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Enter at a distance PARMENO and SOSIA, with people carrying baggage.
PARMENO
to SOSIA. Do you say that this voyage was disagreeable to you? SOSIA
Upon my faith, Parmeno, it can not be so much as expressed in words, how disagreeable it is to go on a voyage. PARMENO
Do you say so? SOSIA
O lucky man! You don't know what evils you have escaped, by never having been at sea. For to say nothing of other hardships, mark this one only; thirty days or more1 was I on board that ship, and every moment, to my horror, was in continual expectation of death: such unfavorable weather did we always meet with. PARMENO
How annoying!. SOSIA
That's not unknown to me: in fine, upon my faith, I would rather run away than go back, if I knew that I should have to go back there. PARMENO
Why really, but slight causes formerly made you, Sosia, do what now you are threatening to do. But I see Pamphilus himself standing before the door. To the Attendants, who go into the house of LACHES. Go in-doors; I'll accost him, to see if he wants any thing with me. Accosts PAMPHILUS. What, still standing here, master? PAMPHILUS
Yes, and waiting for you. PARMENO
What's the matter? PAMPHILUS
You must run across to the citadel.2 PARMENO
Who must? PAMPHILUS
You. PARMENO
To the citadel? Why thither? PAMPHILUS
To meet Callidemides, my entertainer at Myconos, who came over in the same ship with me. PARMENO
aside. Confusion! I should say he has made a vow that if ever he should return home safe, he would rupture me3 with walking. PAMPHILUS
Why are you lingering? PARMENO
What do you wish me to say? Or am I to meet him only? PAMPHILUS
No; say that I can not meet him to-day, as I appointed, so that he may not wait for me to no purpose. Fly! PARMENO
But I don't know the man's appearance. PAMPHILUS
Then I'll tell you how to know it; a huge fellow, ruddy, with curly hair, fat, with gray eyes and freckled countenance. PARMENO
May the Gods confound him! What if he shouldn't come? Am I to wait there, even till the evening? PAMPHILUS
Yes, wait there. Run! PARMENO
I can't; I am so tired. (Exit slowly.) PAMPHILUS
He's off. What shall I do in this distressed situation? Really, I don't know in what way I'm to conceal this, as Myrrhina entreated me, her daughter's lying-in; but I do pity the woman. What I can, I'll do; only so long, however, as I observe my duty; for it is proper that I should be regardful of a parent,4 rather than of my passion. But look--I see Phidippus and my father. They are coming this way; what to say to them, I'm at a loss. Stands apart.
1 Thirty days or more: In his voyage from Imbros to Athens, namely, which certainly appears to have been unusually long.
2 To the citadel: This was the fort or citadel that defended the Piraeus, and being three miles distant from the city, was better suited for the design of Pamphilus, whose object it was to keep Parmeno for some time at a distance.
3 He would rupture me: He facetiously pretends to think that Pamphilus may, during a storm at sea, have vowed to walk him to death, if he should return home.
4 Regardful of a parent: Colman observes here: "This reflection seems to be rather improper in this place, for the discovery of Philumena's labor betrayed to Pamphilus the real motive of her departure; after which discovery his anxiety proceeds entirely from the supposed injury offered him, and his filial piety is from that period made use of merely as a pretense."
The Comedies of Terence. Henry Thomas Riley. Ney York. Harper and Brothers. 1874.
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