The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene X
Stay!Hear me! one word, Phidippus! Stay!--He's gone.--What is't to me? (Angrily.) E'en let them settle itAmong themselves; since nor my son, nor heTake my advice, nor mind one word I say.--This quarrel shall go round, I promise them:I'll to my wife, the author of this mischief,And vent my spleen and anger upon her. (Exit.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene X 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 X, 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-x.html, id L25871.
Form and metre
The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene X is 8 lines in a single stanza. 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--- stayA · gone · it · he · sayA · them · mischief · exit
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Stay! | 1 | · |
| Hear me! one word, Phidippus! Stay!--He's gone. | 10 | ·········· |
| --What is't to me? (Angrily.) E'en let them settle it | 12 | ····/˘···/˘· |
| Among themselves; since nor my son, nor he | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Take my advice, nor mind one word I say. | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| --This quarrel shall go round, I promise them: | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| I'll to my wife, the author of this mischief, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| And vent my spleen and anger upon her. (Exit. | 12 | ·····/˘···/˘ |
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.