University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV.

Enter HEGIO, ARISTOPHONTES, and Slaves.
HEGIO.
Where can he now have stole him out of doors?

Tynd.
(Aside.)
'Tis over with me!—Tyndarus, your foes
Are making their advances strait towards you.—
What shall I say? what talk off? what deny,
Or what confess?—'Tis all uncertainty;
Nor know I what to think of or confide in.—
Would that the Gods had utterly destroy'd you,
Aristophontes, ere you lost your country,
To disconcert a scheme so well contrived.
Our state is desperate, if I don't devise
Some cunning trick,

Heg.
(To Arist.)
Follow me.—Here he is:—
Approach, and speak to him.

Tynd.
(Aside, and turning away.)
Can there exist
A greater wretch than I am?

Arist.
Why is this,
That you avoid my eyes, and slight me, Tyndarus,
As though I were a stranger, and you ne'er
Had known me.—It is true, I am a slave
As you are:—though in Ælis I was free;
You from your youth have ever been a slave.

Heg.
In troth I am not in the least amazed,
That he should shun you, and avoid your sight,
Or hold you in despite and detestation,
When for Philocrates you call him Tyndarus.

Tynd.
Hegio, this fellow was at Ælis deem'd
A madman:—give no ear to what he says.
'Tis there notorious, that he sought to kill
His father and his mother, and has often
Fits of the falling sickness come upon him,
Which makes him foam at mouth.—Pray get you from him.

Heg.
Here—bear him further off. (To the Slaves.)


Arist.
How say you, rascal!
That I am mad? and that I sought to kill
My father and my mother? and have often
Fits of the falling sickness come upon me,
Which makes me foam at mouth?

Heg.
Be not dismay'd.
Many have labour'd under this disease,
And spitting has restor'd them to their health.

Tynd.
I know, to some at Ælis it has prov'd
Of special use.

Arist.
And will you credit him?

Heg.
I credit him!—in what?

Arist.
That I am mad.

Tynd.
See how he eyes you with a furious aspect!—
'Twere best retire.—'Tis, Hegio, as I said:—
His frenzy grows upon him,—have a care.

Heg.
True,—when he call'd you Tyndarus, I thought,
That he indeed was mad.

Tynd.
Nay, but sometimes
He knows not his own name, nor who he is.

Heg.
He said, you was his friend.

Tynd.
I never saw him.
Alcmæon, and Orestes, and Lycurgus,
Are just as much my friends, as he is, Hegio.

Arist.
How, rascal!—do you dare bespeak me ill?
Do I not know you?

Heg.
By my troth 'tis plain
You know him not, when for Philocrates
You call him Tyndarus:—you are a stranger
To him you see, and name him whom you see not.

Arist.
'Tis he pretends himself the man he is not,
Denies himself to be the man he is.

Tynd.
O to be sure, you'll get the better of me
In reputation for veracity!

Arist.
You, as it seems, my truth will overpower
With falsehood.—Prithee look me in the face.

Tynd.
Well.

Arist.
Speak.—Do you deny, that you are Tyndarus?

Tynd.
I tell you, I deny it.

Arist.
Will you say,
You are Philocrates?

Tynd.
I say, I am.

Arist.
(To Phil.)
And you,—do you believe him?

Heg.
More than you,
Or than myself.—The man, you say he is,
Set out this day for Ælis to His father.

Arist.
What Father?—He's a slave.—

Tynd.
And so are you,
Once free as I was,—as I trust I shall be,
When I have gain'd this old man's son his liberty.

Arist.
How rascal! will you dare to call you free man?

Tynd.
Not Freeman, but I say, I am Philocrates.

Arist.
See, Hegio, how the rogue makes sport with you!
For he's a slave, and never own'd a slave
Besides himself.

Tynd.
So then,—because you liv'd
A beggar in your country without means
For your support, you would have ev'ry one
Plac'd on the self same footing with yourself.—
No wonder:—'tis the nature of the poor
To hate and envy men of property.

Arist.
Have a care, Hegio, how you rashly credit him.
As far as I can see, he means to trick you:—
Nor do I like at all his talking to you
Of the redemption of your son.

Tynd.
I know,
You wish it not: but with the help of heav'n
I shall accomplish it:—I shall restore
His son to him, and he will send me back
To Ælis to my father; for which purpose
Have I sent Tyndarus.

Arist.
Why You are He;
Nor is there any other slave at Ælis
Of that name but yourself.

Tynd.
And will you still
Reproach me with my state of servitude,
Brought on me by the chance of hapless war?

Arist.
I can't contain myself.

Tynd.
Ha! do you hear him?—
Will you not fly?—He'll pelt us now with stones,
Unless you have him seiz'd.

Arist.
I'm vext to death.

Tynd.
Look, how his eyes strike fire!—A cord, a cord,
Good Hegio. Don't you see his body's charged
With livid spots all over?—The black bile
Disorders him, poor fellow!

Arist.
The black pitch
Disorder you beneath the hangman's hand,
And (if this old man would but serve you right,)
Illuminate your head!

Tynd.
How wild he talks!
He is possess'd by evil spirits.

Heg.
Suppose
I order him to be seiz'd.

Tynd.
'Twere the best way.

Arist.
It vexes me I cannot find a stone
To dash the villain's brains out, who insists
That I am mad.

Tynd.
There—do you hear him, Sir?
He's looking for a stone.

Arist.
Shall I beg, Hegio,
A word with you alone?

Heg.
Speak where you are,—
What would you?—I can hear you at a distance.

Tynd.
If you permit him to approach you nearer,
He'll bite your nose off.

Arist.
Hegio, do not you
Believe that I am mad, or ever was;
Nor have I the disorder he pretends.
If any outrage you do fear from me,
Command me to be bound: 'tis my desire,
So at the same time he be bound with me.

Tynd.
Let him be bound, that chuses it.

Arist.
No more:—
I warrant I shall make you, false Philocrates,
To be found out the real Tyndarus.—
Why do you nod at me?

Tynd.
I nod at you?
(To Hegio)
What would he do, if you were further off?

Heg.
How say you? What if I approach this madman?

Tynd.
He'll teaze you with his fooleries, and jabber
Stuff without head or tail.—He only wants
The habit, else he is a perfect Ajax.

Heg.
No matter—I'll go to him.

(advances to Arist.
Tynd.
I'm undone.—
Now do I stand between the stone and victim,
Nor know I what to do.

Heg.
Aristophontes, ,
If you would ought with me, I lend attention.

Arist.
Sir, you shall hear the real truth from me,
Which now you deem a falshood.—But I first
Would clear me to you from this charge of madness.—
Believe me, Hegio, I'm not mad, nor have I
Any complaint but this,—that I'm a slave.—
O never may the king of gods and men
My native country suffer me to see,
If This is any more Philocrates
Than you or I.

Heg.
Tell me, who is he then?

Arist.
The same, I said he was from the beginning.
If you shall find it other, I can shew
No cause, no reason, why I should not suffer
A lack of liberty, your slave for ever.

Heg.
(to Tynd.)
And what do you say?

Tynd.
That I am your slave,
And you my master.

Heg.
I don't ask you that.—
Was you a free man?

Tynd.
Yes, I was.

Arist.
Indeed
He never was: he trifles with you, Hegio.

Tynd.
How do you know? or was you peradventure
My mother's midwife, that you dare affirm
What you advance with so much confidence?

Arist.
A boy I saw you when a boy.

Tynd.
A man
I see you now a man.—So—there's an answer.—
If your behaviour was as would become you,
You would not interfere in my concerns.—
Do I in yours?

Heg.
(to Arist.)
Say, was his father's name
Thesaurochrysonicochrysides?

Arist.
'Twas not,—nor did I ever hear the name
Before to-day:—Philocrates's father
Was call'd Theodoromedes.

Tynd.
I'm ruin'd!
Be still my heart!—prithee go hang yourself—
Still, still will you be throbbing.—Woe is me!
I scarce can stand upon my legs for fear.

Heg.
Can I be sure this fellow was a slave
In Ælis, and is not Philocrates?

Arist.
So certain, that you'll never find it other.
But where is He now?

Heg.
Where I least could wish him,
And where he wishes most himself to be.
Ah me! I am disjointed, sawn asunder,
By the intrigues of this vile rascal, who
Has led me by the nose just at his pleasure.—
But have a care you err not.

Arist.
What I say,
Is as a thing assur'd, a truth establish'd.

Heg.
And is it certain?

Arist.
Yes,—so very certain,
That you can never find a thing that's more so.
I and Philocrates have been friends from boys.

Heg.
What sort of person was Philocrates?

Arist.
His hair inclin'd to red, frizzled and curl'd,
A lenten jaw, sharp nose, a fair complexion,
And black eyes.—

Heg.
The description's very like him.

Tynd.
Now by my troth it was a sore mischance,
My coming here:—woe to the hapless twigs,
Will die upon my back:

Heg.
I plainly see,
I have been cheated.

Tynd.
Why do ye delay?
Haste, haste, ye chains, come and embrace my legs,
That I may have you in my custody.—

Heg.
These villainous captives, how they have deceiv'd me!
He, that is gone off, feign'd himself a slave,
And this a free man.—I have lost the kernel,
And for security the shell is left me.—
Fool that I am! they have impos'd upon me
In ev'ry shape.—But he shall never more
Make me his sport.—Hoa, Colapho, Cordalio,
Corax, go in and bring me out the thongs.

Slave.
What, is he sending us to bind up faggots?

[The Slaves go in, and return with thongs.