from some person or other.GETAFrom some person or other? Nothing more easily said.DEMIPHOAfter all, if on no other terms, on interest.GETAAye, aye, fine talking; as if any one would have trusted him, while you were living.While you were living. There was a law at Athens which enacted that persons who lent money to young men in the lifetime of their parents should have no power to recover it. In line 303 of the Pseudolus, Plautus alludes to the Quinavicenarian or Laetorian Law, at Rome, which forbade credit to be given to persons under the age of twenty-five years, and deprived the creditor of all right to recover his money or goods. DEMIPHONo, it shall not be so; it must not be. Ought I to allow her to remain with him as his wife a single day? She merits no indulgence. I should like this fellow to be pointed out to me, or to be shown where he lives.GETAPhormio, do you mean?DEMIPHOThat fellow, the woman’s next friend?The woman’s next friend. The patronus was the person who undertook to conduct a lawsuit for another. GETAI’ll have him here immediately.DEMIPHOWhere is Antipho at present?GETAAway from home.DEMIPHOGo, Phedria, look for him, and bring him here.PHAEDRIAI’Il go straightway to the place.GETA(aside.)To Pamphila, you mean.(Exeunt PHAEDRIA and GETA.)DEMIPHO(to himself.)I’ll just step home to salute the house-hold Gods.Salute the household Gods. It was the custom for those returning from a voyage or journey, to give thanks to their household Gods for having protected them in their absence. Thus, in the Amphitryon of Plautus, Jupiter, while personating Amphitryon, pretends, in 1. 983, that he is going to offer sacrifice for his safe return. From there, I’ll go to the Forum, and summon some of my friends to give me their assistance in this affair; so that I may not be unprepared, when Phormio comes.(Goes into his house.)

(Enter PHORMIO and GETA.)PHORMIOAnd so you sayAnd so you say. Donatus tells the following story with reference to this passage: This Play being once rehearsed before Terence and some of his most intimate acquaintances, Ambivius, who acted the part of Phormio, came in drunk, which threw the author into a violent passion; but Ambivius had scarcely repeated a few lines, stammering and scratching his head, before Terence became pacified, declaring that when he was writing these very lines, he had exactly such a Parasite as Ambivius then represented, in his thoughts. that, dreading his father’s presence, he has taken himself off?GETAExactly so.PHORMIOThat Phanium is left alone?GETAJust so.PHORMIOAnd that the old man is in a rage?GETAExtremely so.PHORMIOThe whole business, Phormio, rests on yourself alone; you yourself have hashed it up;Have hashed it up. He is thought to allude here, figuratively, to the composition of a dish called moretum, (in praise of which Virgil wrote a poem,) which was composed of garlic, onions, cheese, eggs, and other ingredients, beaten up in a mortar. The allusion to eating is appropriately used in an address to a Parasite. it must all be swallowed by yourself, so set about it.GETAI entreat you—PHORMIO(to himself.)If he inquires.GETAIn you is all our hope.PHORMIO(to himself.)Look at this, now:—What if he sends her back?GETAIt was you that urged us. PHORMIO(to himself.)I think that will do.GETADo help us.