text:  As to the other characters Thersander is a mere vulgar ruffian--"a rude and boisterous captain of the sea "--whose brutal violence on his first appearance and subsequent unprincipled machinations deprive him of the sympathy which might otherwise have been excited in behalf of one who finds his wife and his property unceremoniously taken possession of during his absence; while on the other hand the language used by the high-priest of Diana in his invectives against Thersander and his accomplices gives but a low idea of the dignity or refinement of the Ephesian hierarchy