Chrysis.
SIMO. My son, on this event, was often there
With those who were the late gallants of Chrysis;
Assisted to prepare the funeral,
Ever condol'd, and sometimes wept with them.
This pleas'd me then; for in myself I thought,
"Since merely for a small acquaintance-sake
He takes this woman's death so nearly, what
If he himself had lov'd? What would he feel
For me, his father?" All these things, I thought;
Were but the tokens and the offices
Of a humane and tender disposition.
In short, on his account, e'en I myself
Attend the funeral, suspecting yet
No harm.
SOSIA. And what----
SIMO. You shall hear all. The Corpse
Borne forth, we follow: when among the women
Attending there, I chanc'd to cast my eyes,
Upon one girl, in form----
SOSIA. Not bad, perhaps----
SIMO. And look; so modest, and so beauteous, Sosia!
That nothing could exceed it. As she seem'd
To grieve beyond the rest; and as her air
Appear'd more liberal and ingenuous,
I went and ask'd her women who she was.
Sister, they said, to Chrysis: when at once
It struck my mind; "So! so! the secret's out;
Hence were those tears, and hence all that compassion!"
SOSIA. Alas! I fear how this affair will end!
SIMO. Meanwhile the funeral proceeds: we follow;
Come to the sepulchre: the body's plac'd
Upon the pile, lamented: whereupon
This sister I was speaking of, all wild,
Ran to the flames with peril of her life.
Then! there! the frighted Pamphilus betrays
His well-dissembled and long-hidden love:
Runs up, and takes her round the waist, and cries,
"Oh my Glycerium! what is it you do?
Why, why endeavor to destroy yourself?"
Then she, in such a manner, that you thence
Might easily perceive their long, long, love,
Threw herself back into his arms, and wept,
Oh how familiarly!
SOSIA. How say you!
SIMO. I
Return in anger thence, and hurt at heart,
Yet had no cause sufficient for reproof.
"What have I done? he'd say; or how deserv'd
Reproach? or how offended, Father?--Her
Who meant to cast herself into the flames,
I stopped." A fair excuse!
SOSIA. You're in the right;
For him, who sav'd a life, if you reprove,
What will you do to him that offers wrong?
SIMO. Chremes next day came open-mouth'd to me:
Oh monstrous! he had found that Pamphilus
Was married to this stranger woman. I
Deny the fact most steadily, and he
As steadily insists. In short we part
On such bad terms, as let me understand
He would refuse his daughter.
SOSIA. Did
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