SCENE I.

MYSIS, SIMO, DAVUS, LESBIA[139], GLYCERA[140].

_Mysis._ Indeed, Lesbia, what you say is very true: one scarcely ever meets with a constant lover.

[_Simo to Davus._] This girl belongs to Glycera! Ha! Davus?

_Davus._ Yes.

_Mysis._ But as for Pamphilus――――

_Simo._ [_aside._] What’s that?

_Mysis._ He has kept his promise.

_Simo._ [_aside._] Ha!

_Davus._ [_aside._] Would to Heaven that he were deaf, or that she were dumb.

_Mysis._ For girl, or boy, he has given orders that the child shall be brought up[141].

_Simo._ O Jupiter! what do I hear? it is all over, if what she says be truth.

_Lesbia._ What you tell me, is a proof of a good disposition.

_Mysis._ His is most excellent; but now let us go, lest we should be wanted before we arrive.

_Lesbia._ I follow you.

[_They go in._

_Davus._ [_aside._] Here’s a pretty disaster! how shall I be able to remedy this evil?

[_Simo to himself._] What’s this? Is he so mad? A foreigner too! [142]phoo! now I see through it all! how simple I must be not to discover it at first.

_Davus._ What does he say he has discovered?

_Simo._ Davus, that indefatigable contriver of mischief, is the chief mover of all this roguery. They pretend the birth of a child, that they may deter Chremes from the match.

[_Glycera cries out from the house._] O Juno Lucina, help! save me! I beseech thee[143].

_Simo._ Hey day! what already! ha! ha! ha! how preposterous! the moment she finds out that I am within hearing, she begins to cry out. Why, Davus, your incidents are not well [144]timed at all, man.

_Davus._ Mine!

_Simo._ Have your actors forgotten their parts?

_Davus._ I don’t understand you really, Sir.

_Simo._ What an object of derision! what a laughing-stock [145]would this rascal have made of me, if he had played off this fine trick in a real marriage: but now he is shipwrecked whilst I am safe in port.