Scene 4.

_Eucl._

Illic hinc abiit. di immortales, facinus audax incipit 460 qui cum opulento pauper homine coepit rem habere aut negotium.[7] veluti Megadorus temptat me omnibus miserum modis, qui simulavit mei honoris mittere huc causa coquos: is ea causa misit, hoc qui surriperent misero mihi.

(_looking after them_) He’s disappeared. My Lord, my Lord! It’s an awful chance a poor man takes when he begins to have dealings or business with a wealthy man. Here’s Megadorus now, trying to catch me--oh, dear, dear!--in all sorts of ways. Sending cooks over here and pretending it’s because of regard for me! Sent ’em to steal this (_looking under cloak_) from a poor old man--that’s what his sending ’em was because of!

condigne etiam meus med intus gallus gallinacius, qui erat anu peculiaris, perdidit paenissume. ubi erat haec defossa, occepit ibi scalpurrire ungulis circum circa. quid opust verbis? ita mihi pectus peracuit: capio fustem, obtrunco gallum, furem manufestarium.

And then of course that dunghill cock of mine in there, that used to belong to the old woman, had to come within an inch of ruining me, beginning to scratch and claw around where this (_looking under cloak_) was buried. Enough said. It just got me so worked up I took a club and annihilated that cock, the thief, the redhanded thief!

credo edepol ego illi mercedem gallo pollicitos coquos, 470 si id palam fecisset. exemi ex manu[8] manubrium.[9] (471) sed Megadorus meus affinis eccum incedit a foro. (473) iam hunc non ausim praeterire, quin consistam et conloquar.

By heaven, I do believe the cooks offered that cock a reward to show them where this (_looking under cloak_) was. I took the handle (_looking under cloak_) out of their hands! (_looking down street_) Ah, but there is son-in-law Megadorus swaggering back from the forum. I suppose it would hardly do for me to pass him without stopping for a word or two, now.

III. 5.