The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene II
It were not goodThat I should follow him into the house:For all our family are odious to them.That's plain from their denying SostrataAdmittance yesterday.--And if by chanceHer illness should increase (which Heav'n forbid,For my poor master's sake!), they'll cry directly,"Sostrata's servant came into the house:"Swear,--"that I brought the plague along with me,Put all their lives in danger, and increas'dPhilumena's distemper."--By which meansMy mistress will be blam'd, and I be beaten.
Words in this poem
- admittance n.
- The act of admitting.
- illness n.
- The condition of being ill, evil, or bad; badness; unfavorableness. [From Ill.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Step-Mother: Act the Third: 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 Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene II, in The Comedies of Terence (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/terence-comedies/the-step-mother-act-the-third-scene-ii.html, id L25863.
Form and metre
The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene II is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 AB---A-B---- goodA · houseB · them · sostrata · chance · forbidA · directly · houseB · me · increas'd · means · beaten
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 |
|---|---|---|
| It were not good | 4 | ···· |
| That I should follow him into the house: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For all our family are odious to them. | 10 | ··//˘·/˘·· |
| That's plain from their denying Sostrata | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Admittance yesterday.--And if by chance | 10 | ˘/˘/˘····· |
| Her illness should increase (which Heav'n forbid, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| For my poor master's sake!), they'll cry directly, | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| "Sostrata's servant came into the house:" | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Swear,--"that I brought the plague along with me, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Put all their lives in danger, and increas'd | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Philumena's distemper."--By which means | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| My mistress will be blam'd, and I be beaten. | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
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.