 | The Step-Mother |  |
SCENE VI.
Enter PHIDIPPUS.Phid.
to Phil. within.]
I'm angry with you—'fore heaven, very angry,
Philumena!—You've acted shamefully.
Though You indeed have some excuse for't, seeing
Your mother urg'd you to't; but She has none.
488
You're come upon us in good time, Phidippus;
Just in the time we wanted you.
Phid.
What now?
Pam.
What answer shall I give them? how explain?
[aside.
Lach.
Inform your daughter, Sostrata will hence
Into the country; so Philumena
Need not dread coming home again.
Phid.
Ah, friend!
Your wife has never been in fault at all:
All this has sprung from my wife Myrrhina.
The case is alter'd. She confounds us, Laches.
Pam.
So that I may not take her home again,
Confound affairs who will!
[aside.
Phid.
I, Pamphilus,
Would fain, if possible, make this alliance
Perpetual between our families.
But if you cannot like it, take the Child.
Pam.
He knows of her delivery. Confusion!
[aside.
Lach.
The Child! what Child?
Phid.
We've got a grandson, Laches.
489
With child, it seems, altho' I never knew it
Before this very day.
Lach.
For heav'n, good news!
And I rejoice to hear a child is born,
And that your daughter had a safe delivery.
But what a woman is your wife, Phidippus?
Of what a disposition? to conceal
Such an event as this? I can't express
How much I think she was to blame.
Phid.
This pleases me, no more than you, good Laches.
Pam.
Altho' my mind was in suspence before,
My doubts all vanish now. I'll ne'er recall her,
Since she brings home with her another's child.
[aside.
Lach.
There is no room for choice now, Pamphilus.
Pam.
Confusion!
[aside.
Lach.
We've oft wish'd to see the day,
When you should have a child, to call you father.
That day's now come. The Gods be thank'd!
Pam.
Undone!
[aside.
Lach.
Recall your wife, and don't oppose my will.
Pam.
If she had wish'd for children by me, father,
Or to remain my wife, I'm very sure
She never would have hid this matter from me:
490
And think we never can agree hereafter,
Wherefore should I recall her?
Lach.
A young woman
Did as her mother had persuaded her.
Is that so wonderful? and do you think
To find a woman without any fault?
—Or is't because the men are ne'er to blame?
[ironically.
Phid.
Consider with yourselves then, gentlemen,
Whether you'll part with her, or call her home.
What my wife does, I cannot help, you know.
Settle it as you please, you've my consent.
But for the child, what shall be done with him?
Lach.
A pretty question truly! come what may,
Send his own bantling home to him of course,
That we may educate him.
Pam.
When his own
Father abandons him, I educate him?
Lach.
What said you? how! not educate him, say you?
Shall we expose him rather, Pamphilus?
491
I can contain no longer. You oblige me
To speak, against my will, before Phidippus:
Think you I'm ignorant whence flow those tears?
Or why you're thus disorder'd and distress'd?
First, when you gave as a pretence, you could not
Recall your wife in reverence to your mother,
She promis'd to retire into the country.
But now, since that excuse is taken from you,
You've made her private lying-in another.
You are mistaken if you think me blind
To your intentions.—That you might at last
Bring home your stray affections to your wife,
How long a time to wean you from your mistress
Did I allow? your wild expence upon her
How patiently I bore? I press'd, intreated,
That you would take a wife. 'Twas time, I said.
At my repeated instances you married,
And, as in duty bound to do, complied:
But now your heart is gone abroad again
After your mistress, whom to gratify,
You throw this wanton insult on your wife.
For I can plainly see you are relaps'd
Into your former life again.
Pam.
Me?
492
You.
And 'tis base in you, to invent false causes
Of quarrel with your wife, that you may live
In quiet with your mistress, having put
This witness from you. This your wife perceiv'd.
For was there any other living reason,
Wherefore she should depart from you?
Phid.
He's right:
That was the very thing.
Pam.
I'll take my oath,
'Twas none of those, that you have mention'd.
Lach.
Ah,
Recall your wife: or tell me, why you will not.
Pam.
'Tis not convenient now.
Lach.
Take home the child then.
For he at least is not in fault. I'll see
About the mother afterwards.
Pam.
to himself.]
Ev'ry way
I am a wretch, nor know I what to do:
My father has me in the toils, and I,
By struggling to get loose, am more entangled.
I'll hence, since present I shall profit little.
For I believe they'll hardly educate
The child against my will; especially
Seeing my step-mother will second me.
[Exit.
Quo pacto hoc aperiam? This is the common reading, which Bentley and Madam Dacier convert to operiam, how shall I hide it? I see no occasion for any alteration. Pamphilus did not mean to divulge the secret; but in his present embarassment he might easily be perplexed how to assign plausible reasons for his way of acting.
Quem ipse neglexit pater, ego alam? Donatus on this passage takes notice of a reading, which entirely changes the sense. Quem ipsa neglexit, pater; where we have ipsa for ipse, and Pater is a vocative. “Shall I, father, take care of a child, whom the mother herself has abandoned?” But the other reading is certainly the best. It is full of passion, and is strongly descriptive of the situation of Pamphilus. There is indeed an objection that may be offered, from a supposition, that this were betraying Philumena. But we are to imagine it a start of passion, and that Laches, totally ignorant of that secret, catches at the last words Ego alam? “I educate him?” which the actor might deliver with greater energy than the preceding. Patrick.
| The Step-Mother | |