The Brothers: Act the Fifth: Scene II
SYRUS. Oh Sir! your brother has dispatch'd me to youTo beg you'd not go further off.
DEM. Who's there?----What, honest Syrus! save you: how is't with you?How goes it?SYRUS. Very well, Sir.
DEM. (aside.) Excellent!Now for the first time, I, against my nature,Have added these three phrases, "Honest Syrus!----How is't?--How goes it?"-- (To SYRUS.) You have prov'd yourselfA worthy servant. I'll reward you for it.
SYRUS. I thank you, Sir.
DEM. I will, I promise you;And you shall be convinc'd on't very soon.
Words in this poem
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
- 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
The Brothers: Act the Fifth: Scene II 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, The Brothers: Act the Fifth: Scene II, in The Comedies of Terence (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/terence-comedies/the-brothers-act-the-fifth-scene-ii.html, id L25850.
Form and metre
The Brothers: Act the Fifth: Scene II is 14 lines in 5 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| SYRUS. Oh Sir! your brother has dispatch'd me to you | 13 | ·····/˘·˘/··· |
| To beg you'd not go further off. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| DEM. Who's there?---- | 3 | ··· |
| What, honest Syrus! save you: how is't with you? | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| How goes it? | 3 | ··· |
| SYRUS. Very well, Sir. | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| DEM. (aside.) Excellent! | 6 | ·˘//˘˘ |
| Now for the first time, I, against my nature, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Have added these three phrases, "Honest Syrus!---- | 11 | ·/˘··/˘/˘·· |
| How is't?--How goes it?"-- (To SYRUS.) You have prov'd yourself | 13 | ···········˘/ |
| A worthy servant. I'll reward you for it. | 11 | ·/˘/˘·˘/··· |
| SYRUS. I thank you, Sir. | 6 | ······ |
| DEM. I will, I promise you; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And you shall be convinc'd on't very soon. | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
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.