University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV.

CLITIPHO
alone.
What partial judges of all sons are fathers!
Who ask grey wisdom from our greener years,
And think our minds shou'd bear no touch of youth;
Governing by their passions, now kill'd in them,
And not by those that formerly rebell'd.
If ever I've a son, I promise him
He shall find me an easy father; fit
To know, and apt to pardon his offences:
Not such as mine, who, speaking of another,
Shews how he'd act in such a case himself:
Yet when he takes a cup or two too much,
Oh, what mad pranks he tells me of his own!
But warns me now, “to draw from other's faults
“A profitable lesson for myself.”
Cunning old gentleman! he little knows,
He pours his proverbs in a deaf man's ear.
The words of Bacchis, Give me, Bring me, now
Have greater weight with me: to whose commands,
Alas! I've nothing to reply withall;
Nor is there man more wretched than myself.
For Clinia here, (though he, I must confess,
Has cares enough) has got a mistress, modest,
Well-bred, and stranger to all harlot arts:
Mine is a self-will'd, wanton, haughty madam,
Gay, and extravagant; and let her ask
Whate'er she will, she must not be denied;
Since poverty I durst not make my plea.
This is a plague I have but newly found,
Nor is my father yet appriz'd of it.