Fake Truce with the Soldier and Chrysalus's Triumph

[Soldier] There is no gain that I would rather make today, than to catch him lying with her, so that I may kill them both.

[Chrysalus] Do you hear what he says? Why don't you order me to be untied?

[Nicobulus] Untie him.

I am ruined, I am utterly terrified, wretched man that I am.

[Soldier] Then that woman, who offers her body commonly to the public, I will make sure she does not say she has found someone to mock.

[Chrysalus] You can settle with him for a very small sum of money.

[Nicobulus] Settle then, I beseech you, as you please, so long as he does not catch him in the act and kill him.

[Soldier] Now, unless two hundred Philipps are paid to me, I will immediately suck out the very souls of both of them.

[Nicobulus] Look, settle for that, if you can; go on, I beseech you, settle for whatever you wish.

[Chrysalus] I will go and do my best.

Why are you shouting?

[Soldier] Where is your master?

[Chrysalus] Nowhere.

I do not know.

Do you want two hundred gold coins to be promised to you now, so that you do not make a shout or an uproar here?

[Soldier] There is nothing I would rather have.

[Chrysalus] And that I may heap many curses upon you?

[Soldier] At your pleasure.

[Chrysalus] [Aside] How the scoundrel flatters.

This is Mnesilochus' father; follow me, he will promise you.

You ask for the gold; otherwise, a word is enough.

[Nicobulus] What is happening?

[Chrysalus] I have settled the matter for two hundred Philipps.

[Nicobulus] Ah, my salvation, you have saved me.

How soon do I say "I will give"?

[Chrysalus] You ask him, and you promise him.

[Nicobulus] I promise, ask.

[Soldier] Will you give two hundred good gold Philipp coins?

[Chrysalus] Say "They will be given".

Answer.

[Nicobulus] I will give.

[Chrysalus] What now, you filthy wretch? Is anything owed to you?

Why are you bothering him? Why are you terrifying him with death?

Both I and he will load you with misfortune.

If you have a sword, indeed we have a roasting spit at home: with which I shall make you, if you provoke me, more full of holes than a shrew-mouse's lament.

[Soldier] By Hercules, I have long perceived what suspicion troubles you: that he is with that woman.

[Chrysalus] Nay, he is indeed.

So may Jupiter, Juno, Ceres, Minerva, Latona, Hope, Opis, Virtue, Venus, Castor, Pollux, Mars, Mercury, Hercules, Summanus, Sol, Saturn, and all the gods love me, as surely as he neither lies with her, nor walks with her, nor kisses her, nor does that which is usually said.

[Nicobulus] [Aside] How he swears! He saves me with his perjuries.

[Soldier] Where is Mnesilochus now, then?

[Chrysalus] His father sent him to the countryside.

And she went to the citadel to visit the temple of Minerva.

It is open now.

Go, see if she is there.

[Soldier] I am going to the forum then.

[Chrysalus] [Aside] Or indeed to the gallows, by Hercules!

[Soldier] Shall I collect this gold today?

[Chrysalus] Collect it, and go hang yourself: lest you think this man is begging you, you worthless fellow.— He has been sent away.

Allow me (by the immortal gods, master, I beseech you) to go in here to your son.

[Nicobulus] Why will you go in there?

[Chrysalus] So that I may chastise him with many words, since he behaves in this manner when things are done thus.

[Nicobulus] Nay, I beg you to do so, Chrysalus, and I entreat you, beware of sparing him with your words.

[Chrysalus] Are you even advising me?

Is it not enough if he hears more bad words from me today than Clinia ever heard from Demetrius?— [Nicobulus] That slave is very like sore eyes: if you don't have them, you wouldn't want them or miss them; if you do, you cannot keep yourself from touching them.

For if he had not happened to be here today by chance, the soldier would have caught Mnesilochus with his wife and slaughtered the adulterer caught in the act.

Now I have, as it were, bought my son for two hundred Philipps, which I promised to give to the soldier: which I will not give rashly, even before I meet my son.

By Pollux, I will never rashly believe Chrysalus in anything; but I still wish to read through these tablets again: it is right to believe sealed tablets.— [Chrysalus] The two brothers, the sons of Atreus, are famed for having done a very great deed, when Priam's homeland Pergamum, fortified by divine hand, they subdued in the tenth year with arms, horses, an army, and outstanding warriors with a number of a thousand ships.

But their deed was not worth a shoe-chafing compared to how I shall conquer my master.