 | The Eunuch |  |
SCENE I.
PHÆDRIA, PARMENO.Phædria.
Carry the slaves according to my order .
Par.
I will.
Phæd.
But diligently.
Par.
Sir, I will.
Phæd.
But soon.
Par.
I will, Sir!
Phæd.
Say, is it sufficient?
Par.
Ah! what a question's that? as if it were
So difficult! I wish, Sir Phædria,
You could gain aught so easy, as lose these.
Phæd.
I lose, what's dearer yet, my comfort with them.
Repine not at my gifts.
Par.
Not I: moreover
I will convey them straight. But have you any
Other commands?
Phæd.
Oh yes: Set off our presents
As much as possible, that rival from her!
Par.
Ah, Sir! I should, of course, remember that.
Phæd.
I'll to the country, and stay there.
Par.
O, ay!
[ironically.
Phæd.
But hark you!
Par.
Sir, your pleasure?
Phæd.
Do you think
I can with constancy hold out, and not
Return before my time?
Par.
Hold out? Not you.
Either you'll straight return, or soon at night
Your dreams will drive you out o'doors.
Phæd.
I'll toil;
That, weary, I may sleep against my will.
Par.
Weary you may be; but you'll never sleep.
Phæd.
Ah, Parmeno, you wrong me. I'll cast out
This treacherous softness from my soul, nor thus
Indulge my passions. Yes, I could remain,
If need, without her even three whole days.
Par.
Hui! three whole livelong days! consider, Sir.
Phæd.
I am resolved.
alone.
Heav'ns, what a strange disease is this! that love
Should so change men, that one can hardly swear
They are the same!—No mortal liv'd
Less weak, more grave, more temperate than he.
—But who comes yonder?—Gnatho, as I live;
The Captain's parasite! and brings along
The Virgin for a present: oh rare wench!
How beautiful! I shall come off, I doubt,
But scurvily with my decrepid Eunuch.
This Girl surpasses ev'n Thais herself.
This Scene contains a deal of lover's impertinence and idle talk, repeating what has been said before; and that too much over and over again, and in a tiresome manner.
Donatus.If the Critic meant this note for a censure, it is in fact rather a commendation.
Hui! UNIVORSUM triduum!—Crites. To read Macrobius, explaining the propriety and elegance of many words in Virgil, which I had before passed over without consideration, as common things, is enough to assure me that I ought to think the same of Terence; and that in the purity of his stile, (which Tully so much valued, that he ever carried his works about him) there is yet left in him great room for admiration, If I knew but where to place it.
Eugenius.I should have been led to a consideration of the wit of the ancients, had not Crites given me sufficient warning not to be too bold in my judgment of it; because the languages being dead, and many of the customs, and little accidents, on which it depended, lost to us, we are not competent judges of it. But though I grant, that here and there we may miss the application of a proverb or a custom, yet a thing well said will be wit in all languages; and though it may lose something in the translation, yet to him who reads it in the original, it is still the same. He has an idea of its excellence, though it cannot pass from his mind into any other expression or words than those in which he finds it. When Phædria in the Eunuch had a command from his mistress to be absent two days, and encouraging himself to go through with it, said, Tandem egu, non illa caream, si opus sit, vel totum triduum? Parmeno, to mock the softness of his master, lifting up his hands and eyes, cries out, as it were in admiration, Hui! univorsum triduum! the elegancy of which univorsum, though it cannot be rendered in our language, yet leaves an impression on our souls. But this happens seldom in him, in Plautus oftener; who is infinitely too bold in his metaphors, and coining words; out of which many times his wit is nothing.
Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesie.
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