_Clin._ Excuse me again. I do not know That my father is ill-disposed.
_Pam._ I said he _was_; But Clinia hopes he may now be changed.
_Ph._ If that’s the case, 390 I see that your wish must be, that I sh^d discover at once Your father’s temper towards you.
_Ph._ I promise to find it out In half an hour.
_Ph._ I am an actor, sir; Never so much myself as when I seem another. Would you employ my talent—
_Ph._ Disguise myself as a Persian, late arrived in Athens: Go to your father’s house & bring him tidings of you. How the old man took what I should tell him would teach you all. Nay, I can promise more; that, if there’s left in him The last wandering spark of affection, I’ll blow it to flame, 401 And you shall twist him round your thumb.
_Clin._ But, sir, What tidings would you feign?
_Ph._ That is as I should find him: If soft, I’d handle him kindly: if hard, I’d say I’d seen you Sick of a fever, enslaved, imprisoned, or, if required, Dead and buried.
_Clin._ And so you would give him needless pain.
_Pam._ That is the question, Clinia; if you were sure of that, You would not be hiding.
_Clin._ Nay, but the doubt will not excuse me In doing the thing, which I still must hope would pain him most.
_Ph._ What matter, when all the time you are just behind the hedge? 410 No reason I see to wound him: I shall feel my way. An hour will settle all. If he be kindly bent, Or I can move him towards you, you must stand prepared To strike while the iron is hot. The lady, I understand, Will be with you here: be ready, and when I give the word, You step across the road and kneel for the old man’s blessing.
_Clin._ I have told you, Pamphilus, Antiphila must not come. Your father’s interference is most unfortunate: He is not my judge for good or ill. It shall not be.
_Ph._ A very delicate point. 420 And yet ’tis a pity they should not come.
_Pam._ O Clinia, Your obstinacy will ruin all.
_Ph._ (_to Pam._). I understand. Your friend objects to the lady coming, because he thinks Your father will know her?
_Ph._ Nay, not at all. Chremes need never know her.
_Ph._ The thing’s as easy as lying. Let the ladies change Their names; or if so be Chremes knows not their names, Let them but change their parts. Gorgo—for that’s the lady, 428 Whom you would bring, I guess—let Gorgo pass to-day For Clinia’s mistress; let Antiphila play the maid; W^h hinders not that when they come, each take his own. You have your Gorgo; you, sir, your Antiphila: And none will be any the wiser.