142

Phad. What voice is that? Oh, Thraso!
Thraso. Gentlemen,

Good day!

Phæd. Perhaps you're not acquainted yet, With what has happen'd here?

Thraso. I am.

Phad. Why then

Do I behold you in these territories?
Thra. Depending on

Phæd. Depend on nought but this!
Captain, I give you warning, if, henceforth,
I ever find you in this street, although
You tell me, "I was looking for another,

"I was but passing through," expect no quarter.
Gnat. Oh fie! that is not handsome.

Phæd. I have said it.

Gnat. You cannot be so rude.

Phæd. It shall be so.

Gnat. First grant me a short hearing: if you like

What I propose, agree to❜t.

Phæd. Let us hear!

Gnat. Do you retire a moment, Thraso! [Thraso

relires.] First,

I must beseech you both, most firmly think,

'That 1, whate'er I do in this affair,

For my own sake I do it: But if that

Likewise advantage you, not to agree
In you were folly.

Phed. What are your proposals?

Gnat. I think, 'twere not imprudent to admit
The Captain, as your rival.

Phad. How!

Admit

Admit him, say you?

Gnat. Nay reflect a little.

Phædria, you live at a high rate with Thais,
Revel, and feast, and stick at no expence.

Yet what you give's but little, and you know
"Tis needful Thais should receive much more.
Now to supply your love without your cost,
A fitter person, one more form'd, can't be
Than Thraso is: First, he has wherewithal
To give, and gives most largely: A fool too,
A dolt, a block, that snores out night and day;
Nor can you fear she'll e'er grow fond of him;
And you may drive him out whene'er you please.
Phed. What shall we do?

Gnat. Moreover this; the which

I hold no trifle, no man entertains

More nobly or more freely.

Phæd. I begin

To think we've need of such a fool.

Char. And I.

[lo. Chærea.

Gnat. Well judg'd! and let me beg one favour more ;

Admit me into your fraternity!

I've roll'd this stone too long $4.

Phad. We do admit you.

Char. With all our hearts.

Gnat. And you, sirs, in return,

Shall pledge me in the Captain; " eat him; drink him ;

And laugh at him.

Cher. A bargin!

Phæd. 'Tis his due.

Gnat. Thraso, whene'er you please, come forward!

Thraso.

144

Thraso. Well!

How stands the case?

Gnat. Alas! they knew you not:

But when I drew your character, and prais'd
Your worth, according to your deeds and virtues,
I gain'd my point.

Thraso. "Tis well: I'm much oblig'd.

I ne'er was any where, in all my life,

But all folks lov'd me most exceedingly.

Gnat. There! Did not I assure you, gentlemen,

That he had all the Attick elegance?

Phæd. He is the very character you drew.
Gnat. Retir ethen.-Ye, [to the Audience.] farewell,
and clap your hands!

THE

THE

SELF-TORMENTOR.

Acted at the MEGALESIAN GAMES,

L. Cornelius Lentulus, and L. Valerius Flaccus, Curule Ediles: principal actors, L. Ambivius Turpio and L. Attilius Prænestinus: the musick composed by Flaccus, freedman to Claudius. Taken from the Greek of Menander. Acted the first time with unequal flutes, afterwards with two right-handed ones: it was acted a third time. Published, M. Juventius, and M. Sempronius, Consuls'.

LEST any of you wonder, why the Bard
To an old actor hath assign'd the part
Sustain❜d of old by young performers2; that
I'll first explain: then say what brings me here3.
To-day, a whole play, wholly from the Greek,
We mean to represent: The Self-Tormentor *:
Wrought from a single to a double plot.

Now therefore that our comedy is new,"
And what it is, I've shewn who wrote it too,
And whose in Greek it is, were 1 not sure
Most of you knew already', would I tell.
But, wherefore I have ta'en this part upon me,
In brief I will deliver: for the bard

Has sent me here as pleader, not as prologue
You he declares his judges, me his counsel:
And yet as counsel nothing can I speak
More than the author teaches me to say,
Who wrote th' oration which I now recite.

As to reports, which envious men have spread,
That he has ransack'd many Grecian plays,
While he composes some few Latin ones,-
That he denies not, he has done; nor does
Repent he did it; means to do it still;
Safe in the warrant and authority

Of great bards, who did long since the same.
Then for the charge, that his arch-enemy'
Maliciously reproaches him withal,
That he but lately hath applied himself
To musick, with the genius of his friends,

Rather