was this friend of yours? Explain! and how
Might he pretend that I was his relation?

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 u