Phormio: Act the Fourth: Scene VII
PHOR. (to himself). I've receiv'd the money;Paid the procurer; carried off the wench;Who's free, and now in Phaedria's possession.One thing alone remains to be dispatch'd;To get a respite from th' old gentlemenTo tipple some few days, which I must spendIn mirth and jollity.
ANT. But yonder's Phormio.-- (Goes up.)What now?
ANT. What's Phaedria about?How does he mean to take his fill of love?PHOR. By acting your part in his turn.
PHOR. Flying his father's presence.--And he begsThat you'd act his, and make excuses for him;For he intends a drinking-bout with me.I shall pretend to the old gentlemenThat I am going to the fair at Sunium,To buy the servant-maid that Geta mention'd:Lest, finding I am absent, they suspectThat I am squandering the sum they paid me.--But your door opens.ANT. Who comes here?
Words in this poem
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Phormio: Act the Fourth: Scene VII 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 Fourth: Scene VII, in The Comedies of Terence (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/terence-comedies/phormio-act-the-fourth-scene-vii.html, id L25911.
Form and metre
Phormio: Act the Fourth: Scene VII is 22 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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.
- 4 --A----A-- begs · him · meA · gentlemen · sunium · mention'd · suspect · meA · opens · here
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 |
|---|---|---|
| PHOR. (to himself). I've receiv'd the money; | 10 | ··˘/·˘/·/˘ |
| Paid the procurer; carried off the wench; | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Who's free, and now in Phaedria's possession. | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| One thing alone remains to be dispatch'd; | 10 | ··˘/˘/··˘/ |
| To get a respite from th' old gentlemen | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| To tipple some few days, which I must spend | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| In mirth and jollity. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| ANT. But yonder's Phormio.-- (Goes up.) | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| What now? | 2 | ·· |
| ANT. What's Phaedria about? | 6 | ······ |
| How does he mean to take his fill of love? | 10 | ·········· |
| PHOR. By acting your part in his turn. | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| PHOR. Flying his father's presence.--And he begs | 11 | ·/˘·/˘/˘··· |
| That you'd act his, and make excuses for him; | 11 | ······˘/˘·· |
| For he intends a drinking-bout with me. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| I shall pretend to the old gentlemen | 10 | ··˘/···/˘˘ |
| That I am going to the fair at Sunium, | 10 | ···/······ |
| To buy the servant-maid that Geta mention'd: | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Lest, finding I am absent, they suspect | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| That I am squandering the sum they paid me. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| --But your door opens. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| ANT. Who comes here? | 4 | ···· |
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.