The Eunuch :: :: University of Virginia Library

Enter PHÆDRIA.
Phæd.
Going into the country, I began
(As happens when the mind is ill at ease)
To ponder with myself upon the road,
Tossing from thought to thought, and viewing all
In the worst light. While thus I ruminate,
I pass'd unconsciously my country-house,
And had got far beyond, e'er I perceiv'd it.
I turn'd about, but with a heavy heart;
And soon as to the very spot I came
Where the roads part, I stopt. Then paus'd awhile:
Alas! thought I, and must I here remain
Two days? alone? without her?—Well! what then?
That's nothing.—What, is't nothing?—If I've not
The privilege to touch her, shall I not
Behold her neither?—If one may not be,
At least the other shall.—And certainly
Love, in its last degree, is something still.

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—Then I, on purpose, past the house.—But see!
Pythias breaks forth affrighted.—What means this?

Here the Poet artfully finds a reason to bring Phædria back again; as he at first with equal art sent him out of the way, to give probability to those incidents, necessary to happen in his absence. Donatus.

Extremâ lineâ amare, haud nihil est. Supposed to be a metaphor taken from the lines drawn in the chariot-races.