 | The Eunuch |  |
SCENE I.
Enter PHÆDRIA and PARMENO.Phæd.
And what then shall I do? not go? not now?
When she herself invites me? or were't best
Fashion my mind no longer to endure
These harlots' impudence?—Shut out! recall'd!
Shall I return? No, not if she implore me.
Par.
Oh brave! oh excellent! if you maintain it!
But if you try, and can't go thro' with spirit,
And finding you can't bear it, uninvited,
Your peace unmade, all of your own accord,
You come and swear you love, and can't endure it,
Good night! all's over! ruin'd and undone!
She'll jilt you, when she sees you in her pow'r.
Phæd.
You then, in time consider and advise!
Master! the thing which hath not in itself
Or measure or advice, advice can't rule.
In love are all these ills: suspicions, quarrels,
Wrongs, reconcilements, war, and peace again:
Things thus uncertain, if by reason's rules
You'd certain make, it were as wise a talk
To try with reason to run mad. And now
What you in anger meditate—I her?
That him?—that me? that would not—pardon me!
I would die rather: No! she shall perceive
How much I am a man.—Big words like these,
She in good faith with one false tiny drop,
Which, after grievous rubbing, from her eyes
Can scarce perforce be squeez'd, shall overcome.
Nay, she shall swear, 'twas you in fault, not she;
You too shall own th'offence, and pray for pardon.
Phæd.
Oh monstrous! monstrous! now indeed I see
How false she is, and what a wretch I am!
Spite of myself I love; and knowing, feeling,
With open eyes run on to my destruction;
And what to do I know not.
Par.
What to do?
As cheaply as you can?—at easy rates
If possible—if not—at any rate—
And never vex yourself.
Phæd.
Is that your counsel?
Par.
Ay, if you're wife; and do not add to love
More troubles than it has, and those it has
Bear bravely! But she comes, our ruin comes;
For she, like storms of hail on fields of corn,
Beats down our hopes, and carries all before her.
Phædria enters, as having deliberated a long time within himself and at last breaking out into these words.
Donatus.Horace and Persius have both imitated this beautiful passage in their satires.
An abrupt manner of speaking familiar to persons in anger, for the sentences are to be understood thus. I go to her?—that receiv'd him?—that excluded me?—that would not let me in: for indignation loves to deal in the Elleipsis and Aposiopesis.
Donatus.As the Pronouns in our language admit a variation of Cafe, I saw no reason why I should not literally copy the beautiful egone illam? &c. of Terence.
There is an extreme elegance in this passage in the original. There is much the same sentiment in the Cymbeline of Shakespeare: and I believe, upon a fair comparison between them, the learned reader will agree with me, that the passage in the English poet is not only equal, but even superior in beauty to that in Terence.
Nam quod nos capere oportet, hæc intercipit.
Ter.
And, like the tyrannous breathing of the North,
Shakes all our buds from blowing.
Cymbeline, Act I.
| The Eunuch | |