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Enter from DORIO'S house, DORIO, followed by PHAEDRIA.

PHAEDRIA
Prithee, hear me, Dorio.

DORIO
I'll not hear you.

PHAEDRIA
Only a moment.

DORIO
Let me alone.

PHAEDRIA
Do hear what I have to say.

DORIO
Why really I am tired of hearing the same thing a thousand times over.

PHAEDRIA
But now, I have something to tell you that you'll hear with pleasure.

DORIO
Speak then; I'm listening.

PHAEDRIA
Can I not prevail on you to wait for only three days? Whither are you going now?

DORIO
I was wondering if you had any thing new to offer.

ANTIPHO
apart, to GETA. I'm afraid for this Procurer, lest--

GETA
apart, to ANTIPHO. Something may befall his own safety.1

PHAEDRIA
You don't believe me?

DORIO
You guess right.

PHAEDRIA
But if I pledge my word.

DORIO
Nonsense!

PHAEDRIA
You will have reason to say that this kindness was well laid out by you on interest.

DORIO
Stuff!

PHAEDRIA
Believe me, you will be glad you did so; upon my faith, it is the truth.

DORIO
Mere dreams!

PHAEDRIA
Do but try; the time is not long.

DORIO
The same story over again.

PHAEDRIA
You will be my kinsman, my father, my friend; you----

DORIO
Now, do prate on.

PHAEDRIA
For you to be of a disposition so harsh and inexorable, that neither by pity nor by entreaties can you be softened!

DORIO
For you to be of a disposition so unreasonable and so unconscionable, Phadria, that you can be talking me over with fine words,2 and be for amusing yourself with what's my property for nothing!

ANTIPHO
apart, to GETA. I am sorry for him.

PHAEDRIA
aside. Alas! I feel it to be too true.

GETA
apart, to ANTIPHO. How well each keeps up to his character!

PHAEDRIA
to himself. And would that this misfortune had not befallen me at a time when Antipho was occupied with other cares as well.

ANTIPHO
coming forward. Ah Phaedria, why, what is the matter?

PHAEDRIA
O most fortunate Antipho!

ANTIPHO
What, I?

PHAEDRIA
To have in your possession the object of your love, and have no occasion to encounter such a nuisance as this.

ANTIPHO
What I, in my possession? Why yes, as the saying is, I've got a wolf by the ears;3 for I neither know how to get rid of her, nor yet how to keep her.

DORIO
That's just my case with regard to him pointing to PHAEDRIA .

ANTIPHO
to DORIO. Aye, aye, don't you show too little of the Procurer. To PHAEDRIA. What has he been doing?

PHAEDRIA
What, he? Acting the part of a most inhuman fellow; been and sold my Pamphila.

GETA
What! Sold her?

ANTIPHO
Sold her, say you?

PHAEDRIA
Sold her.

DORIO
ironically. What a shocking crime--a wench bought with one's own money!

PHAEDRIA
I can not prevail upon him to wait for me the next three days, and so far break off the bargain with the person, while I get the money from my friends, which has been promised me; if I don't give it him then, let him not wait a single hour longer.

DORIO
Very good.

ANTIPHO
It's not a long time that he asks, Dorio; do let him prevail upon you; he'll pay you two-fold for having acted to him thus obligingly.

DORIO
Mere words!

ANTIPHO
Will you allow Pamphila to be carried away from this place? And then, besides, can you possibly allow their love to be severed asunder?

DORIO
Neither I nor you cause that.

GETA
May all the Gods grant you what you are deserving of!

DORIO
I have borne with you for several months quite against my inclination; promising and whimpering, and yet bringing nothing; now, on the other hand, I have found one to pay, and not be sniveling; give place to your betters.

ANTIPHO
I' faith, there surely was a day named, if I remember right, for you to pay him.

PHAEDRIA
It is the fact.

DORIO
Do I deny it?

ANTIPHO
Is that day past, then?

DORIO
No; but this one has come before it.

ANTIPHO
Are you not ashamed of your perfidy?

DORIO
Not at all, so long as it is for my interest.

GETA
Dunghill!

PHAEDRIA
Dorio, is it right, pray, for you to act thus?

DORIO
It is my way; if I suit you, make use of me.

ANTIPHO
Do you try to trifle with him pointing to PHAEDRIA in this manner?

DORIO
Why really, on the contrary, Antipho, it's he trifling with me, for he knew me to be a person of this sort; I supposed him to be quite a different man; he has deceived me; I'm not a bit different to him from what I was before. But however that may be, I'll yet do this; the captain has said, that to-morrow morning he will pay me the money; if you bring it me before that, Phaedria, I'll follow my rule, that he is the first served who is the first to pay. Farewell! Goes into his house.

1 Befall his own safety)--Ver. 490. Overhearing Phedria earnest and determined, and the Procurer obstinate and inflexible, Antipho and Geta join in -apprehending that the brutality of the latter may provoke Phaedria to some act of violence.

2 With fine words)--Ver. 499. "Phaleratis dictis." "Phalerae" were, properly, the silver ornaments with which horses were decked out, and being only for show, and not for use, gave rise to this saying. "Ductes" was an obscene Word, and not likely to be used by any but such characters as Dorio.

3 A wolf by the ears: A proverbial expression which, according to Suetonius, was frequently in the mouth of Tiberius Caesar.

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