You would be too much for me: and my own kind would haw-haw at me: and if there should be a falling out, neither party would let me have stable quarters: the donkeys would chew me up and the oxen would run me through. It is a very hazardous business for donkeys to climb into the ox set. _Mega._ Quam ad probos propinquitate proxime te adiunxeris. tam optumum est. tu condicionem hanc accipe, ausculta mihi, atque eam desponde mi. But honourable human beings--the more closely connected you are with them, the better. Come, come, accept my offer: listen to what I say and promise her to me. _Eucl._ At nihil est dotis quod dem. But not one penny of dowry can I give. _Mega._ Ne duas. dum modo morata recte veniat, dotata est satis. Don’t. Only let me have a girl that’s good, and she has dowry enough. _Eucl._ Eo dico, ne me thensauros repperisse censeas. 240 (_forcing a laugh_) I mention this just so that you mayn’t think I’ve found some treasure. _Mega._ Novi, ne doceas. desponde. Yes, yes, I understand. Promise. _Eucl._ Fiat. sed pro Iuppiter, num ego disperii? So be it. (_aside, starting at noise_) Oh, my God! Can it be I’m ruined, ruined? _Mega._ Quid tibi est? What’s the matter? _Eucl._ Quid crepuit quasi ferrum modo? That noise? What was it--a sort of clinking sound? [EXIT INTO HOUSE HURRIEDLY. _Mega._ Hic apud me hortum confodere iussi. sed ubi hic est homo? abiit neque me certiorem fecit. fastidit mei, quia videt me suam amicitiam velle. more hominum facit; nam si opulentus it petitum pauperioris gratiam, pauper metuit congrediri, per metum male rem gerit. idem, quando occasio illaec periit, post sero cupit. (_not noticing his departure_) I told them to do some digging in my garden here. (_looking around_) But where is the man? Gone away and left me--without a word! Scorns me, now he sees I desire his friendship! Quite the usual thing, that. Yes, let a wealthy man try to get the regard of a poorer one, and the poor one is afraid to meet him half-way: his timidity makes him injure his own interests. Then when it’s too late and the opportunity is gone he longs to have it again. RE-ENTER _Euclio._ _Eucl._ Si hercle ego te non elinguandam dedero usque ab radicibus, 250 impero auctorque ego sum, ut tu me cuivis castrandum loces. (_to Staphyla within_) By heaven, if I don’t have your tongue torn out by the very roots, I give you orders, give you full authority, to hand me over to anyone you please to be skinned alive. (_approaches Megadorus_) _Mega._ Video hercle ego te me arbitrari, Euclio, hominem idoneum, quem senecta aetate ludos facias, haud merito meo.