Act II, Scene II

Enter PAMPHILUS.

PAM. I espy Charinus. (Accosting him.) Good-morrow!

CHAR. O, good-morrow. Pamphilus, I’m come to you, seeking hope, safety, counsel, and assistance.

PAM. I’faith, I have neither time for counsel, nor resources for assistance. But what’s the matter now?

CHAR. To-day you are going to take a wife?

PAM. So they say.

CHAR. Pamphilus, if you do that, you behold me this day for the last time.

PAM. Why so?

CHAR. Ah me! I dread to tell it; prithee, do you tell it, Byrrhia.

BYR. I’ll tell it.

PAM. What is it?

BYR. He’s in love with your betrothed.

PAM. Assuredly he’s not of my way of thinking. Come now, tell me, have you had any more to do with her, Charinus?

CHAR. Oh Pamphilus, nothing.

PAM. How much I wish you had.

CHAR. Now, by our friendship and by my affection, I do beseech you, in the first place, not to marry her.

PAM. For my own part I’ll use my endeavors.

CHAR. But if that can not be, or if this marriage is agreeable to you--

PAM. Agreeable to me?

CHAR. Put it off for some days at least, while I go elsewhere, that I may not be witness.

PAM. Now 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.

CHAR. You have restored me to life.

PAM. Now, 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.

CHAR. I am satisfied.

PAM. Most opportunely I perceive Davus, on whose advice I have depended.

CHAR. (turning to BYRRHIA.) But you, i’faith, tell me nothing, except those things which there is no need for knowing. (Pushing him away.) Get you gone from here.

BYR. Certainly I will, and with all my heart. (Exit.