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567
(Enter DEMIPHO and CHREMES.)
DEMIPHO
Well, have you brought your daughter with you, Chremes, for whom you went to
Lemnos
?
Well, have you brought your daughter with you, Chremes, for whom you went to
Lemnos
?
CHREMES
No.
No.
DEMIPHO
Why not?
Why not?
CHREMES
When her mother found that I staid here longer than usual,
and at the same time the age of the girl did not suit with my delays, they told me that she, with all her family, set out in search of me.
570
When her mother found that I staid here longer than usual,
and at the same time the age of the girl did not suit with my delays, they told me that she, with all her family, set out in search of me.
570
DEMIPHO
Pray, then, why did you stay there so long, when you had heard of this?
Pray, then, why did you stay there so long, when you had heard of this?
CHREMES
Why, faith, a malady detained me.
Why, faith, a malady detained me.
DEMIPHO
From what cause? Or what was it?
From what cause? Or what was it?
CHREMES
Do you ask me?
Old age itself is a malady. However, I heard that they had arrived safe, from the caps tain who brought them.
575
Do you ask me?
Old age itself is a malady. However, I heard that they had arrived safe, from the caps tain who brought them.
575
DEMIPHO
Have you heard, Chremes, what has happened to my son in my absence?
Have you heard, Chremes, what has happened to my son in my absence?
CHREMES
’Tis that, in fact, that has embarrassed me in my plans. For if I offer my daughter in marriage to any person that’s a stranger,
it must all be told how and by whom I had her. You I knew to be fully as faithful to me as I am to myself; if a stranger shall think fit to be connected with me by marriage, he will hold his tongue, just as long as good terms exist between us: but if he takes a dislike to me, he’ll be knowing more than it’s proper he should know.
580
’Tis that, in fact, that has embarrassed me in my plans. For if I offer my daughter in marriage to any person that’s a stranger,
it must all be told how and by whom I had her. You I knew to be fully as faithful to me as I am to myself; if a stranger shall think fit to be connected with me by marriage, he will hold his tongue, just as long as good terms exist between us: but if he takes a dislike to me, he’ll be knowing more than it’s proper he should know.
580
DEMIPHO
I know it is so, and that circumstance is a cause of anxiety to me; and I shall never cease trying,
until I’ve made good what I promised you.
590
I know it is so, and that circumstance is a cause of anxiety to me; and I shall never cease trying,
until I’ve made good what I promised you.
590
Phormio. Publius Terentius Afer (Terence). Henry Thomas Riley (Translator), George Colman (Translator). Ney York. 1874.
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