The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene III
SOSTRA. Alas, I hear a dreadful noise within.Philumena, I fear, grows worse and worse:Which AEsculapius, and thou, Health, forbid!But now I'll visit her. (Goes toward the house.)PAR. You'll be shut out a second time.
SOSTRA. Ha, Parmeno, are you there?--Wretched woman!What shall I do?--Not visit my son's wife,When she lies sick at next door!
PAR. Do not go;No, nor send any body else; for theyThat love the folks, to whom themselves are odious,I think are guilty of a double folly:Their labor proves but idle to themselves,And troublesome to those for whom 'tis meant.Besides, your son, the moment he arriv'd,Went in to visit her.
SOSTRA. How, Parmeno!Is Pamphilus arriv'd?
SOSTRA. Thank Heav'n!Oh, how my comfort is reviv'd by that!
PAR. And therefore I ne'er went into the house.For if Philumena's complaints abate,She'll tell him, face to face, the whole affair,And what has pass'd between you to createThis difference.--But here he comes--how sad!
Words in this poem
- dreadful a.
- Full of dread or terror; fearful.
- 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,]
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene III 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 III, 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-iii.html, id L25864.
Form and metre
The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene III is 25 lines in 6 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.
- 6 -A-A- house · abateA · affair · createA · sad
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 |
|---|---|---|
| SOSTRA. Alas, I hear a dreadful noise within. | 12 | ··˘/···/˘··· |
| Philumena, I fear, grows worse and worse: | 10 | ·········· |
| Which AEsculapius, and thou, Health, forbid! | 10 | ········˘/ |
| But now I'll visit her. (Goes toward the house.) | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| PAR. You'll be shut out a second time. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| SOSTRA. Ha, Parmeno, are you there?--Wretched woman! | 13 | ·········/˘/˘ |
| What shall I do?--Not visit my son's wife, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When she lies sick at next door! | 7 | ······· |
| PAR. Do not go; | 4 | ···· |
| No, nor send any body else; for they | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| That love the folks, to whom themselves are odious, | 11 | ······˘/·/˘ |
| I think are guilty of a double folly: | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Their labor proves but idle to themselves, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| And troublesome to those for whom 'tis meant. | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Besides, your son, the moment he arriv'd, | 10 | ˘/···/˘·˘/ |
| Went in to visit her. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| SOSTRA. How, Parmeno! | 6 | ······ |
| Is Pamphilus arriv'd? | 6 | ····˘/ |
| SOSTRA. Thank Heav'n! | 4 | ···· |
| Oh, how my comfort is reviv'd by that! | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| PAR. And therefore I ne'er went into the house. | 11 | ··········· |
| For if Philumena's complaints abate, | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| She'll tell him, face to face, the whole affair, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And what has pass'd between you to create | 10 | ········˘/ |
| This difference.--But here he comes--how sad! | 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.