The Eunuch: Act the Second: Scene II. Labeled Scene III in 1768 Edition (See End of Scene I)
HarperHe was in a most wretched trim; his looksColman 1768Seeing him in a wretched trim; his looks
But mine's a new profession; I the firstHarper edition prints "But mine 's" with anomalous spacing
Harper(Who once did profit and still profit by me,)Colman 1768(Who, while my means were ample, profited,
Words in this poem
- harper n.
- A player on the harp; a minstrel. [AS. hearpere.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Eunuch: Act the Second: Scene II. Labeled Scene III in 1768 Edition (See End of 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, The Eunuch: Act the Second: Scene II. Labeled Scene III in 1768 Edition (See End of Scene I), in The Comedies of Terence (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/terence-comedies/the-eunuch-act-the-second-scene-ii-labeled-scene-iii-in-1768.html, id L25759.
Form and metre
The Eunuch: Act the Second: Scene II. Labeled Scene III in 1768 Edition (See End of Scene I) is 10 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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 harper · looksA · — · looksA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Harper | 2 | /˘ |
| He was in a most wretched trim; his looks | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Colman 1768 | 2 | /˘ |
| Seeing him in a wretched trim; his looks | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| But mine's a new profession; I the first | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Harper edition prints "But mine 's" with anomalous spacing | 15 | /˘˘/˘·····˘/˘/˘ |
| Harper | 2 | /˘ |
| (Who once did profit and still profit by me,) | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| Colman 1768 | 2 | /˘ |
| (Who, while my means were ample, profited, | 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.