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132
SCENE V.
Enter EUTYCHUS.Eut.
Alas, Charinus!
Cha.
Ere you take breath, deliver but one word.
Where am I? with the living, or the dead?
Eut.
With neither.
Cha.
Then I'm safe. I am immortal.
He has redeem'd her, and o'er-reach'd my father.
—There's no soul living that can sooner put
His purpose into act.—Come, prithee speak!
If neither here, nor with the dead, where am I?
Eut.
No where.
Cha.
Confusion! this dull trifling kills me.
When you should speak directly to the point,
To beat about the bush thus, is provoking.
Whate'er thy news, tell me the sum of all.
Eut.
First, we are ruin'd then.
Cha.
Nay, that's no news.
Inform me something I don't know.
Eut.
Your mistress
Is torn away from you.
Cha.
Ah, Eutychus!
You're guilty of a capital offence.
Eut.
Of what?
Cha.
Of murder: for you put to death
A friend, companion, and free citizen.
Eut.
Heaven forbid!
Cha.
You've cut my throat. I fall.
133
Abandon not your mind unto despair!
Cha.
I have no mind to be abandon'd, I.
—Come, speak the rest of your ill news: for whom
Has she been purchas'd?
Eut.
That I cannot tell.
She was adjudg'd a slave, and carried off,
Before I reach'd the Port.
Cha.
Ah me! you throw
Mountains of fire upon me with these news.
Proceed, and torture, executioner,
Since you have once begun.
Eut.
Alas, my friend,
This troubles me as sorely as yourself.
Cha.
Tell me, who bought her.
Eut.
I don't know.
Cha.
See there!
Is that discharging business like a friend?
Eut.
What could I do?
Cha.
The very thing, that now
You've seen Me do; have died, but have discover'd
What kind of man he was, who purchas'd her:
And possibly that way have trac'd the woman.
134
Alas!
(Weeping.
Cha.
Weep not the mischiefs you have done.
Eut.
What have I done?
Cha.
Destroy'd me; broke your faith.
Eut.
The Gods are witnesses I'm not to blame.
Cha.
Away! ne'er call upon the absent Gods.
Give me a living witness of your truth.
Eut.
I have proofs worthy your belief, proofs worthy
To be produc'd by me.
Cha.
You're quick and apt
At disputation; to discharge your trust
Lame, blind, dumb, senseless, weak, and impotent.
You promis'd to cajole my father. I,
Fool that I was! believ'd you capable:
But now I find you a mere block, a stone.
Eut.
What could I do?
Cha.
What could you do? Oh shame!
Have ask'd, enquir'd, who? whence he was? what figure?
A citizen, or foreigner?
Eut.
They told me,
That he was an Athenian citizen.
Cha.
You might at least discover his abode,
If not his name.
Eut.
No creature could inform me.
Cha.
His figure then you might have ask'd at least.
Eut.
I did.
Cha.
And how did they describe him to you?
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Just thus: bald-pated, bandy-legg'd, pot-bellied,
Wide-mouth'd, short, blear-eyed, lanthorn-jaw'd, splay-footed.
Cha.
This is not the description of a man,
But a mere bundle of deformities.
Know you aught more about him?
Eut.
Nothing more.
Cha.
Death! his vile lanthorn-jaws have ruin'd me!
I can't endure it. I will fly my country;
And only doubt what city I shall seek,
Eretria, Megara, Corinth, Chalcis,
Crete, Cyprus, Gnidus, Sicyon, Zacynthus,
Or Lesbia, or Bœotia.
Eut.
Why d'ye think on't?
Cha.
Because I'm cross'd in love.
Eut.
And what of that?
Suppose you gain your place of destination,
If there you chance again to fall in love,
And be again successless, will you fly
That country too? Another and another,
Upon the like occasion?—You will set
No bounds to exile; know no end of flight;
What country, what abode can then be certain?
Suppose you quit this city, d'ye suppose
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If you're convinc'd on't, how much better were it,
To go into the country, and live there,
Till this ungovern'd passion wears away?
Cha.
You've said?
Eut.
I have.
Cha.
In vain: for I'm resolv'd.
I'll home, and pay my duty to my parents;
And then, without their knowledge, fly my country,
Or take some other step as desperate.
[Exit.
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