_Byrrhia. (aside.) Now, for my master’s sake, I dread to hear his answer._ Some commentators make this speech come from Davus; but it certainly is more natural from Byrrhia: because, by the word _dread_, he expresses a suspense about what the answer might be, which Davus could not feel, because he and his master had previously agreed upon it. NOTE 129. _Byrrhia. (aside.) Ha! I am struck dumb; what did he say?_ Hem! obmutui! quid dixit! I think this reading seems more consistent than that which is usually printed, where obmutuit comes from Davus: as _Byrrhia_ might well be supposed to _express surprise_ at Pamphilus’s answer, which was _directly different from what Pamphilus and Charinus had previously agreed on_. The dialogue of this scene is carried on too unconnectedly, as Mr. Colman observes. “Donatus remarks on this scene between Byrrhia, Simo, Pamphilus, and Davus, that the dialogue is sustained by four persons, who have little or no intercourse with each other: so that the scene is not only in direct contradiction to the precept of Horace excluding a fourth person, but is also otherwise vicious in its construction. Scenes of this kind are, I think, much too frequent in Terence, though, indeed, the form of the ancient theatre was more adapted to the representation of them than the modern. The multiplicity of speeches _aside_ is also the chief error in his dialogue; such speeches, though very common in dramatic writers, ancient and modern, being always more or less unnatural. Myrtle’s suspicions, grounded on the intelligence drawn from Bevil’s servant, are more artfully imagined by the English poet, than those of Charinus, created by employing his servant as a spy on the actions of Pamphilus.”――COLMAN. NOTE 130. _Byrrhia. (aside.) From what I hear, I fancy my master has nothing to do but to provide himself with another mistress as soon as possible._ Herus, quantum audio, uxore _excidit_. “This expression is extremely elegant; excidere uxore means to lose all hope of obtaining the woman he courted, Excidere lite, to lose a cause, is a similar phrase. This mode of expression is in imitation of the Greeks, who used ἐκπιπτεῖν in the same sense.”――MADAME DACIER. Terence, undoubtedly, was extremely happy in the choice of his words; and his expressions are frequently so terse and nervous, that they cannot be translated but by a circumlocution which very much diminishes their grace: the following are words of that description which occur in this play, “_Liberaliter, conflictatur, familiariter, invenustum, indigeas, pollicitus, excidit, lactasses, ingeram, in proclive, produceres, conglutinas, illicis, attentus._” NOTE 131.