Chapter 3

(Enter PALAESTRIO from the house of PERIPLECOMENUS.)

PALAESTRIO: (on entering he calls to PLEUSICLES and PERIPLECOMENUS, who are in the house of the latter.) Keep yourselves within doors, yet a moment, Pleusicles. Let me first look out, that there may be no ambush anywhere, against that council which we intend to hold. For now we have need of a safe place from which no enemy can win the spoils of our counsels.

For a well-devised plan is very often filched away, if the place for deliberating has not been chosen with care or with caution; and what is well-advised is ill-advised if it proves of use to the enemy; and if it proves of use to the enemy, it cannot otherwise than prove a detriment to yourself. For if the enemy learn your plans, by your own self-same plans they tie your tongue and bind your hands; and they do the very same to you that you intended to do to them. But I’ll spy about, lest any one, either in this direction on the left or on the right, should come like a huntsman on our counsels with his ears like toils. (Looks about.) Quite vacant is the prospect hence right to the bottom of the street.

I’ll call them out. Hallo! Periplecomenus and Pleusicles, come out!

(Enter PERIPLECOMENUS and PLEUSICLES from the house of the former.)

PERIPLECOMENUS: Behold us here obedient to your call.

PALAESTRIO: The sway is easy over the good. But I wish to know, if we are to carry out the matter on the same plan that we formed within?

PERIPLECOMENUS: Why, in fact there’s nothing can be more conducive to our purpose.

Well, what say you, Pleusicles?

PLEUSICLES: Can that displease me which pleases yourselves? What person is there more my friend than your own self?

PERIPLECOMENUS: You speak kindly and obligingly.

PALAESTRIO: Faith, and so he ought to do.

PLEUSICLES: But this affair shockingly distresses me, and torments my very heart and body.

PERIPLECOMENUS: What is it that torments you? Tell me.

PLEUSICLES: That I should cause childish actions in a person of your years, and that I should require of you deeds that neither become yourself nor your virtues;

and that, with all your might, for my sake you are striving to aid me in my passion, and are doing actions of such a kind, as, when done, these years of yours are wont rather to avoid than follow. I am ashamed that I cause you this trouble in your old age.

PERIPLECOMENUS: You are a person in love after a new fashion. If, in fact, you are ashamed of anything you do, you are nothing of a lover. You are rather the shadow of those who are in love, than a true lover, Pleusicles.

PLEUSICLES: Ought I to employ these years of yours in seconding my love?

PERIPLECOMENUS: How say you? Do I seem to you so very much a subject for Acheron? So much a bier’s-man? Do I seem to you to have had so very long a life? Why, really, I am not more than four-and-fifty years old;

I see clearly with my eyes, I’m ready with my hands, I’m active with my feet.

PALAESTRIO: If he is seen by you to have white hair, he is by no means an old man in mind; in him the natural strength of his mind is unimpaired.

PLEUSICLES: By my troth, for my part, I have found it to be so as you say, Palaestrio; for, in fact, his kindness is quite that of a young man.

PERIPLECOMENUS: Yes, my guest, the more you make trial of it, the more you will know my courtesy towards you in your love.

PLEUSICLES: What need to know what’s known already?

PERIPLECOMENUS: I’ll show you more amiability on my part than I’ll make mention of that you may have instances for proving it at home, and not have to seek it out of doors. For unless one has loved himself, with difficulty he sees into the feelings of one in love.

But I have some little love and moisture in my body still, and not yet am I dried up for the pursuits of merriment and pleasure. Either the merry banterer likewise, or the agreable boon-companion will I be; no interrupter of another am I at a feast. I bear in mind how properly to keep myself from proving disagreable to my fellow-guests;

and how to take a due share with my conversation, and to be silent as well in my turn, when the discourse belongs to another. Far from being a spitter or hawker am I, far from being a dirty-nosed old fellow, too. And never do I take liberties with any person’s mistress when out in company; I don’t snatch up the dainty bits before another, nor take the cup before my turn; nor, through wine, do dissensions ever arise on my account at the convivial board. If there is any one there that is disagreable, I go off home; I cut the parley short. Stretched at my ease, I devote myself to pleasure, love, and mirth. In fine, at Ephesus was I born, not among the Apulians, not at Animula.

PLEUSICLES: O what a most delightful old man, if he possesses the qualities he mentions!

Why, troth, surely now, he was brought up in the very rearing of Venus.

PALAESTRIO: Why, in fact, you will not find another person who is of his years, more accomplished in every respect, or who is more a friend to his friend.

PLEUSICLES: By my troth, your whole manners really do show marks of first-rate breeding. Find me three men of such manners against a like weight in double-distilled gold.

PERIPLECOMENUS: I’ll make you confess that I really am a youngster in my manners; so abounding in kindnesses will I prove myself to you in every respect. Should you have need of an advocate, severe or fierce? I am he. Have you need of one that is gentle? You shall say that I am more gentle than the sea is when hush’d, and something more balmy will I prove than is the Zephyr breeze. In this same person will I display to you either the most jovial boon-companion, or the first-rate trencher-man, and the best of caterers. Then, as for dancing, there is no ballet-master that is so supple as I.

PALAESTRIO: (to PLEUSICLES.) What could you wish added to these accomplishments, if the option were given you?

PLEUSICLES: That thanks could be returned by me to him in degree equal to his deserts, and to yourself, to both of whom I feel that I am now the cause of extreme anxiety. But it is grievous to me to be the cause of so great expense to you.

PERIPLECOMENUS: You are a simpleton. For, if you lay anything out on a bad wife and upon an enemy, that is an expense; that which is laid out on a deserving guest and a friend is gain;

as that, which is expended upon sacred rites, is a profit to the wise man. By the blessing of the Gods, I have enough, with which to receive you with hospitality in my house. Eat, drink, indulge your tastes with me, and surfeit yourself with enjoyments; my house is at your service, myself likewise do I wish to be at your service. For, through the blessing of the Gods, I may say that, by reason of my wealth,

I could have married a dowered wife of the best family; but I don’t choose to introduce an everlasting female barker at me into my house.

PLEUSICLES: Why don’t you choose? For’tis a delightful thing to be the father of children [ liberos].

PERIPLECOMENUS: Troth,’tis very much sweeter by far to be free [ liberum] yourself.

For a good wife, if it is possible for her to be married anywhere on earth, where can I find her? But am I to take one home who is never to say this to me, Buy me some wool, my dear, with which a soft and warm cloak may be made, and good winter under-clothes, that you mayn’t catch cold this winter-weather; such an expression as this you can never hear from a wife, but, before the cocks crow, she awakes me from my sleep, and says, Give me some money, my dear, with which to make my mother a present on the Calends, give me some money to make preserves; give me something to give on the Quinquatrus to the sorceress, to the woman who interprets the dreams, to the prophetess, and to the female diviner;

besides,’tis impossible for me, in civility, not to fee the expiating woman; for long has the mattress-maker been grumbling, because she has received nothing; besides, the midwife found fault with me, that too little had been sent for her. What! arn’t you going to send something to the nurse that brings up the young slaves? It’s a shame if nothing’s sent her; with what a brow she does look at me. These and many other expenses of the women like to these frighten me from a wife, to be uttering speeches to me like to this.

PALAESTRIO: In good sooth, the Gods are propitious to you; for so soon as you lose this liberty, you will not easily reinstate yourself in the same condition.

PLEUSICLES: You are a person who are able to counsel wisely both for another and for yourself. But’tis some merit for a man of noble family and of ample wealth to rear children—a memorial of his race and of himself.

PERIPLECOMENUS: Since I have many relations, what need have I of children? Now I live well and happily, and as I like, and as contents my feelings. For I shall bequeath my property to my relations, and divide it among them. These, like children, pay attentions to me; they come to see how I do, or what I want; before it is daybreak they are with me; they make inquiry how I have enjoyed my sleep in the night.

Them will I have for children who are ever sending presents to me. Are they sacrificing—they give a greater part of it to me than to themselves; they take me home with them to share the entrails; they invite me to their houses to breakfast and to dinner. He thinks himself most unfortunate, who has sent but very little to me. They vie with one another with their presents; I say in a low voice to myself:

They are gaping after my property; while, in their emulation, they are nourishing me and loading me with presents.

PALAESTRIO: Upon right good grounds and right well do you fully understand yourself and your own interests, and if you are happy, sons twofold and threefold have you.

PERIPLECOMENUS: Troth, if I had had them, enough anxiety should I have had from my children.

I should have been everlastingly tormented in mind; but if perchance one had had a fever, I think I should have died. Or if one, in liquor, had tumbled anywhere from his horse, I should have been afraid that he had broken his legs or neck on that occasion.

PALAESTRIO: ’Tis right that riches should come, and that long life should be granted to this man, who both husbands his property and yet enjoys himself and has kind wishes for his friends.

PLEUSICLES: O what a delightful person! So may the Gods and Goddesses prosper me,’twere right the Deities should so ordain that all should not live after one rule as to the duration of life. Just as he who is a trusty market-officer sets their prices on the wares; as that which is good or valuable is sold according to its excellence, and that which is worthless, according to the faultiness of the commodity, deprives its owner of its price;

so were it right that the Gods should portion out the life of man, so as to give to him who is kindly disposed a long life, and speedily to deprive of existence those who are reprobate and wicked. If they had provided this, bad men would both have been fewer, and with less hardihood would they do their wicked deeds; and then, those who were good men, of them there would have been a more plenteous harvest.

PERIPLECOMENUS: He who would blame the ordinances of the Gods must be foolish and ignorant. At present we must at once have an end of these matters; for new I want to go to market, that, my guest, according to your own deserts and mine, I may entertain you hospitably at my house, heartily and with right hearty cheer.

PLEUSICLES: I am content with the expense that I have been to you already. For no guest can be thus hospitably entertained by a friend, but that when he has been there three days running, he must now become a bore; but when he is prolonging his stay for ten successive days, he is a nuisance to the household. Although the master willingly allows it, the servants grumble.

PERIPLECOMENUS: I have trained up the servants that are in my service, my guest, not to rule over me, or for me to be obedient to them. If that is disagreable to them which is agreable to me, I steer my own course; that which they don’t like must still be done at their peril, and whether they like it or no. Now, as I intended, I shall go to market.

PLEUSICLES: If you are resolved, do cater somewhat within bounds, at no great expense; anything is enough for me.

PERIPLECOMENUS: Won’t you now have done with that old-fashioned and antiquated talk? Now surely, guest, you are using the cant of the vulgar. For they are in the habit of saying, when they have taken their places, when dinner is put on table: What necessity was there for you to go to this great expense on out account?

Surely you were mad, for this same dinner was enough for ten persons. What has been provided on their account they find fault with; they eat it up, however.

PALAESTRIO: Troth, in that self-same fashion’tis generally done. How clever and shrewd is his discernment.

PERIPLECOMENUS: But these same persons never say, although such an abundance has been provided, Do order that to be taken off; do take away this dish; remove this gammon of bacon, I’ll have none of it;

put aside that piece of pork; this conger’s good when cold; remove it, take and put it aside. You hear none of them saying this in earnest, but they stretch themselves out, while with half their bodies on the table, they are indulging their appetite.

PALAESTRIO: How cleverly the good soul has described their bad manners.

PERIPLECOMENUS: I have not said a hundredth part of what I could have enlarged upon had there been leisure for the matter.

PALAESTRIO: The business, then, that we are about—to that we ought first to turn our thoughts. Do you both, now, give me your attention. I have need, Periplecomenus, of your assistance; for I have hit upon a pleasant trick, how this Captain with his long locks may be fleeced quite close, and how we may effect a means for Philocomasium, and this her lover, that he may carry her off hence, and have her as his own.

PERIPLECOMENUS: I wish this plan to be imparted to me.

PALAESTRIO: And I, wish that ring of yours to be imparted to me.

PERIPLECOMENUS: For what purpose is it to be used?

PALAESTRIO: When I have got it, I will impart the plan of my devices.

PERIPLECOMENUS: Take and use it. (Gives him the ring.)

PALAESTRIO: Take from me in return the plan of my contrivance that I have hit upon.

PERIPLECOMENUS: We are listening to you with most attentive ear.

PALAESTRIO: My master is such a shocking rake among the women, that I think no one ever was his equal, nor ever will be.

PERIPLECOMENUS: I believe the same as well.

PALAESTRIO: He boasts, too, that his beauty exceeds that of Alexander; and, therefore, he says that all the women in Ephesus of their own accord are courting him.

PERIPLECOMENUS: Aye, faith, many there are who could wish that you were now telling an untruth about him.

But I am convinced full well that it is as you say. For that reason, Palaestrio, do compress your words in as short a compass as ever you possibly can.

PALAESTRIO: Can you, then, find any woman of agreable person, whose mind and body are full of merriment and subtlety?

PERIPLECOMENUS: Free by birth, or bondwoman made free?

PALAESTRIO: I consider that a matter of indifference, so that you find one who is greedy for gain, who supports her body by her charms, who has, too, her senses all awake; as for her heart, that cannot be so, as none of them have one.

PERIPLECOMENUS: Do you want one that has taken her degrees, or one as yet a novice in the art?

PALAESTRIO: One sober but plump, a juicy bit; as taking a one as ever you can find, and one very young.

PERIPLECOMENUS: Why, I have one, a dependant of mine, a courtesan, a very young woman.

But what is the occasion for her?

PALAESTRIO: For you to bring her home at once to your house as your wife, and, for that reason, to bring her there dressed out, so that she may wear her locks with her hair arranged, and fillets after the fashion of matrons, and may pretend that she is your wife; so you must instruct her.

PERIPLECOMENUS: I am at a loss what road you are taking.

PALAESTRIO: Well, you shall know. But what sort of a maid has she?

PERIPLECOMENUS: She is a rare clever one.

PALAESTRIO: We have need of her as well; so give your instructions to the damsel and her maid, to pretend that she is your wife and is doting upon this Captain; and as though she had given this ring to her maid, then she to me, that I might deliver it to the Captain; and I must be as though it were a go-between in this matter.

PERIPLECOMENUS: I hear you; don’t stun my ears as if I were deaf.

PALAESTRIO: I myself will go straightway to him; I’ll say that it has been brought and delivered to me from your wife, in order that I might introduce her to him. He’ll be distractedly longing for her at home, a scoundrel that cares for nothing else whatever but intriguing.

PERIPLECOMENUS: If you had commissioned the Sun himself to search them out, he couldn’t have found, better than myself, two more cleverly suited for this business. Be of good courage about it.

PALAESTRIO: Take you every care then. There is need of despatch.

(Exit PERIPLECOMENUS.)

PALAESTRIO: Now, do you listen, Pleusicles.

PLEUSICLES: I am all attention to you.

PALAESTRIO: Take care of this. When the Captain comes home, do you remember not to call Philocomasium by her name.

PLEUSICLES: What am I to call her?

PALAESTRIO: Glycera.

PLEUSICLES: The same, you mean, that was agreed upon a little time since.

PALAESTRIO: Hush!—Be off.

PLEUSICLES: I’ll remember; but still I don’t know what use it is to keep it in my mind.

PALAESTRIO: But I will tell you, at the time, when occasion shall require. Meanwhile, be quiet; so that, bye and bye, when he too shall be acting his part, you may, on the instant, be minding your cue.

PLEUSICLES: I’ll go in then.

PALAESTRIO: Go, and do take care steadily to follow my instructions.

(PLEUSICLES goes into the house of PERIPLECOMENUS.)

PALAESTRIO: What mighty turmoils I create! What mighty engines I do set to work! This very day I shall take his mistress away from the Captain, if my soldiers are only well drilled. But I’ll call him out. (Goes to the door and calls.) Hallo! Sceledrus, if you are not busy, come out to the front of the house; I, Palaestrio, call you.

(Enter LUCRIO from the CAPTAIN’s house.)

LUCRIO: Sceledrus is not at leisure.

PALAESTRIO: Why so?

LUCRIO: He’s fast asleep, gulping.

PALAESTRIO: How, gulping?

LUCRIO: He’s snoring,’twas that I meant to say:

but, because’tis very like gulping when you are snoring—

PALAESTRIO: What! Is Sceledrus asleep in-doors?

LUCRIO: Not with his nose, in fact; for with that he is calling out loud enough.

PALAESTRIO: He has taken a cup by stealth; the butler has lately tapped a cask of nardine.

Oho! you rascal, you are his deputy-butler. Oho!

LUCRIO: What do you mean?

PALAESTRIO: How has he thought fit to go to sleep?

LUCRIO: With his eyes, I suppose.

PALAESTRIO: I don’t ask you that, you vagabond. Step this way: you’re undone now, unless I know the truth. Did you draw the wine for him?

LUCRIO: I did not draw it.

PALAESTRIO: Do you deny it?

LUCRIO: I’ faith, I do deny it undoubtedly; for he charged me not to tell. I really didn’t just draw for him eight half pints into a pitcher, and, when drawn, he didn’t just drink it hot, at his breakfast.

PALAESTRIO: And you didn’t just drink as well?

LUCRIO: The Gods confound me if I did drink—if I could drink.

PALAESTRIO: Why so?

LUCRIO: Because, in fact, I only sipped;

for it was too hot; it burnt my throat.

PALAESTRIO: Some are gloriously drunk, while others are drinking vinegar-water. The cellar’s trusted to an honest butler, as well as under-butler.

LUCRIO: I’ faith, you’d be doing the same, if it was entrusted to you.

Since you can’t follow our example, you are envious now.

PALAESTRIO: Come, now, did he ever draw any wine before this? Answer me, you rascal. And, that you may understand it, I give you this notice: if you purposely tell me an untruth, you shall be put to the torture.

LUCRIO: Indeed so? That you may inform, forsooth, that I told you;

and then I shall be turned out of my fattening post in the cellar, that you may find another under-butler to draw for your own self.

PALAESTRIO: On my honour, I will not; come, speak out boldly to me.

LUCRIO: By my troth, I never saw him draw any. But thus was it; he requested me, and then I drew it.

PALAESTRIO: Think of that now! very frequently, I guess, the casks were standing on their heads there.

LUCRIO: No, faith, the casks would not have stood so very badly there. But there happened to be in the cellar a bit of a slippery spot; a two-pint pot was placed there, near the casks, in this fashion (shows the way.) Frequently, that was filled ten times in a day.

When the pot acted the reveller, the casks were all tottering.

PALAESTRIO: Get you gone in-doors. Both of you, I find, are acting the revellers in the wine-cellar. I’ faith, I shall fetch my master home just now from the Forum.

LUCRIO: (aside.) I’m ruined. My master, when he comes home, will have me tortured, when he knows of these doings. I’ faith, I’ll fly somewhither, and put off this punishment to another day. (To the AUDIENCE.) don’t you tell him, I do entreat you most earnestly.

(He is going.)

PALAESTRIO: Whither are you betaking yourself?

LUCRIO: I am sent elsewhere: I’ll come back here just now.

PALAESTRIO: Who has sent you?

LUCRIO: Philocomasium.

PALAESTRIO: Go; be back directly.

LUCRIO: If it is divided, prithee do you only take my share of the punishment while I’m away.

(Exit LUCRIO.)

(PALAESTRIO, alone.)

PALAESTRIO: So—I understand what scheme the lady is upon. Because Sceledrus is asleep, she has sent her under-keeper away out of doors, whilst she may pass from our house to next door. That’s all right.

(Looks down the street.) But Periplecomenus is bringing here a woman of very comely appearance, her, for whom I commissioned him. By my faith, the Gods are helping us in this matter. How becomingly drest she struts along, not like a Courtesan. This business is prospering charmingly in our hands.

(Stands aside.)

(Enter PERIPLECOMENUS, with ACROTELEUTIUM and MILPHIDIPPA.)

PERIPLECOMENUS: (as he advances.) I have explained the whole affair, Acroteleutium, to you, and, Milphidippa, to you as well.

If you don’t well understand this device and plan, I wish you to hear it all over again. If you comprehend it aright, there is something else that we may speak of in preference.

ACROTELEUTIUM: I’ faith, it would be folly, and ignorance, and foolishness, for me to engage in the service of another, or to promise you my assistance, if, in its fabrication, I did not know how to be either mischievous or clever at deceiving.

PERIPLECOMENUS: But,’tis better for you to be instructed.

ACROTELEUTIUM: Really I don’t understand of what great use it is for a Courtesan to be instructed. How now! have I told you all in vain, after my ears had drunk in the draughts of your discourse, in what fashion it was possible for the Captain to be cajoled?

PERIPLECOMENUS: But no one, unaided, is sufficiently perfect; for full oft have I seen many a person lose the road to good advice before they had found it.

ACROTELEUTIUM: If a woman has anything to do mischievously and maliciously, in that case her memory is immortal at remembering it for everlasting; but if anything is to be done for a good purpose, or honestly, it will fall out that those same women will become oblivious that instant, and be unable to remember.

PERIPLECOMENUS: Therefore do I fear that same, because both those things happen to be about to be done by us; for that will be a benefit to me in which you both will be acting mischievously towards the Captain.

ACROTELEUTIUM: So long as we do anything that’s good, not knowing it, don’t you fear. No woman is awkward Have no apprehensions, they are ready for the worst.

PERIPLECOMENUS: So it befits you. Do you follow me.

PALAESTRIO: (advancing.) Why do I hesitate to go and accost them?

PERIPLECOMENUS: Well met, and opportunely, Palaestrio. See, here they are whom you commissioned me to bring, and in the very dress.

PALAESTRIO: Well done: accept my thanks.

I am glad that you have come safe. I’ faith, you bring them nicely dressed.

Palaestrio salutes Acroteleutium.

ACROTELEUTIUM: Prithee, who’s this, that calls me so familiarly by name?

PERIPLECOMENUS: This is our master-plotter.

ACROTELEUTIUM: Health to you, master-plotter.

PALAESTRIO: And health to you. But, tell me, has he any way given you full instructions?

PERIPLECOMENUS: I bring them both thoroughly prepared.

PALAESTRIO: I’d like to hear how. I’m afraid lest you should be making some mistake.

PERIPLECOMENUS: I have added to your instructions nothing new of my own.

ACROTELEUTIUM: I suppose you wish the Captain, your master, to be gulled.

PALAESTRIO: You’ve said what’s true.

ACROTELEUTIUM: Cleverly and skilfully, adroitly and pleasantly, the whole thing is planned.

PALAESTRIO: In fact, I wish you to pretend to be his wife.

(Points to PERIPLECOMENUS.)

ACROTELEUTIUM: That shall be done.

PALAESTRIO: To pretend as though you had set your affection on the Captain.

ACROTELEUTIUM: And so it shall be.

PALAESTRIO: And as though this affair is managed through me, as the go-between, and your servant-maid.

ACROTELEUTIUM: You might have made a good prophet; for you tell what is to be.

PALAESTRIO: As though this maid of yours had conveyed from you this ring to me, which I was then to deliver to the Captain, in your name.

ACROTELEUTIUM: You say what’s true.

PERIPLECOMENUS: What need is there to mention these things now, which they remember so well?

ACROTELEUTIUM: Still, it is better.

For think of this, my patron; when the shipwright is skilful, if he has once laid down the keel exact to its lines,’tis easy to build the ship, when Now this keel of ours has been skilfully laid and firmly placed; the workmen and the master-builders are not unskilled in this business.

If he who furnishes the timber does not retard us in giving what is needed, I know the adroitness of our ingenuity—soon will the ship be got ready.

PALAESTRIO: You know the Captain, my master, then?

ACROTELEUTIUM: ’Tis strange you should ask me. How could I not know that scorn of the public, that swaggering, frizzle-headed, perfumed debauchee?

PALAESTRIO: But does he know you?

ACROTELEUTIUM: He never saw me: how, then, should he know who I am?

PALAESTRIO: ’Tis most excellent what you say. For that reason, i’ faith, the thing will be able to be managed all the more cleverly.

ACROTELEUTIUM: Can you only find me the man, and then be easy as to the rest? If I don’t make a fool of the fellow, do you lay all the blame on me.

PALAESTRIO: Well, go you in then; apply yourselves to this business with all your skill.

ACROTELEUTIUM: Trust me for that.

PALAESTRIO: Come, Periplecomenus, do you conduct them at once in-doors. I’m off to the Forum; I’ll meet him, and give him this ring, and will tell him that it has been delivered to me from your wife, and that she is dying for him. As soon as we shall have come from the Forum, do you send her (points to MILPHIDIPPA) to our house as though she were privately sent to him.

PERIPLECOMENUS: We’ll do so; trust us for that.

PALAESTRIO: Do you only attend to the business; I’ll now polish him off with a pretty burden on his back.

(Exit.)

PERIPLECOMENUS: Go, with good luck to you, manage the matter cleverly. (To ACROTELEUTIUM.) But now, if I shall manage this adroitly, that my guest can this day gain the mistress of the Captain, and carry her off hence to Athens; if, I say, this day we shall succeed in this plan, what shall I give you for a present?

ACROTELEUTIUM: If now the lady seconds our efforts on her part,

I think it will be right cleverly and adroitly managed.

When a comparison shall be made of our artifices, I have no fear that I shall not prove superior in the cleverness of my contrivances.

PERIPLECOMENUS: Let’s go in-doors, then, that we may deeply weigh these plans, that carefully and cautiously we may carry out what is to be done, so that, when the Captain comes, there may be no tripping.

ACROTELEUTIUM: You are delaying us with your talk.

(They go into the house of PERIPLECOMENUS.)