“_It is almost impossible to conduct two intrigues at a time without weakening the interest of both. With what address has Terence interwoven the amours of Pamphilus and Charinus in the Andrian! But has he done it without inconvenience? At the beginning of the second act, do we not seem to be entering upon a new piece? and does the fifth conclude in a very interesting manner?_”――DIDEROT. It is but justice to Sir Richard Steele to confess, that he has conducted the under-plot in the Conscious Lovers in a much more artful and interesting manner than Terence in the play before us. The part which Myrtle sustains (though not wholly unexceptionable, especially the last act,) is more essential to the fable than Charinus in the Andrian. His character also is more separated and distinguished from Bevil, than Charinus from Pamphilus, and serves to produce one of the best scenes[B] in the play.” COLMAN. [A] The following extract will explain Mr. Colman’s allusion, _Thimble._ Brave Prettyman, it is at length revealed, That he is not thy Sire who thee conceal’d. _Prettyman._ What oracle this darkness can evince! Sometimes a fisher’s son, sometimes a prince. It is a secret, great as is the world; In which I, like the soul, am toss’d and hurl’d. The blackest ink of fate sure was my lot, And when she writ my name, she made a blot. [_Exit._ _Bayes._ There’s a blustering verse for you now. _Smith._ Yes, Sir; but why is he so mightily troubled to find he is not a fisherman’s son? _Bayes._ Phoo! that is not because he has a mind to be his son, but for fear he should be thought to be nobody’s son at all. _Smith._ Nay, that would trouble a man, indeed. _Rehearsal_, A. III. S. IV. [B] A. IV. S. I. NOTE 109. _Byrrhia.――I beseech you, O Charinus._ _Quæso ædepol_, Charine. _Ædepol_ means literally by the temple of Pollux, being an abbreviation of the words per templum Pollucis, as _pol_ was used for per Pollucem: and _hercle_ for per Herculem. These ancient expletives are of a similar nature to those in modern use, which are almost all of religious derivation.