Perde 4
[Textpart 1]
For my part, I certainly do know that you are about to marry her.
PAMPHILUS
Why are you torturing me to death? Listen to this. He (pointing to DAVUS.) never ceased to urge me to tell my father that I would marry her; to advise and persuade me, even until he compelled me.
660
CHARINUS
Who was this person?
PAMPHILUS
I don’t know; except that I must have been under the displeasure of the Gods, for me to have listened to him.
CHARINUS
Is this the fact, Davus?
665
DAVUS
It is the fact.
665
CHARINUS
Ha! What do you say, you villain? Then may the Gods send you an end worthy of your deeds. Come now, tell me, if all his enemies had wished him to be plunged into a marriage, what advice but this could they have given?
665
DAVUS
I have been deceived, but I don’t despair.
CHARINUS
I’m sure of that.
DAVUS
This way it has not succeeded; we’ll try another. Unless, perhaps, you think that because it failed at first, this misfortune can not now possibly be changed for better luck.
670
PAMPHILUS
Certainly not; for I quite believe that if you set about it, you will be making two marriages for me out of one.
DAVUS
I owe you this, Pamphilus, in respect of my servitude, to strive with hands and feet, night and day; to submit to hazard of my life, to serve you. It is your part, if any thing has fallen out contrary to expectation, to forgive me. What I was contriving has not succeeded; still, I am using all endeavors;
675
or, do you yourself devise something better, and dismiss me.
680
PAMPHILUS
I wish to; restore me to the position in which you found me.
PAMPHILUS
But it must be done directly.
DAVUS
But the door of Glycerium’s house here makes a noise. Makes a noise: The doors with the Romans opened in-wardly, while those of the Greeks opened on the outside. It was therefore usual with them, when coming out, to strike the door on the inside with a stick or with the knuckles, that those outside might be warned to get out of the way. Patrick, however, observes with some justice, that the word concrepui may here allude to the creaking of the hinges. See the Curculio of Plautus, l. 160, where the Procuress pours water on the hinges, in order that Cappadox may not hear the opening of the door.
