You are a bad one. MILPHIO I am a bad one. SYNCERASTUS It goes but badly with me. MILPHIO Just tell me, then; you ought to be in quite other plight. Why is it that it goes badly with you, who have at home in superabundance what to eat, and what to drink? You don’t give a single three-obol piece away to a mistress, and have her for nothing. SYNCERASTUS May Jupiter so love me— MILPHIO I’ faith, in the degree that you deserve, to wit. SYNCERASTUS How I do long for this family to come to ruin. MILPHIO If you long for it, lend your aid. SYNCERASTUS Without feathers it isn’t easy to fly: my wings have got no feathers. MILPHIO Troth, then, don’t pluck out any hairs; then, in the next two months, your arm-pits will be fit for flying. SYNCERASTUS Away to utter perdition! MILPHIO Away yourself, and your master! SYNCERASTUS But, really, if a person knew him well, the fellow might soon be ruined. MILPHIO Why so? SYNCERASTUS Just as though you could be silent on any matter. MILPHIO I’ll keep the matter more strictly secret for you than that which has been told to a dumb woman. SYNCERASTUS I could easily bring my mind to believe you there, if I did not know you. MILPHIO Trust me boldly at my own peril. SYNCERASTUS I shall trust you to my cost, and still I will trust you. MILPHIO Don’t you know that your master is a mortal enemy of my master? SYNCERASTUS I know it. MILPHIO By reason of the love affair? SYNCERASTUS You are losing all your pains. MILPHIO Why so? SYNCERASTUS Because you are teaching one that has been taught. MILPHIO Why, then, do you doubt that my master will do a mischief to your master with pleasure, so far as he can do, with his deserving it? Then besides, if you lend some assistance, on that account he’ll be able to do it the more easily. SYNCERASTUS But I’m afraid of this, Milphio— MILPHIO What is it that you’re afraid of? SYNCERASTUS That while I’m preparing the plot against my master, I may be betrayed by yourself. If my master knows that I’ve been talking to any individual, he’ll forthwith be making me from Syncerastus into Brokenlegs Brokenlegs : Crucifragium; a word coined for the occasion .