 | Phormio |  |
SCENE II.
Enter GETA.Get.
at entering.]
If a red-hair'd man
Enquire for me—
Dav.
No more! he's here.
Get.
Oh, Davus!
The very man that I was going after.
Dav.
Here, take this! [gives a purse.]
'tis all told: you'll find it right;
The sum I ow'd you.
Get.
Honest, worthy Davus!
I thank you for your punctuality.
Dav.
And well you may, as men and times go now:
Things, by my troth, are come to such a pass,
If a man pays you what he owes, you're much
Beholden to him.—But, pray, why so sad?
Get.
I?—You can scarce imagine in what dread,
What danger I am in.
Dav.
How so?
Get.
I'll tell you,
Dav.
Away, fool!
The man, whose faith in money you have tried,
D'ye fear to trust with words?—And to what end
Shou'd I deceive you?
Get.
List then!
Dav.
I'm all ear.
Get.
D'ye know our old man's elder brother, Chremes?
Dav.
Know him? ay sure.
Get.
You do?—And his son Phædria?
Dav.
As well as I know you.
Get.
It so fell out,
Both the old men were forc'd to journey forth
At the same season. He to Lemnos, our's
Into Cilicia, to an old acquaintance
Who had decoy'd the old curmudgeon thither
By wheedling letters, almost promising
Mountains of gold.
Dav.
To one that had so much,
More than enough already?
Get.
Prithee, peace!
Money's his passion.
Dav.
Oh, would I had been
A man of fortune, I!
At their departure,
The two old gentlemen appointed me
A kind of governor to both their sons.
Dav.
A hard task, Geta!
Get.
Troth, I found it so.
My angry Genius for my sins ordain'd it.
At first I took upon me to oppose:
In short, while I was trusty to th'old man,
The young one made my shoulders answer for it.
Dav.
So I suppose: for what a foolish task
To kick against the pricks!
Get.
I then resolv'd
To give them their own way in ev'ry thing.
Dav.
Ay, then you made your market.
Get.
Our young spark
Play'd no mad pranks at first: But Phædria
Got him immediately a Musick-Girl:
Fond of her to distraction! She belong'd
Nor had we aught to give;—th'old gentlemen
Had taken care of That. Nought else remain'd,
Except to feed his eyes, to follow her,
To lead her out to school, and hand her home.
We too, for lack of other business, gave
Our time to Phædria. Opposite the school,
Whither she went to take her lessons, stood
A Barber's shop, wherein most commonly
We waited her return. Hither one day
Came a young man in tears: we were amaz'd,
And ask'd the cause. Never (said he, and wept)
Did I suppose the weight of poverty
A load so sad, so insupportable,
As it appear'd but now.—I saw but now,
Not far from hence, a miserable virgin
Lamenting her dead mother. Near the corpse
Except one poor old woman, was there near
To aid the funeral. I pitied her:
Her beauty too was exquisite.—In short
He mov'd us all: And Antipho at once
Cried, “Shall we go and visit her?”—“Why, ay,
“I think so,” said the other, “let us go!”
“Conduct us, if you please.”—We went, arriv'd,
And saw her.—Beautiful she was indeed!
More justly to be reckon'd so, for she
Had no additions to set off her beauty.
Her hair dishevell'd, barefoot, woe-be-gone,
In tears, and miserably clad: that if
The life and soul of beauty had not dwelt
Within her very form, all these together
Must have extinguish'd it.—The spark, possess'd
Already with the Musick-Girl, just cried,
“She's well enough.”—But our young gentleman—
Dav.
Fell, I suppose, in love.
Get.
In love indeed.
But mark the end! Next day, away he goes
To the old woman strait, beseeching her
To let him have the girl:—“Not she indeed!
“For him to think on't: She's a citizen,
“An honest girl, and born of honest parents:—
“If he wou'd marry her indeed, by law
“He might do that; on no account, aught else.”
—Our spark, distracted, knew not what to do:
At once he long'd to marry her, at once
Dreaded his absent father.
Dav.
Wou'd not He,
Had he return'd, have giv'n consent?
Get.
To wed
A girl of neither family nor fortune?
Never.
Dav.
What then?
Get.
What then! There is a Parasite,
One Phormio, a bold enterprising fellow,
Who—all the Gods confound him!—
Dav.
What did He?
Get.
Gave us the following counsel.—“There's a law
“That Orphan Girls shou'd wed their next of kin,
“Which law obliges too their next of kin
“To marry them.—I'll say, that you're her kinsman,
“And sue a writ against you. I'll pretend
“To be her father's friend, and bring the cause
“Her mother who, and how she's your relation,
“All this sham evidence I'll forge; by which
“The cause will turn entirely in my favour.
“You shall disprove no tittle of the charge;
“So I succeed.—Your father will return;
“Prosecute Me;—what then?—The Girl's our own.”
Dav.
A pleasant piece of impudence!
Get.
It pleas'd
Our spark at least: He put it into practice;
Came into court; and he was cast; and married.
Dav.
How say you?
Get.
Just as you have heard.
Dav.
Oh Geta,
What will become of you?
Get.
I don't know, faith.
But only this I know, whate'er chance brings,
I'll patiently endure.
Dav.
Why, that's well said,
And like a man.
Get.
All my dependance is
Upon myself.
Dav.
And that's the best.
Get.
I might
Who may plead thus—“Nay, pardon him this once!
“But if he fails again, I've not a word
“To say for him.”—And well if he don't add,
“When I go hence, e'en hang him!”
Dav.
What of him,
Gentleman-Usher to the Musick-Girl?
How goes He on?
Get.
So, so!
Dav.
He has not much
To give perhaps.
Get.
Just nothing, but mere hope.
Dav.
His father too, is he returned?
Get.
Not yet.
Dav.
And your old man, when do you look for Him?
Get.
I don't know certainly: but I have heard
That there's a letter from him come to port,
Which I am going for.
Dav.
Wou'd you aught else
With me, good Geta?
Nothing, but Farewell!
[Exit Davus.
Ho, Boy! what, nobody at home! [Enter Boy.]
Take this,
And give it Dorcium.
[Gives the Purse, and Exit.
The Antients had a persuasion, that each man had a Genius or Guardian Deity, and that when he fell into any misfortune, or was guilty of any crime, it was because his Genius had abandoned him. Patrick.
Adversum stimulum calces. To kick against the pricks.—Originally an old Greek proverb, Προς τα κεντρα λακτιζειν.—προς κεντρα κωλον εκτενειν.—So our Saviour (Acts, chap. ix. v. 5.) it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Westerhovius.
Scîsti uti foro. An allusion to merchants, who fix the price of commodities in proportion to the demand there is for them. Donatus.
Musick-schools, where the Slave-merchants sent their Girls to attain accomplishments, which might enhance their price. Cooke.
Barbers shops in Athens and Rome were places of publick resort for conversation, much of the nature of our Coffee-houses. Patrick.
In Apollodorus this young man is no other than the Barber himself, who was just returned from cutting off the young woman's hair, which was one of the usual ceremonies of mourning among the Greeks. This circumstance Terence has judiciously altered, that he might not shock the Roman spectators with manners so very foreign to their own. Donatus.
The Poet has managed this part of the Narration with so much address, that we are not so much affected at the death of the mother, as at the distress of the beautiful virgin: especially as we find in the catastrophe, that the death of this woman gives the poet a better opportunity of establishing the general happiness. Donatus.
Quid Pædagogus ille. The servants who attended children to and from school were by the Greeks called Pedagogues. Socrates was satirically called the Pedagogue of Alcibiades: and Davus humourously applies this name to Phædria, who, as Geta had told him, attended the Girl to and from the Musick-school. Dacier.
| Phormio | |