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1

GNATHO
So I perceive. Pray, do you see any thing here that don't please you?

PARMENO
Yourself.

GNATHO
I believe you,--but any thing else, pray?

PARMENO
Why so?

GNATHO
Because you are out of spirits.

PARMENO
Not in the least.

GNATHO
Well, don't be so; but what think you of this slave? pointing to her.

PARMENO
Really, not amiss.

GNATHO
aside. I've galled the fellow.

PARMENO
aside, on overhearing him. How mistaken you are in your notion!

GNATHO
How far do you suppose this gift will prove acceptable to Thais?

PARMENO
It's this you mean to say now, that we are discarded there. Hark you, there are vicissitudes in all things.

GNATHO
For the next six months, Parmeno, I'll set you at ease; you sha'n't have to be running to and fro, or sitting up till daylight. Don't I make you happy?

PARMENO
Me? O prodigiously!

GNATHO
That's my way with my friends.

PARMENO
I commend you.

GNATHO
I'm detaining you; perhaps you were about to go somewhere else.

PARMENO
Nowhere.

GNATHO
In that case then, lend me your services a little; let me be introduced to her.

PARMENO
Very well; GNATHO knocks at the door, which immediately opens now the door is open for you, aside because you are bringing her.

GNATHO
going into the house of THAIS, ironically. Should you like any one to be called out from here? Goes in with PAMPHILA, and shuts the door.

PARMENO
to himself. Only let the next two days go by; you who, at present, in such high favor, are opening the door with one little finger, assuredly I'll cause to be kicking at that door full oft, with your heels, to no purpose. Re-enter GNATHO from the house.

GNATHO
Still standing here, Parmeno? Why now, have you been left on guard here, that no go-between might perchance be secretly running from the Captain to her? (Exit.)

PARMENO
Smartly said; really they ought to be wonderful things to please the Captain. But I see my master's youngest son coming this way; I wonder why he has come away from the Piraeus,2 for he is at present on guard there in the public service. It's not for nothing; he's coming in a hurry, too; I can't imagine why he's looking around in all directions.


1 I'm standing: "Quid agitur?" "Statur." The same joke occurs in the Pseudolus of Plautus, l. 457."Quid agitur? Statur hic ad hunc modum?"” "What is going on?" or "What are you about?" "About standing here in this fashion;" assuming an attitude. Colman observes that there is much the same kind of conceit in the

FALSTAFF.
"My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about."

PISTOL.
"Two yards or more."

Cooke has the following note: "'Quid agitur' is to be supposed to have a single meaning as spoken by Gnatho, but Parmeno archly renders it ambiguous by his answer. Our two first English translations, that by Bernard and that by Hoole, make nothing of it, nor indeed any other part of their author. Echard follows Madame Dacier, and perceives a joke; but he does not render 'quid agitur' as the question ought to be translated. 'Quid agitur' sometimes means,' What are you doing?' Sometimes, 'How do you do?' 'How are you?' or 'How goes the world with you?'"

2 From the Piroeus)--Ver. 290. The Piraeus was the chief harbor of Athens, at the mouth of the Cephisus, about three miles from the City. It was joined to the town by two walls, one of which was built by Themistocles, and the other by Pericles. It was the duty of the Athenian youth to watch here in turn by way of precaution against surprise by pirates or the enemy.

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