The Self-Tormentor: Act the Fourth: Scene IV
SYRUS. ConductAll Bacchis' maids to your house instantly.
SYRUS. No questions: let them carry overAll they brought hither. Our old gentlemanWill think himself reliev'd from much expenseBy their departure. Troth, he little knowsWith how much loss this small gain threatens him.If you're wise, Dromo, know not what you know.
(Exit DROMO, with BACCHIS' servants and baggage, into the house ofMENEDEMUS.
Words in this poem
- departure n.
- Division; separation; putting away. [From Depart.]
- troth n.
- Belief; faith; fidelity. [A variant of truth. See Truth.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Self-Tormentor: Act the Fourth: 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 Self-Tormentor: Act the Fourth: Scene IV, in The Comedies of Terence (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/terence-comedies/the-self-tormentor-act-the-fourth-scene-iv.html, id L25804.
Form and metre
The Self-Tormentor: Act the Fourth: Scene IV is 10 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
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. Conduct | 4 | ··˘/ |
| All Bacchis' maids to your house instantly. | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| SYRUS. No questions: let them carry over | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| All they brought hither. Our old gentleman | 11 | ···/˘/˘·/˘˘ |
| Will think himself reliev'd from much expense | 10 | ··˘/˘/··˘/ |
| By their departure. Troth, he little knows | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| With how much loss this small gain threatens him. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| If you're wise, Dromo, know not what you know. | 10 | ·········· |
| (Exit DROMO, with BACCHIS' servants and baggage, into the house of | 17 | /˘·····/˘·/˘····· |
| MENEDEMUS. | 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.