_Metaph._ _Mandatum tuum curo diligenter._ _Alv._ Master, I had a mind to ask you---- _Metaph._ The title, master, comes from _Magis_ and _Ter_, which is as much, to say, _thrice worthy_. _Alv._ I never heard so much before, but it may be true for ought I know: but, master---- _Metaph._ Go on. _Alv._ Why so I will if you'll let me, but don't interrupt me then. _Metaph._ Enough, proceed. _Alv._ Why then, master, for a third time, my son _Camillo_ gives me much uneasiness of late; you know I love him, and have many careful thoughts about him. _Metaph._ 'Tis true. _Filio non potest præferri nisi filius._ _Alv._ Master, when one has business to talk on, these scholastic expressions are not of use; I believe you a great Latinist; possibly you may understand _Greek_: those who recommended you to me, said so, and I am willing it should be true: but the thing I want to discourse you about at present, does not properly give you an occasion to display your learning. Besides, to tell you truth, 'twill at all times be lost upon me; my father was a wise man, but he taught me nothing beyond common sense; I know but one tongue in the world, which luckily being understood by you as well as me, I fancy whatever thoughts we have to communicate to one another, may reasonably be convey'd in that, without having recourse to the language of _Julius Cæsar_. _Metaph._ You are wrong, but may proceed. _Alv._ I thank you: what is the matter, I do not know; but tho' it is of the utmost consequence to me to marry my son, what match soever I propose to him, he still finds some pretence or other to decline it. _Metaph._ He is, perhaps, of the humour of a brother of _Marcus Tullius_, who---- _Alv._ Dear master, leave the _Greeks_, and the _Latins_, and the _Scotch_, and the _Welsh_, and let me go on in my business; what have those people to do with my son's marriage? _Metaph._ Again you are wrong; but go on. _Alv._ I say then, that I have strong apprehensions from his refusing all my proposals, that he may have some secret inclination of his own; and to confirm me in this fear, I yesterday observed him (without his knowing it) in a corner of the grove, where nobody comes---- _Metaph._ A place out of the way, you would say; a place of retreat. _Alv._ Why, the corner of the grove, where nobody comes, is a place of retreat, is it not? _Metaph._ In _Latin_, _secessus_. _Alv._ Ha! _Metaph._ As _Virgil_ has it. _Est in secessu locus._ _Alv._ How could _Virgil_ have it, when I tell you no soul was there but he and I? _Metaph._ _Virgil_ is a famous author, I quote his saying as a phrase more proper to the occasion than that you use, and not as one who was in the wood with you. _Alv._ And I tell you, I hope to be as famous as any _Virgil_ of 'em all, when I have been dead as long, and have no need of a better phrase than my own to tell you my meaning.