May the Gods bless you, Megadorus!MEGADORUSHow are you? Are you quite well, and as you wish?EUCLIO(aside.)It isn’t for nothing when a rich man accosts a poor man courteously; now this fellow knows that I’ve got some gold; for that reason he salutes me more courteously.MEGADORUSDo you say that you are well?EUCLIOTroth, I’m not very well in the money line.MEGADORUSI’ faith, if you’ve a contented mind, you have enough to passing a good life with.EUCLIO(aside.)By my faith, the old woman has made a discovery to him about the gold; ’tis clear it’s all out. I’ll cut off her tongue, and tear out her eyes, when I get home.MEGADORUSWhy are you talking to yourself?EUCLIOI’m lamenting my poverty; I’ve a grown-up girl without a portion, and one that can’t be disposed of in marriage; nor have I the ability to marry her to anybody.MEGADORUSHold your peace; be of good courage, Euclio: she shall be given in marriaye; you shall be assisted by myself. Say, if you have need of aught; command me.EUCLIO(aside.)Now is he aiming at my property, while he’s making promises; he’s gaping for my gold, that he may devour it; in the one hand he is carrying a stoneCarrying a stone: To ask for bread, and to receive a stone, was a proverbial expression with the ancients. Erasmus says that it was applied to those who pretended to be friendly to a person, and at the same time were doing him mischief; and that it was borrowed from persons enticing a dog with a piece of bread, and, when it had come sufficiently near, pelting it with a stone. The expression is used in the New Testament. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? St. Luke, c. xi., v. 11. The bread, as we learn from specimens found at Pompeii, was often made into cakes, which somewhat resembled large stones.. while he shows the bread in the other. I trust no person, who, rich himself, is exceedingly courteous to a poor man; when he extends his hand with a kind air, then is he loading you with some damage. I know these polypiThese polypi: Ovid says in his Halieuticon, or Treatise on Fishes: But, on the other hand, the sluggish polypus sticks to the rocks with its body provided with feelers, and by this stratagem it escapes the nets; and, according to the nature of the spot, it assumes and changes its colour, always resembling that place which it has lighted upon; and when it has greedily seized the prey hanging. from the fishing-line, it likewise deceives the angler on his raising the rod, when, on emerging into the air, it loosens its feelers, and spits forth the hook that it has despoiled of the bait., who, when they’ve touched a thing, hold it fast. MEGADORUSGive me your attention, Euclio, for a little time: I wish to address you in a few words, about a common concern of yours and mine.EUCLIO(aside.)Alas! woe is me! my gold has been grabbed from in-doors: now he’s wishing for this thing, I’m sure, to come to a compromise with me; but I’ll go look in my house.(He goes towards his door.)MEGADORUSWhere are you going? EUCLIOI’ll return to you directly, for there’s something I must go and see to at home.(He goes into his house.)MEGADORUSBy my troth, I do believe that when I make mention of his daughter, for him to promise her to me, he’ll suppose that he’s being laughed at by me; nor is there out of the whole class of paupers one more beggarly than he.(EUCLIO returns from his house.)EUCLIO(aside.)The Gods do favour me; my property’s all safe. If nothing’s lost, it’s safe. I was very dreadfully afraid, before I went in-doors! I was almost dead! (Aloud.) I’m come back to you, Megadorus, if you wish to say anything tome.MEGADORUSI return you thanks; I beg that as to what I shall enquire of you, you’ll not hesitate to speak out boldly.EUCLIOSo long, indeed, as you enquire nothing that I mayn’t choose to speak out upon.MEGADORUSTell me, of what sort of family do you consider me to be sprung?EUCLIOOf a good one. MEGADORUSWhat think you as to my character?EUCLIO’Tis a good one. MEGADORUSWhat of my conduct?EUCLIONeither bad nor dishonest. MEGADORUSDo you know my years?