Already have I lived far longer than I could have wished.’Twere much better now to have once existed than to be living still. That any pupil should thus threaten his tutor!PISTOCLERUS My years are now advanced beyond your tutorship.LYDUS I want no pupils for me with heated bloodWith heated blood: Plenus sanguinis. Literally, full of blood..An up-grown one may harass me thus devoid of strength.PISTOCLERUS As I guess, I shall become a Hercules, and you a LinusYou a Linus: Linus instructed Hercules in music, and was slain by his scholar with his musical instrument..LYDUS I’ faith, I fear more that through your goings-on I shall become a PhœnixBecome a Phœnix: Phœnix was the preceptor who attended Achilles to the Siege of Troy, and brought the account of his death to his father Peleus., and have to tell the news to your father that you are dead.PISTOCLERUS Enough of these stories. LYDUS This youth is lost to shameIs lost to shame: Hic vereri perdidit. Literally, He has lost how to be ashamed.;the man’s ruined. And does it then recur to you that you have a father?PISTOCLERUS Am I your servant, or you mine?LYDUS By my troth, you made an exchange not desirable for that age of yours, when you gained these impudent ways. Some bad master has been teaching you all this, not I. You are a scholar far more apt at these pursuits than at those lessons which I taught you when I was losing my labour. Troth, ’twas a bad piece of deceit you were guilty of at your age, when you concealed these vicious tendencies from myself and from your father.PISTOCLERUS Lydus, you have thus far had liberty of speech; that is enough. So now do you follow this way, and hold your tongueHold your tongue: The interval between this Act and the next is filled up with the time necessary for preparing the entertainment which Pistoclerus is giving to Bacchis and her sister..(They go into the house of BACCHIS.)

(Enter CHRYSALUS.)CHRYSALUS All hail, land of my master! which I joyfully behold after the two years that I have been absent hence at Ephesus. I salute thee, neighbour ApolloNeighbour Apollo: He is supposed to refer to Apollo Prostitorus, whose statue was placed in the vestibule of the houses, and to whom the Athenians paid veneration as the tutelar God of their habitations., who dost have thy shrine close by our house, and to thee do I make my prayer, that thou wilt not let me meet our old gentleman, Nicobulus, before I have seenPistoclerus, the friend of Mnesilochus, him to whom Mnesilochus has sent the letter about his mistress, Bacchis.

(Enter PISTOCLERUS from the house of BACCHIS.)PISTOCLERUS(to the FIRST BACCHIS within.)’Tis strange that you are so earnestly begging me to return, who am able by no possible means to depart hence, if I were willing,so bound downSo bound down: Vadatus was a term properly applied to a person bound under a penalty as surety for another., and so enchained with love do you hold me.CHRYSALUS O, ye immortal Gods, I espy Pistoclerus! O, Pistoclerus, hail!PISTOCLERUS Hail, Chrysalus, to you! CHRYSALUS I will at present compress many speeches for you in a small space. You are glad that I am come; I give you credit for it. You promise me lodging and an entertainment coming from my journey, as it is befitting, and I agree to come. I bring you the sincere greetings of your friend. Would you ask me where he is? He’s come.PISTOCLERUS Is he alive and well? CHRYSALUS That I was wishful to enquire of yourself.PISTOCLERUS How can I know? CHRYSALUS No one better.PISTOCLERUS Why, in what way?