Perhaps so. LEONIDAAnd you, too, yourself, as well, if you had enquired about me of other people, would, i’ faith, I’m quite sure, have entrusted to me what you now have with you.THE ASS-DEALERI don’t deny it.(Exeunt.)

(Enter CLEAERETA and PHEILENIUM, from the house of the former.)CLEAERETAAnd am I unable to render you obedient to my injunctions? Or are you so disposed as to be free from the control of your mother?PHILENIUMHow could I propitiate PietyCould I propitiate Piety: She thinks that the Goddess Pietas will be shocked at her want of kind and grateful feeling, if she consents to turn Argyrippus out of doors., if I could desire to please you, being endowed with these manners, after the fashion, mother, that you enjoin upon me?CLEAERETAIs it consistent with propriety for you to oppose my precepts?PHILENIUMHow so? CLEAERETAIs this worshipping Piety, to lessen the authority of a mother?PHILENIUMThose who act right I blame not, nor do I love those who do wrong.CLEAERETAYou are a very prating, lovesick girl.PHILENIUMMother, that is my livingThat is my living: It is hard to say which she means as the source of her profit—whether her loving propensities, or her fund of talkativeness, for which her mother is censuring her. The next line is spoken with reference to her passion for Argyrippus.. His tongue woos me, his person seeks me, his passion pleads, opportunity prompts.CLEAERETAI was purposing to convince you. Are you come as my accuser?PHILENIUMBy my troth, I neither do accuse you, nor do I think it right I should do so; but I do complain of my lot, when I am separated from him whom I love.CLEAERETAWill then one bit of the whole day’s talk be left for myself?PHILENIUMBoth my share of the speaking and your own do I give up to you. Do you yourself keep the signalKeep the signal: Portisculum. According to some writers portisculus was a name of the pausaurius or hortator, called by the Greeks κελευστὴς,, an officer whose duty it was to order the rowers to keep time. In the present passage, it seems rather to signify the hammer, or other instrument, which that officer held in his hand, for the purpose of beating time, to regulate the motion of the rowers; not unlike the baton of the conductor of a band. both for speaking and for being silent.