WHEN you married me, John, I was not an outcast or a woman of low degree : my father and my mother were both people of rank and they gave me to you, with an estate as a marriage portion, that children might be be¬gotten from us in lawful wedlock. But you were always infatuated with women, your eyes caught by every pretty face, and now you pay no regard to me or our children, our daughter Tranquillity and our Sea-boy, but have fallen enamoured of that foreign wench from Hermione. It is to the ruin of her lovers that the Piraeus shelters her ; for all our young seamen go flocking to her house, each one with a different gift; and she, like another Charybdis, takes everyone in and consumes them all. But you of course must outshine these fishermen's offerings: you do not take her sprats ; you would not dream of giving her mullet. You are getting on in years, an old married man, the father of children who are not precisely babies, and you mean to push aside all rivals. Veils from Miletus, dresses from Sicily, yes and gold besides ; that is what she receives from you. Have done, I say, with your insolent debaucheries and stop your madness or else I will go to my father. He will take my part and bring you into court for ill-treatment.