The Brothers: Act the Fourth: Scene VII
How's this?Is this to be a father? Or is thisTo be a son?--Were he my friend or brother,Could he be more complacent to my wish?Should I not love him? bear him in my bosom!Ah! his great kindness has so wrought upon me,That it shall be the study of my lifeTo shun all follies, lest they give him pain.--But I'll in straight, that I may not retardMy marriage by my own delay. (Exit.
Harper--But I'll in straight, that I may not retardMy marriage by my own delay.Colman 1768But wherefore do I loiter here, and thusRetard my marriage by my own delay?
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,]
- harper n.
- A player on the harp; a minstrel. [AS. hearpere.]
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Brothers: 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, The Brothers: Act the Fourth: Scene VII, in The Comedies of Terence (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/terence-comedies/the-brothers-act-the-fourth-scene-vii.html, id L25841.
Form and metre
The Brothers: Act the Fourth: Scene VII is 16 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 AA-------- thisA · thisA · brother · wish · bosom · me · life · pain · retard · exit
- 2 --A--A harper · retard · delayA · — · thus · delayA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How's this? | 2 | ·· |
| Is this to be a father? Or is this | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To be a son?--Were he my friend or brother, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Could he be more complacent to my wish? | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Should I not love him? bear him in my bosom! | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Ah! his great kindness has so wrought upon me, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| That it shall be the study of my life | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To shun all follies, lest they give him pain. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| --But I'll in straight, that I may not retard | 10 | ········˘/ |
| My marriage by my own delay. (Exit. | 10 | ·/˘···˘//˘ |
| Harper | 2 | /˘ |
| --But I'll in straight, that I may not retard | 10 | ········˘/ |
| My marriage by my own delay. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Colman 1768 | 2 | /˘ |
| But wherefore do I loiter here, and thus | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Retard my marriage by my own delay? | 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.