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Enter LYSIMACHUS, from his house.
LYSIMACHUS
to PASICOMPSA, within . I'll bring him to you directly, if I meet him. DEMIPHO
behind . He's meaning me. LYSIMACHUS
turning about . How say you, Demipho? DEMIPHO
Is the damsel at your house? LYSIMACHUS
What do you suppose? DEMIPHO
What if I go see her? Moves towards the house. LYSIMACHUS
Why making such haste? Stay. DEMIPHO
What am I to do? LYSIMACHUS
What you ought to do; take care and consider. DEMIPHO
Consider what? Why troth, for my own part, I think there's need for my doing this, going in-doors there, I mean. LYSIMACHUS
What, is it so, you old wether? Would you be going in? DEMIPHO
What should I do else? LYSIMACHUS
First listen to this, and attend; there's something even before this that I think it proper you should do. For if you now go in-doors to her, you'll be wishing to embrace her, chatting with her, and kissing her. DEMIPHO
Really you know my feelings; you understand what I would be at. LYSIMACHUS
You will be doing wrong. DEMIPHO
What, with that which you love? LYSIMACHUS
So much the less reason. Would you, full of hungriness, with a foul breath, a stinking old fellow, be kissing a woman? And wouldn't you, as you approached, be setting a female vomiting? DEMIPHO
I' faith, I'm sure that you're in love, as you point out these things beforehand to me. What then, if I give a dinner? If you approve of this, let's lay hold of some cook, who may be cooking away a meal1 here at your house, even until the evening. LYSIMACHUS
Well, I'm of that way of thinking. Now you are talking wisely, and like a lover. DEMIPHO
Why are we standing here? Why then don't we be off and procure the provisions, that we may be comfortable? LYSIMACHUS
For my part, I'll follow you. And, i' troth, you'll be finding out a lodging for her, if you are prudent; for, i' faith, she shan't be at my house a single day beyond the present; I'm afraid of my wife, lest, if she should return from the country to-morrow, she'll be finding her here. (Exeunt.)
1 Cooking away a meal: "Prandium" here does not mean the morning meal, similar to our breakfast, but a "feast" or "banquet in general.
The Comedies of Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley. London. G. Bell and Sons. 1912.
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