Phormio: Act the First: Scene I
Geta, my worthy friend and countryman,Came to me yesterday: for some time pastI've ow'd him some small balance of account:This he desir'd I would make up: I have;And brought it with me: for his master's son,I am inform'd, has lately got a wife:So I suppose this sum is scrap'd togetherFor a bride-gift. Alack, how hard it isThat he, who is already poor, should stillThrow in his mite to swell the rich man's heap!What he scarce, ounce by ounce, from short allowance,Sorely defrauding his own appetite,Has spar'd, poor wretch! shall she sweep all at once,Unheeding with what labor it was got?Geta, moreover, shall be struck for more;Another gift, when madam's brought to bed;Another too, when master's birthday's kept,And they initiate him.----All this mammaShall carry off, the bantling her excuse.But is that Geta?
Words in this poem
- alack interj.
- An exclamation expressive of sorrow. [Prob. from ah! lack! OE. lak loss, failure, misfortune. See Lack.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- sorely adv.
- In a sore manner; grievously; painfully; as, to be sorely afflicted.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- initiate a.
- Unpracticed; untried; new. [L. initiatus, p. p.]
- bantling n.
- A young or small child; an infant. [Slightly contemptuous or depreciatory.] [Prob. for bandling, from band, and meaning a child wrapped in swaddling bands; or cf. G. bäntling a bastard, fr. bank bench. Cf. Bastard, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Phormio: Act the First: Scene I is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Comedies of Terence, Project Gutenberg ebook #22695; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Terence, Phormio: Act the First: Scene I, in The Comedies of Terence (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/terence-comedies/phormio-act-the-first-scene-i.html, id L25886.
Form and metre
Phormio: Act the First: Scene I is 20 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A---A-----B-B------- countrymanA · past · account · have · sonA · wife · together · is · still · heap · allowanceB · appetite · onceB · got · more · bed · kept · mamma · excuse · geta
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Geta, my worthy friend and countryman, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Came to me yesterday: for some time past | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I've ow'd him some small balance of account: | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| This he desir'd I would make up: I have; | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And brought it with me: for his master's son, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I am inform'd, has lately got a wife: | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| So I suppose this sum is scrap'd together | 11 | ··˘/····˘/˘ |
| For a bride-gift. Alack, how hard it is | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| That he, who is already poor, should still | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Throw in his mite to swell the rich man's heap! | 10 | ·········· |
| What he scarce, ounce by ounce, from short allowance, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Sorely defrauding his own appetite, | 10 | /˘˘/˘··/˘· |
| Has spar'd, poor wretch! shall she sweep all at once, | 10 | ·········· |
| Unheeding with what labor it was got? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Geta, moreover, shall be struck for more; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Another gift, when madam's brought to bed; | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Another too, when master's birthday's kept, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘/·· |
| And they initiate him.----All this mamma | 11 | ··˘/˘····/˘ |
| Shall carry off, the bantling her excuse. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| But is that Geta? | 5 | ····· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.