The Eunuch: Act the Third: Scene IV
PYTH. Thais begs and praysYou'd come again to-morrow.
CHRE. I am goingInto the country.PYTH. Nay, now prithee come?
CHRE. I can't, I tell you.
PYTH. Walk in, then, and stayTill she returns herself.
PYTH. And why,Dear Chremes?CHRE. Go, and hang yourself!
PYTH. Well, Sir,Since you're so positive, shall I entreat youTo go to her?
CHRE. I will.
PYTH. Here, Dorias! (A maid-servant enters.)Conduct this gentleman to Captain Thraso's.
HarperCHRE. Go, and hang yourself!Colman 1768
Words in this poem
- prithee interj.
- A corruption of pray thee; as, I prithee; generally used without I.
- 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,]
- entreat v. t.
- To treat, or conduct toward; to deal with; to use. [OE. entreten to treat, request, OF. entraiter to treat of; pref. en- (L. in) + traitier to treat. See Treat.]
- 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 Third: Scene IV 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 Third: Scene IV, in The Comedies of Terence (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/terence-comedies/the-eunuch-act-the-third-scene-iv.html, id L25765.
Form and metre
The Eunuch: Act the Third: Scene IV is 20 lines in 9 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.
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.
- 6 A-A sirA · you · herA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| PYTH. Thais begs and prays | 5 | ····· |
| You'd come again to-morrow. | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| CHRE. I am going | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Into the country. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| PYTH. Nay, now prithee come? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| CHRE. I can't, I tell you. | 6 | ······ |
| PYTH. Walk in, then, and stay | 6 | ······ |
| Till she returns herself. | 6 | ··˘/˘/ |
| PYTH. And why, | 3 | ··· |
| Dear Chremes? | 2 | ·· |
| CHRE. Go, and hang yourself! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| PYTH. Well, Sir, | 3 | ··· |
| Since you're so positive, shall I entreat you | 10 | ···/˘··˘/· |
| To go to her? | 4 | ···· |
| CHRE. I will. | 3 | ··· |
| PYTH. Here, Dorias! (A maid-servant enters.) | 11 | ··/˘˘··/˘/˘ |
| Conduct this gentleman to Captain Thraso's. | 10 | ˘/·/˘·/˘·· |
| Harper | 2 | /˘ |
| CHRE. Go, and hang yourself! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Colman 1768 | 2 | /˘ |
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.