PHOR. So! you fish for't, as if you did not know. (_Sneeringly._) DEM. Know! I! PHOR. Aye; you. DEM. Not I: You that maintain I ought, instruct me how to recollect. PHOR. What! not acquainted with your cousin? DEM. Plague! Tell me his name. PHOR. His name? aye! DEM. Well, why don't you? PHOR. Confusion! I've forgot the name. (_Apart._) DEM. What say you? PHOR. Geta, if you remember, prompt me. (_Apart to GETA._)--Pshaw, I will not tell.--As if you did not know, You're come to try me. (_Loud to DEMIPHO._) DEM. How! try you? GETA. Stilpho. (_Whispering PHORMIO._) PHOR. What is't to me?--Stilpho. DEM. Whom say you? PHOR. Stilpho: Did you know Stilpho, Sir? DEM. I neither know him, Nor ever had I kinsman of that name. PHOR. How! are you not asham'd?--But if, poor man, Stilpho had left behind him an estate Of some ten talents---- DEM. Out upon you! PHOR. Then You would have been the first to trace your line Quite from your grandsire and great grandsire. DEM. True. Had I then come, I'd have explain'd at large How she was my relation: so do you! Say, how is she my kinswoman? GETA. Well said! Master, you're right.--Take heed! (_Apart to PHORMIO._) PHOR. I have explain'd All that most clearly, where I ought, in court. If it were false, why did not then your son Refute it? DEM. Do you tell me of my son? Whose folly can't be spoke of as it ought. PHOR. But you, who are so wise, go seek the judge: Ask sentence in the self-same cause again: Because you're lord alone, and have alone Pow'r to obtain judgment of the court Twice in one cause. DEM. Although I have been wrong'd, Yet, rather than engage in litigation, And rather than hear you; as if she were Indeed related to us, as the law Ordains, I'll pay her dowry: take her hence, And with her take five minae. PHOR. Ha! ha! ha! A pleasant gentleman! DEM. Why, what's the matter? Have I demanded any thing unjust? Sha'n't I obtain this neither, which is law? PHOR. Is't even so, Sir?--Like a common harlot, When you've abus'd her, does the law ordain That you should pay her hire and whistle her off? Or, lest a citizen through poverty Bring shame upon her honor, does it order That she be given to her next of kin To pass her life with him? which you forbid. DEM. Aye; to her next of kin: But why to us; Or wherefore? PHOR. Oh! that matter is all settled: Think on't no more. DEM. Not think on't! I shall think Of nothing else till there's an end of this. PHOR. Words, words! DEM. I'll make them good. PHOR. But, after all, With you I have no business, Demipho! Your son is cast, not you: for at your age The coupling-time is over. DEM. Be assur'd That all I've said he says: or I'll forbid Him and this wife of his my house. GETA. He's angry. (_Apart._) PHOR. No; you'll think better on't. DEM. Are you resolv'd, Wretch that you are, to thwart me ev'ry way? {_PHORMIO and GETA apart._} PHOR. He fears, though he dissembles. GETA. Well begun!