 | The Andrian |  |
SCENE V.
Enter CHREMES .Simo.
Chreme's, Good day!
Chremes.
The very man I look'd for.
Simo.
And I for you.
Chremes.
Well met.—Some persons came
To tell me you inform'd them, that my daughter
Was to be married to your son to-day:
And therefore came I here, and fain wou'd know
Whether 'tis you or they have lost their wits.
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A moment's hearing; you shall be inform'd,
What I request, and what you wish to know.
Chremes.
I hear: what would you? speak.
Simo.
Now by the Gods;
Now by our friendship, Chremes, which, begun
In infancy, has still encreas'd with age;
Now by your only daughter, and my son,
Whose preservation wholly rests on you;
Let me intreat this boon: and let the match
Which should have been, still be.
Chremes.
Why, why intreat?
Knowing you ought not to beseech this of me.
Think you, that I am other than I was,
When first I gave my promise? If the match
Be good for both, e'en call them forth to wed.
But if their union promises more harm
Than good to both, You also, I beseech you,
Consult our common interest, as if
You were her father, Pamphilus my son.
Simo.
E'en in that spirit, I desire it, Chremes,
Intreat it may be done; nor would intreat,
But that occasion urges.
Chremes.
What occasion?
Simo.
A difference 'twixt Glycerium and my son.
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I hear.
[ironically.
Simo.
A breach so wide as gives me hopes
To sep'rate them for ever.
Chremes.
Idle tales!
Simo.
Indeed 'tis thus.
Chremes.
Ay marry, thus it is.
Quarrels of lovers but renew their love.
Simo.
Prevent we then, I pray, this mischief now;
While time permits, while yet his passion's sore
From contumelies; e'er these womens' wiles,
Their wicked arts, and tears made up of fraud
Shake his weak mind, and melt it to compassion.
Give him a wife: By intercourse with her,
Knit by the bonds of wedlock, soon, I hope,
He'll rise above the guilt that sinks him now.
Chremes.
So you believe: for me, I cannot think
That he'll be constant, or that I can bear it.
Simo.
How can you know, unless you make the trial?
Chremes.
Ay, but to make that trial on a daughter
Is hard indeed.
Simo.
The mischief, should he fail,
Is only this: divorce, which heav'n forbid!
But mark what benefits if he amend!
First, to your friend you will restore a son;
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Your daughter to an honest husband.
Chremes.
Well!
Since you're so thoroughly convinc'd 'tis right,
I can deny you naught that lies in me.
Simo.
I see I ever lov'd you justly, Chremes.
Chremes.
But then—
Simo.
But what?
Chremes.
Whence is't you know
That there's a difference between them?
Simo.
Davus,
Davus, in all their secrets, told me so;
Advis'd me too, to hasten on the match
As fast as possible. Wou'd he, d'ye think,
Do that, unless he were full well assur'd
My son desir'd it too?—Hear, what he says.
Ho there! call Davus forth.—But here he comes.
Chremes is a humane, natural, unaffected old gentleman. Sealand in the Conscious Lovers, the English Chremes, is a sensible respectable merchant. Both the characters are properly sustained: but Chremes being induced first to renew his consent match, and afterwards wrought upon by currences arising in the fable to withdraw again, renders his character more essential to the Drama, than Sealand's.
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