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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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LIBANUS
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By my faith, to your own great misfortune now are you talking uncivilly to him.
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Dirty, worthless fellow, don’t you see he’s angry?
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LEONIDA
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Be off then.
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LIBANUS
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Scoundrelly fellow. (Aside to him.) Prithee, do give him the money lest he should abuse you.
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THE ASS-DEALER
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On my word, you are seeking evil for yourselves.
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LEONIDA
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By the powers, your legs shall be brokenYour legs shall be broken: One of the most cruel punishments inflicted on refractory or runaway slaves was that of breaking their legs. To effect this, their legs were extended upon an anvil, and then struck with a bar of iron or a hammer.,
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if you don’t proclaim this shameless fellow.
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LIBANUS
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Troth, I’m undone. Be off, you shameless fellow.
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LEONIDA
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You rascal.
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LIBANUS
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Won’t you venture to assist me, you rascal?
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LEONIDA
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Do you persist in soliciting the scamp?
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THE ASS-DEALER
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How’s this? (To LEONIDA.) Do you, rascal, who are a slave, speak abusively to a free man?
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LEONIDA
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Give him a beating.
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THE ASS-DEALER
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By my faith, that surely shall befall yourself to get a beating as soon as ever I shall see Demaenetus this day.
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I summon you to judgmentsSummon you to judgment: In jus vocare, to summon into court, was the term applied when one party lodged a criminal information against another..
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LEONIDA
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I shan’t go.
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THE ASS-DEALER
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You won’t go? Remember—
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LEONIDA
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I do remember.
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THE ASS-DEALER
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I’ faith, I’ll have satisfaction out of your back.
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LEONIDA
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Woe unto you? What, villain—satisfaction to be given by us to you indeed?
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THE ASS-DEALER
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Aye, and even this very day satisfaction shall be given me for your abusive language.
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LEONIDA
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How now, whip-knave? How say you, hang-dog? Do you suppose that we shall run away from our master? Go this instant then to our master, where you were citing us just now, and where you were wishing to go.
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THE ASS-DEALER
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What, now at last? Still, you shall never get a coin of money away from me, unless Demaenetus shall order me to give it.
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LEONIDA
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Do so. Come, move on then. Are you to offer insults to another person, and are they not to be repeated to yourself?
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I’m a man as much as you are.
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THE ASS-DEALER
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No doubt such is the fact.
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LEONIDA
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Follow me this way, then. With your good leaveWith your good leave: Praefiscini. It was a common notion among the ancients, that if a person spoke in commendation of himself, he stood in danger of fascination—the effect of envy or enchantment on the part of another person. For this reason, on such occasions they prefaced with the word praemfiscini, understanding dixerim, I would say. This meant without impeachment of malice, be it spoken in a good hour, or, as we say, by your leave. I would now say this: not a person has ever accused me by reason of my deserving it, nor is there in Athens one other individual, this day, whom they would think they could as safely trust.
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THE ASS-DEALER
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Perhaps so: but still, you shall never this day persuade me to entrust to you, whom I don’t know, this money.
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A man to a man is a wolfMan to a man is a wolf: There was an ancient proverb, Homo homini lupus, Man is to man a wolf. It probably implied much the same as the more celebrated words of a modern Poet: Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn., not a man, when the other doesn’t know of what character he is.
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LEONIDA
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Now at last you are appeasing meYou are appeasing me: This he seems to say in a spirit of irony. Huic capitulo is literally to this little head meaning, to this humble individual, myself.: I was sure that this day you would give satisfaction to this poor head of mine; although I’m in mean garb, still, I’m well to do, nor can an estimate of my means be formed from it.
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THE ASS-DEALER
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Perhaps so.
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LEONIDA
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Still more then I tell you: Periphanes, a merchant of Rhodes, a rich man,
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in the absence of my master, himself alone paid over to me, in private, a talent of silver, and trusted me, nor was he deceived in it.
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THE ASS-DEALER
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Perhaps so.
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LEONIDA
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And you, too, yourself, as well, if you had enquired about me of other people, would, i’ faith, I’m quite sure, have entrusted to me what you now have with you.
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THE ASS-DEALER
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I don’t deny it.
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CLEAERETA
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And am I unable to render you obedient to my injunctions?
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Or are you so disposed as to be free from the control of your mother?
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PHILENIUM
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How could I propitiate PietyCould I propitiate Piety: She thinks that the Goddess Pietas will be shocked at her want of kind and grateful feeling, if she consents to turn Argyrippus out of doors., if I could desire to please you, being endowed with these manners, after the fashion, mother, that you enjoin upon me?
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CLEAERETA
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Is it consistent with propriety for you to oppose my precepts?
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PHILENIUM
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How so?
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CLEAERETA
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Is this worshipping Piety, to lessen the authority of a mother?
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PHILENIUM
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Those who act right I blame not, nor do I love those who do wrong.
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CLEAERETA
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You are a very prating, lovesick girl.
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PHILENIUM
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Mother, that is my livingThat is my living: It is hard to say which she means as the source of her profit—whether her loving propensities, or her fund of talkativeness, for which her mother is censuring her. The next line is spoken with reference to her passion for Argyrippus.. His tongue woos me, his person seeks me, his passion pleads, opportunity prompts.
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CLEAERETA
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I was purposing to convince you. Are you come as my accuser?
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PHILENIUM
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By my troth, I neither do accuse you, nor do I think it right I should do so;
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but I do complain of my lot, when I am separated from him whom I love.
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CLEAERETA
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Will then one bit of the whole day’s talk be left for myself?
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PHILENIUM
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Both my share of the speaking and your own do I give up to you. Do you yourself keep the signalKeep the signal: Portisculum. According to some writers portisculus was a name of the pausaurius or hortator, called by the Greeks κελευστὴς,, an officer whose duty it was to order the rowers to keep time. In the present passage, it seems rather to signify the hammer, or other instrument, which that officer held in his hand, for the purpose of beating time, to regulate the motion of the rowers; not unlike the baton of the conductor of a band. both for speaking and for being silent.
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But, i’ faith, if I only put up my oars in the boat-houseIn the boat-house: In casteriâ. Nonius Marcellus informs us that casteria was a house, in which the oars, rudders, sails, and tackle, were sept, when the ship was laid up in dock. while I’m resting, all the welfare of the household is at a standstill for you.
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CLEAERETA
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How say you, the out and out most insolent woman that ever I saw? How often have I forbidden you to speak to Argyrippus, the son of Demaenetus, or to touch him, or to hold discourse with him, or to look at him? What has he ever given? What has he ordered to be brought to our house? Or do you fancy to yourself
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that smooth words are gold?—that clever speeches are as good as presents? Of your own accord you fell in love with him; of your own accord you go after him; of your own accord you request him to be sent for to you. Those who are givers, those same you laugh at; those who are cheating us, you are dying for. If any one promises you that he’ll make you rich when his mother dies, ought you to be waiting for that?
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I’ faith, a great risk impends over ourselves and the household, that we may die of hunger while we are awaiting her death. Now therefore, unless he brings me here twenty minae of silver, upon my word, though profuse of his tears, he shall certainly be turned from here out of doors. This day’s the end ofThe end of: Summa seems a preferable reading to summae. excuses for poverty at my house.
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PHILENIUM
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If, my mother, you were to order me to go without victuals, I would submit.
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CLEAERETA
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I don’t forbid you to love those who give that for the sake of which they ought to be loved.
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PHILENIUM
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What, mother, if this inclination of mine is fixed? What am I to do? Tell me.
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CLEAERETA
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Oh dear—look at my headLook at my head: She tells her daughter to look at her grey hairs, meaning that she must make a provision against old age, when her admirers will forsake her and she will have no means of gaining a livelihood., if, indeed, you consider your own interest.
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PHILENIUM
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Even the shepherd, mother, that feeds the sheep of another, has a certain one of his own to be the consoler of his hopes. For the sake of my affection, do allow me to love Argyrippus only, who is my choice.
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CLEAERETA
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Go in-doors, for, upon my word, there is really nothing more impudent than yourself.
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PHILENIUM
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Mother, you have given birth to a daughter obedient to your commands.
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LEONIDA
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Great praise and thanks we give deservedly to perfidy, when relying upon our tricks, our stratagems, and our devices, upon our confidence in our shoulder-blades and the hardihood resulting from the elm-twigs so oft applied, against the whips, the searing-irons, the crosses, and the fetters,
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the cords, the chains, the prisons, the stocks, the shackles, the collars, and taskmasters most cruel and well acquainted with our backs, who many a time before have imprintedHave imprinted: The sense of the passage seems to require a comma after indiderunt, and not a period, as Richter’s edition has it. scars upon our shoulder-blades; by conquering, now, these legions, troops and armies of thieves,
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by our prowess, through our perjuries, O brave, have we gained the victory. This, through the valour of this comrade of mine, and through my own courtesy, has been brought about.
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LIBANUS
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What man is there more firm than myself at enduring stripes?
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LEONIDA
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By the powers, you who can extol your exploits now, as I can do exploits, which in peace and in warfare you have so — villanously performed;
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verily, in troth, many in number may they be now recounted according to your deserts; where you have defrauded him that trusted you, where you have proved faithless to your master, where knowingly and wilfully you have on solemn oath been perjured, where you have bored through party walls, where you have been detected in theft, where you have full oft pleaded your cause, as you hung up, against eight
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clever, hardened fellowsEight clever, hardened fellows: These were probably the eight Lictors who attended the Tresviri or Triumviri, which magistrates had especial jurisdiction over slaves with the power of ordering summary punishment., sturdy stripers.
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LIBANUS
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Certainly I do admit, Leonida, that it is true as you say. But verily, in troth, your many misdeeds, too, may be recounted as well and truly; where wilfully you have proved faithless to the trusting, where you have been detected in theft and scourged in public,
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where you have proved forsworn, where you have laid hands on sacred things, where to your masters you have full oft proved a loss, a trouble, and a disgrace, where you have stoutly denied that that was given to you which had been entrusted to you, where you have proved more faithful to your wench than to your friend, where through your hardihood you have frequently reduced to weariness eight
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sturdy lictors, armed with pliant twigs of elm. (To the AUDIENCE.) Is the compliment ill repaid in the way that I’ve praised my comrade?
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LEONIDA
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Just as befits both me and yourself, and our dispositions.
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LIBANUS
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Now drop this, and answer me this that I ask.
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LEONIDA
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Enquire of me what you please.
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LIBANUS
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Have you got the twenty silver minae?
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LEONIDA
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Guess —
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Upon my word, the old gentleman Demaenetus, has been very obliging to us. How cleverly he pretended that I was Saurea. With the greatest difficulty did I withhold my laughter, when he rebuked the stranger, because in his absence he had been unwilling to put confidence in me; and with what readiness did he call me Saurea the chamberlain.
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LIBANUS
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Stop a moment.
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LEONIDA
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What’s the matter?
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LIBANUS
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Isn’t this Philenium that’s coming from in-doors, and Argyrippus with her.
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LEONIDA
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Keep silence, ’tis he; let’s listen quietly to them.
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In tears, she holds him, weeping, by the lappet of his garment; what, I wonder, am I to say is the matter?
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LIBANUS
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Let’s listen in silence.
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LEONIDA
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Dear me, a thought, I’ faith, has just come into my mind; I very much wish I had a long stick here.
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LIBANUS
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For what reason?
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LEONIDA
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With which to beat these assesTo beat these asses: He means the money which was to have been paid for the asses., if perchance they should begin to bray out here, from within the bag.
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ARGYRIPPUS
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Why are you holding me back?
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PHILENIUM
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Because, as I love you, I cannot bear your departing.
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ARGYRIPPUS
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Farewell.
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PHILENIUM
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I should fare somewhat better, if you were to remain here.
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ARGYRIPPUS
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Blessings on you.
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PHILENIUM
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Do you wish for blessings on me, to whom you are bringing disease by your departure?
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ARGYRIPPUS
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Your mother has bid me the last farewellBid me the last farewell: The word vale, farewell, is here understood, and reference is made, figuratively, to the usage of exclaiming vale when fire was set to the funeral pile. In saying that she bade him go home he refers to the expression with which the ceremony concluded, ilicet, you may go away, or you may go home.; she has requested me to go home.
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PHILENIUM
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A bitter death will she cause her daughter, if I must part from you.
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LIBANUS
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Troth now, the man has been turned out of doors there.
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LEONIDA
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Such is the fact.
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ARGYRIPPUS
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Prithee, do let me go.
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PHILENIUM
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Whither are you going now? Why don’t you stay here?
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ARGYRIPPUS
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This night, if you choose, I’ll stay.
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LIBANUS
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Don’t you hear him? How profuse he is of his attentions by night. But now, in the daytime, he’s engaged; surely he’s a SolonHe’s a Solon: Solon was one of the wise men of Greece, and the great lawgiver of the Athenians. He was remarkable for he severity of his morals.