but the sky-light.

Sce.
I know it well.

Pal.
Then, if she be at home,
And she come out before your eyes, you'll own
An hearty drubbing is your due.

Sce.
My due.

Pal.
Guard well that door then, lest she privily
Steal forth, and pass to us.

Sce.
'Tis my intent
To do so.

Pal.
I will set her here before you.

Sce.
Pray do.

[Palæstrio goes in.