81 SPECIMEN'S OF LATIN COMEDY. 



The custom among neighbours, they should want 



A knife, an axe, a pestle, or a mortar, 



Tell them, some rogues broke in, and stole them all. 



Be sure let no one in, while I'm away ; 



I charge you ; even if good luck should come, 



Don't let her in. 



STAPH. Good luck quotha ! I warrant you, 

 She's not in such a hurry : she has never 

 Come to our house though she is ne'er so near. 



EUCL. Have done, go in. 



STAPH. I say no more, I'm gone. 



EUCL. Be sure you bolt the door both top and bottom, 

 I shall be back this instant. 



Staphilo accordingly goes to execute the commands of Euclio, and 

 the miser to get his share of money from the master of the ward. 

 And in the next scene we have an interview between Megadorus and 

 his sister Eunomia, who, in the course of the conversation, pro- 

 pounds the voracious dictum, 



" That there never was in any age, 



Such a wonder to be found as a dumb woman " 



and after enlarging on the qualities, good and bad, of the female sex, 

 advises him to marry, and withal proposes to help him to a wife. 

 Megadorus is startled* at first, but they soon agree upon the point, 

 and he declares his intention of paying his addresses to Euclio's 

 daughter. The old miser, we now find, was quite disappointed in 

 his visit to the master of the ward : there was no distribution of 

 money ; and Euclio was obliged to return in confusion and morti- 

 fication ; and on his return meets Megadorus, who after a few pre- 

 liminary questions and replies, proposes to marry his daughter. 

 Euclio of course immediately suspects that he has got scent of his 

 treasure and expects, if not at once, at least at his death, to become 

 the possessor of it himself; but when he openly declares that he has 

 no desire for a portion, his apprehensions are quite allayed, and he 

 readily consents to Megadorus' s proposal. This scene is worth 

 transcribing : 



EUCL. But I can give 



No portion with her ! 



MEG. You need give her none. 



She, that has virtue, has sufficient dower. 



EUCL. I tell it you, because you may not think 



I've found a treasure. 



MEG. Say no more ; I know it. 



You'll give her to me then ? 



EUCL. O Jupiter ! 



I am undone ! I'm ruined ! 



* It is curious to observe the same phrases and similies used in different 

 authors, who by some singular coincidence, have hit upon the same, without 

 the possibility of their having copied from each other ; Megadorus here says to 

 Eunomia, " You speak daggers to me now 1" " Lapides loqueris:" so Aristoph. 

 fo$a ^ Hfnxa:- " You have spoken roses to me;" and Shakspeare, Hamlet, III 

 " I will speak daggers to her, but use none." 



