or spread that
gladiators were about to be exhibited; the populace flock together,
make a tumult, clamor aloud, {and} fight for their places:[23]
meantime, I was unable to maintain my place. Now there is no
confusion: there is attention and silence-- an opportunity of acting
{my Play} has been granted me; to yourselves is given the power of
gracing the scenic festival.[24] Do not permit, through your agency,
the dramatic art to sink into the hands of a few; let your authority
prove a seconder and assistant to my own. If I have never covetously
set a price upon my skill, and have come to this conclusion, that it
is the greatest gain in the highest possible degree to contribute to
your entertainment; allow me to obtain this of you, that him who has
intrusted his labors to my protection, and himself to your
integrity,-- that him, I {say}, the malicious may not maliciously
deride, beset {by them} on every side. For my sake, admit of this
plea, and attend in silence, that he may be encouraged to write other
{Plays}, and that it may be for my advantage to study new ones
hereafter, purchased at my own expense.[25]

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

_Enter PHILOTIS[26] and SYRA._

PHIL. I'faith, Syra, you can find but very few lovers who prove
constant to their mistresses. For instance, how often did this
Pamphilus swear to Bacchis-- how solemnly, so that any one might have
readily believed him-- that he never would take home a wife so long as
she lived. Well now, he is married.

SYR. Therefore, for that very reason, I earnestly both advise and
entreat you to take pity upon no one, but plunder, fleece, {and} rend
every man you lay hold of.

PHIL. What! Hold no one exempt?

SYR. No one; for not a single one of them, rest assured, comes to you
without making up his mind, by means of his flatteries, to gratify his
passion with you at the least possible expense. Will you not, pray,
plot against them in return?

PHIL. And yet, upon my faith, it is unfair to be the same to all.

SYR. What! unfair to take revenge on your enemies? or, for them to be
caught in the very way they try to catch you? Alas! wretched me! why
do not your age and beauty belong to me, or else these sentiments {of
mine} to you?

SCENE II.

_Enter PARMENO from the house of LACHES._

PAR. (_at the door, speaking to SCIRTUS within._) If the old man
should be asking for me, do you say that I have just gone to the
harbor to inquire about the arr