Enter LACHES and SOSTRATA, from the house of the former.
LACHES
O faith of Gods and men! what a race is this! what a conspiracy this!
that all women should desire and reject every individual thing alike!
And not a single one can you find to swerve in any respect from the
disposition of the rest. For instance, quite as though with one accord,
do all mothers-in-law hate their daughters-in-law. Just in the same way
is it their system to oppose their husbands; their obstinacy here is the
same. In the very same school they all seem to me to have been trained
up to perverseness. Of that school, if there is any mistress, I am very
sure that she pointing at SOSTRATA it is.
SOSTRATA
Wretched me! when now I don't so much as know why I am accused!
LACHES
Eh ! you don't know ?
SOSTRATA
So may the Gods kindly prosper me, Laches, and so may it be allowed us
to pass our lives together in unity!
LACHES
aside. May the Gods avert such a misfortune!
SOSTRATA
I'm sure that before long you will be sensible that I have been accused
by you undeservedly.
LACHES
You, undeservedly ? Can any thing possibly be said that you deserve in
return for this conduct of yours? You, who are disgracing both me and
yourself and the family, and are laying up sorrow for your Son. Then
besides, you are making our connections become, from friends, enemies to
us, who have thought him deserving for them to intrust their
children1 to him. You alone have put yourself forward, by your
folly, to be causing this disturbance.
SOSTRATA
What, I ?
LACHES
You, woman, I say, who take me to be a stone, not a man. Do you think
because it's my habit to be so much in the country, that I don't know in
what way each person is passing his life here ? I know much better what
is going on here than there, where I am daily; for this reason, because,
just as you act at home, I am spoken of abroad. Some time since, indeed,
I heard that Philumena had taken a dislike to you; nor did I the least
wonder at it; indeed, if she hadn't done so, it would have been more
surprising. But I did not suppose that she would have gone so far as to
hate even the whole of the family; if I had known that, she should have
remained here in preference, and you should have gone away. But consider
how undeservedly these vexations arise on your account, Sostrata; I went
to live in the country, in compliance with your request, and to look
after my affairs, in order that my circumstances might be able to
support your lavishness and comforts, not sparing my own exertions,
beyond what's reasonable and my time of life allows. That you should
take no care, in return for all this, that there should be nothing to
vex me!
SOSTRATA
Upon my word, through no means or fault of mine has this taken
place.
LACHES
Nay, through you in especial; you were the only person here; on you
alone, Sostrata, falls all the blame. You ought to have taken care of
matters here, as I had released you from other anxieties. Is it not a
disgrace for an old woman to pick a quarrel with a girl? You will say it
was her fault.
SOSTRATA
Indeed I do not say so, my dear Laches.
LACHES
I am glad of that, so may the Gods prosper me, for my son's sake. I am
quite sure of this, that no fault of yours can possibly put you in a
worse light.
SOSTRATA
How do you know, my husband, whether she may not have pretended to
dislike me, on purpose that she might be more with her mother?
LACHES
What say you to this? Is it not proof sufficient, when yesterday no one
was willing to admit you into the house, when you went to see her?
SOSTRATA
Why, they told me that she was very ill just then; for that reason I was
not admitted to her.
LACHES
I fancy that your humors are more her malady than any thing else; and
with good reason in fact, for there is not one of you but wants her son
to take a wife; and the match which has taken your fancy must be the
one; when, at your solicitation, they have married, then, at your
solicitation, they are to put them away again.
