To-day you are going to take a wife?PAMPHILUSSo they say.CHARINUSPamphilus, if you do that, you behold me this day for the last time.PAMPHILUSWhy soCHARINUSAh me! I dread to tell it; prithee, do you tell it, Byrrhia.BYRRHIAI’ll tell it.PAMPHILUSWhat is it?BYRRHIAHe’s in love with your betrothed.PAMPHILUSAssuredly he’s not of my way of thinking. Come now, tell me, have you had any more to do with her, Charinus?CHARINUSOh Pamphilus, nothing.PAMPHILUSHow much I wish you had.CHARINUSNow, by our friendship and by my affection, I do beseech you, in the first place, not to marry her.PAMPHILUSFor my own part I’ll use my endeavors.CHARINUSBut if that can not be, or if this marriage is agreeable to you—PAMPHILUSAgreeable to me?CHARINUSPut it off for some days at least, while I go elsewhere, that I may not be witness.PAMPHILUSNow listen, once for all: I think it, Charinus, to be by no means the part of an ingenuous man, when he confers nothing, to expect that it should be considered as an obligation on his part. I am more desirous to avoid this match, than you to gain it.CHARINUSYou have restored me to life.PAMPHILUSNow, if you can do any thing, either you yourself, or Byrrhia here, manage, fabricate, invent, contrive some means, whereby she may be given to you; this I shall aim at, how she may not be given to me.CHARINUSI am satisfied.PAMPHILUSMost opportunely I perceive Davus, on whose advice I have depended.CHARINUS(turning to BYRRHIA.)But you, i’faith, tell me nothing,Tell me nothing: It has been suggested that this refers to Byrrhia’s dissuading his master from addressing Pamphilus, or else to what he has told him concerning the intended marriage. Westerhovius thinks that Byrrhia is just then whispering some trifling nonsense in his master’s ear, which he, occupied with more important cares, is unwilling to attend to. except those things which there is no need for knowing. (Pushing him away.) Get you gone from here.BYRRHIACertainly I will, and with all my heart. (Exit.)

(Enter DAVUS in haste.)DAVUS(not seeing PAMPHILUS and CHARINUS.)Ye gracious Gods, what good news I bring! But where shall I find Pamphilus, that I may remove the apprehension in which he now is, and fill his mind with joy—?CHARINUS(apart to PAMPHILUS.)He’s rejoiced about something, I don’t know what.PAMPHILUS(apart.)It’s of no consequence; he hasn’t yet heard of these misfortunes.DAVUS(to himself.)For I do believe now, if he has already heard that a marriage is prepared for him—