Aulularia
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Dramatis Personae THE HOUSEHOLD GOD, who speaks the Prologue. EUCLIO, an aged Athenian. MEGADORUS, uncle of Lyconides. LYCONIDES, a young Athenian. STROBILUS, servant of Megadorus and Lyconides PYTHODICUS, servant of Megadorus. ANTHRAX Cooks CONGRIO EUNOMIA, the sister of Megadorus. PHAEDRA, the daughter of Euclio. STAPHYLA, an old woman, servant of Euclio.
scene
Scene — Athens, before the houses of EUCLIO and MEGADORUS and the Temple of Truth.)
subject
THE SUBJECT EUCLIO, a miserly old Athenian, has a daughter named Phaedra, who has been ravished by a young man named Lyconides, but is ignorant from whom she has received that injury. Lyconides has an uncle named Megadorus, who being ignorant of these circumstances, determines to ask Phaedra of her father, in marriage for himself. Euclio has discovered a pot of gold in his house which he watches with the greatest anxiety. In the meantime, Megadorus asks his daughter in marriage, and his proposal is accepted; and while preparations are making for the nuptials, Euclio conceals his treasure, first in on place and then in another. Strobilus, the servant of Lyconides, watches his movements, and, having discovered it, carries off the treasure. While Euclio is lamenting his loss, Lyconides accosts him, with the view of confessing the outrage he has committed on his daughter, and of announcing to him that his uncle, Megadorus, has cancelled his agreement to marry her, in favour of himself. Euclio at first thinks that he is come to confess the robbery of the treasure. After much parleying, his mistake is rectified, and the matter is explained; on which Lyconides forces Strobilus to confess the theft; and (although the rest of the Play In its original form is lost) we learn from the acrostic Argument that Strobilus gives up the treasure, and Lyconides marries the daughter of Euclio, and receives the gold for a marriage-portion. The Supplement written by Codrus Urcens to supply the place of what is lost has been added.
argument
THE ACROSTIC ARGUMENT OF PRISCIAN. A POT (Aulam) that he has found full of gold, Euclio watches with the greatest strictness (Vi), being distracted in a dreadful manner. Lyconides (Lyconides) debauches his daughter. Megadorus wishes (Vult) to marry her without a portion, and to do it in a cheerful way (Lubens), he provides cooks with provisions. Euclio is afraid on account of the gold (Auro); he drives them out of the house; and the whole matter (Re) having been seen, the servant of the ravisher steals it (Id). He discloses the matter to Euclio; by (Ab) him he is presented with the gold, a wife, and a son.
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THE HOUSEHOLD GOD
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Lest any one should wonder who I am, I will tell you in a few words. I am the household God of this family, from whose house you have seen me coming forth. It is now many years that I have been occupying this house, and I inhabited it
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for the father and the grandfather of this person who now dwells here. But beseeching me, his grandfather entrusted to me a treasure of gold, unknown to all. He deposited it in the midst of the hearthMidst of the hearth: The Lares, or household Gods, were kept in the lararium, which was a recess near the focus, or hearth, and in which prayers were offered up by the Romans on rising in the morning. The hearth of fireplace was in the middle of the house, and was sacred to the Lares, praying me that I would watch it for him. He, when he died, was of such an avaricious disposition,
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that he would never disclose it to his own son, and preferred rather to leave him in want than to show that treasure to that son. He left him no large quantity of land, on which to live with great laboriousness and in wretchedness.
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When he died who had entrusted that gold to me, I began to take notice whether his son would any how pay greater honor to me than his father had paid me. But he was in the habit of venerating me still less and less by very much, and gave me a still less share of devotion.
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So in return was it done by me; and he likewise ended his life. He left this person who now dwells here, his son, of the same disposition as his father and grandfather were. He has an only daughter; she is always every day making offerings to me, either with incense, or wine, or something or other;
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she presents me, too, with chaplets. Out of regard for her, I have caused this Euclio to find this treasure, in order that he might more readily give her in marriage if he should wish; for a young man of very high rank has ravished her; this young man knows who it is that he has ravished;
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she knows him not, nor yet does her father know that she has been ravished. This day I shall cause the old gentleman here, our neighbour, to ask her as his wife; that will I do for this reason, that he may the more easily marry her who has ravished her. And this old gentleman who shall ask her as his wife,
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the same is the uncle of that young man who debauched her in the night time at the festival of CeresFestival of Ceres: He probably alludes to the Thesmophoria, a festival which was celebrated in honor of the Goddess Ceres, and a large portion of the rites whereof were solemnized in the night time. In general it was celebrated only by the married women, though, as we find in the present instance, the maidens took some part in a portion of the ceremonial. It was said to have been celebrated in the night time in commemoration of the search by Ceres, with a torch in her hand, for her daughter Proserpine, when ravished by Pluto. No lights were used on the occasion, which will account, in a great measure, for the mishap of Phaedra in the present instance, without her knowing who was the party that had insulted her. See an able article on the Thesmophoria in Dr Simth’s Dictionary of Antiquities.. But this old fellow is now making an uproar in the house, as usual; he is thrusting the old woman out of doors, that she may not be privy to the secret. I suppose he wants to look at the gold, if it be not stolen.
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EUCLIO
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Get out, I say, be off, get out; by my troth, you must budge out of this house here, you pryabout woman, with your inquisitive eyes.
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STAPHYLA
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Pray why are you beating me, wretched creature that I am?
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EUCLIO
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That you may be wretched, and that, curst as you are. you may pass a curst life, well befitting you.
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STAPHYLA
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But for what reason have you now pushed me out of the house?
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EUCLIO
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Am I to be giving you a reason, you whole harvest of whips Harvest of whips: Stimulorum seges. Literally, you corn-field of whips. He means, that he will make her, body as full of weals from whipping in a corn-field is of ears of corn.. Get away there from the door! There, do look, if you please, how she does creep along. But do you know how matters stand with you? If I just now take a stick or a whip in my hand, I’ll quicken that tortoise pace for you.
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STAPHYLA
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O that the Gods would drive me to hang myself, rather indeed than that I should be a slave in your house on these terms!
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EUCLIO
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Hark how the hag is grumbling to herself! By my troth, you wretch, I’ll knock out those eyes of yours, that you mayn’t be able to watch me, what business I’m about.
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Get out (pushes her with his hands)—further yet! still further! further! There now, stand you there! By my faith, if you budge a finger’s breadth, or a nail’s width from that spot, or if you look back until I shall order you, i’ faith, I’ll give you up at once as a trainer for the gibbet.
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I know for sure that I did never see one more accursed than this hag, and I’m sadly in fear of her, lest she should be cheating me unawares, or be scenting it out where the gold is concealed, a most vile wretch, who has eyes in the back of her head as well.
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Now I’ll go and see whether the gold is just as I concealed it, that so troubles wretched me in very many ways.
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STAPHYLA
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By heavens, I cannot now conceive what misfortune, or what insanity, I am to say has befallen my master; in such a way does he
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often, ten times in one day, in this fashion push wretched me out of the house. I’ faith, I know not what craziness does possess this man; whole nights is he on the watch; then, too, all the day long does he sit for whole days together at home like a lame cobbler A lame cobbler: Of course, lame people would be the most likely to take to such a sedentary employment as that of a cobbler.
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Nor can I imagine now by what means to conceal the disgrace of my master’s daughter, whose lying-in approaches near; and there isn’t anything better for me, as I fancy, than to make one long capital letter Long capital letter: She means to say, that she shall be forced to make a letter I of herself, by hanging herself. In so saying, she not only alludes to the straight and perpendicular form of that letter, but to its being especially long in the Roman mode of writing. of myself, when I’ve tied up my neck in a halter.
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EUCLIO
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Now, with my mind at ease, at length I go out of my house,
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after I’ve seen that everything is safe in-doors. Now do you return at once into the house (to STAPHYLA), and keep watch in-doors.
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STAPHYLA
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Keep watch in-doors upon nothing at all, forsooth! or is it, that no one may carry the house away. For here in our house there’s nothing else for thieves to gain, so filled is it with emptiness Filled is it with emptiness: The expression, full of emptiness, is intended as a piece of wit on the part of the old woman. Perhaps Euclio would not have the spiders molested, because they were considered to bring good luck. and cobwebs.
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EUCLIO
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’Tis a wonder that, for your sake, Jupiter doesn’t now make me a King Philip, or a DariusPhilip, or a Darius: The names of Philip, King of Macedon, and Darius, King of Persia, as powerful and wealthy monarchs, would be likely to be well known to the writers of the new Greek Comedy, from whom Plautus borrowed most, if not all, of his plays., you hag of hags. I choose those cobwebs to be watched for me. I am poor, I confess it—I put up with it. What the Gods send, I endure. Go in-doors, shut to the door, I shall be there directly.
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Take you care not to let any strange person into the house.
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STAPHYLA
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What if any person asks for fire?
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EUCLIO
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I wish it to be put out,Part of line 91 in the Latin. that there may be no cause for any one asking it of you. But if the fire shall be kept in, you yourself shall be forthwith extinguished. Then do you say that the water has run outHas run out: It is not improbable that allusion is here made to the supply of water by pipes from the aqueducts., if any one asks for it.
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STAPHYLA
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The knife, the hatchet, the pestle and mortar, utensils that neighbours are always asking the loan of—
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EUCLIO
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Say that thieves have come and carried them off. In fact, in my absence, I wish no one to be admitted into my house; and this, too, do I tell you beforehand,
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if Good Luck should come, don’t you admit her.
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STAPHYLA
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I’ faith, she takes good care, I think, not to be admitted; for though close at handClose at hand: She seems to allude to the fact of the temple of Bona Fortuna, or Good Luck, being in the vicinity of Euclio’s house., she has never come to our house.
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EUCLIO
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Hold your tongue, and go in-doors.
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STAPHYLA
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I’ll hold my tongue, and be off.
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EUCLIO
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Shut the door, please, with both bolts. I shall be there directly.
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I’m tormented in my mind, because I must go away from my house I’ faith, I go but very unwillingly; but I know full well what I’m about; for the person that is our master of our wardMaster of our ward: The curiae at Rome were sub-divisions of the tribes originally made by Romulus, who divided the Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres into thirty curiae. Each curia had its place for meeting and worship, which was also called curia; and was presided over by the Curio, who is here called the Magister curiae, or master of the ward. At first the Patricians and Equites had the sole influence in the curiae, and alone electee the Curiones; but after the year A.U.C. 544, the Curio was elected from the Patricians, after which period the political importance of the curiae gradually declined, until they became mere bodies meeting for the performance of religious observances. Plautus probably alludes, in the present instance, to a dole, or distribution of money, made by the Greek Trittuarch among the poorer brethren of his τριττὺ or tribus; as in adapting a Greek play to the taste of a Roman audience, he very often mingles the customs of the one country with those of the other. has given notice that he will distribute a didrachm of silver to each man; if I relinquish that, and don’t ask for it, at once I fancy that all
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will be suspecting that I’ve got gold at home; for it isn’t very likely that a poor man would despise ever such a trifle, so as not to ask for his piece of money. For as it is, while I am carefully concealing it from all, lest they should know, all seem to know it,
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and all salute me more civilly than they formerly used to salute me; they come up to me, they stop, they shake hands They shake hands: Copulantur dextras. Literally, they couple right hands.; they ask me how I am, what I’m doing, what business I’m about. Now I’ll go there whither I had set out Whither I had set out: Nunc quo profectus sumito. This is rendered, in Cotter’s Translation, now I will go where I am profited!; afterwards, I’ll betake myself back again home as fast as ever I can.
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EUNOMIA
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I could wish you, brother, to think that I utter these words by reason of my own regard and your welfare, as is befitting your own sister to do. Although I’m not unaware that we women are accounted troublesome; for we are all of us deservedly considered very talkative,
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and, in fact, they say at the present day that not a single woman has been found dumbHas been found dumb: Not seeing the sarcasm intended against the female sex in this passage, Lambinus seriously takes the trouble to contradict Eunomia; his words are, I myself, who am at present in my fifty-sixth year have seen no less than two dumb women. in any age. Still, brother, do you consider this one circumstance, that I am your nearest relation, and you in like manner are mine. How proper it is that I should counsel and advise you,
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and you me, as to what we may judge for the interest of each of us; and for it not to be kept concealed or kept silence upon through apprehension, but rather that I should make you my confidant, and you me in like manner. For that reason, now, have I brought you here apart out of doors, that I might here discourse with you upon your private concerns.
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MEGADORUS
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Best of women, give me your hand.
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EUNOMIA
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Where is she? Who, pray, is this best of women?
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MEGADORUS
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Yourself.
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EUNOMIA
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Do you say so?
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MEGADORUS
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If you say no, I say no.
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EUNOMIA
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Indeed, it’s right that the truth should be spoken; for the best of women can nowhere be found;
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one is only worse than another, brother.
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MEGADORUS
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I think the same, and I’m determined never to contradict you on that point, sister. What do you wish?
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EUNOMIA
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Give me your attention, I beg of you.
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MEGADORUS
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’Tis at your service; use and command me, please, if you wish for aught.
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EUNOMIA
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A thing that I consider very greatly for your advantage
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I’m come to recommend you.
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MEGADORUS
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Sister, you are doing after your usual manner.
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EUNOMIA
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I wish it were done.
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MEGADORUS
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What is it, sister?
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EUNOMIA
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That you may enjoyThat you may enjoy: Quod tibi sempiternum salutare sit. This was a formula frequently introduced in announcing intelligence, or in making a proposition, and was considered to be significant of a good omen. everlasting blessings in being the father of children.
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MEGADORUS
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May the Gods so grant it.
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EUNOMIA
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I wish you to bring home a wife.Part of line 149 in the Latin.
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MEGADORUS
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Ha! I’m undone.
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EUNOMIA
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How so?
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MEGADORUS
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Because, sister, your words are knocking out the brains of unfortunate me; you are speaking stonesYou are speaking stones: So Shakspeare says, in Hamlet, Act III., sc. 2, I will speak daggers to her, but use none. Aristophanes says, in one of his plays, You have spoken roses to me..
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EUNOMIA
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Well, well, do this that your sister requests you.
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MEGADORUS
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If she requests me, I will do it.
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EUNOMIA
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’Tis for your own interest.
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MEGADORUS
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Yes, for me to die before I marry.
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Let her who comes here to-morrow, be carried outBe carried out: Feratur, may be carried out to burial. Fero and effero have that especial signification. The body was carried out to burial on a bier, which resembled a bed or couch. of the house the day after, sister; on that condition, give me her whom you wish to give; get ready the nuptials.
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EUNOMIA
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I am able, brother, to provide you with a wife with a very large marriage-portion.
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But she’s somewhat aged; she’s of the middle-age of woman. If you request me, brother, to ask her for you, I’ll ask her.
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MEGADORUS
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Would you like me to ask you a question?
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EUNOMIA
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Yes, if you like, ask it.
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MEGADORUS
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Suppose any old man, past mid-age, brings home a middle-aged wife, if by chance he should have a child by this old woman, do you doubt at all but that the name of that child is Posthumus Is Posthumus: Children, who were born after their father’s decease were called posthumi, a term which is still retained. By speaking of an old woman, anus, as the mother, he seems also to allude to the chance of the child losing its mother as well, at the moment of its birth, all prepared?
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Now, sister, I’ll remove and lessen this labour for you. I, by the merits of the Gods and of my forefathers, am rich enough; these high families, haughty prideHaughty pride: He means to say, that these evils are attendant upon marrying a woman with a large dowry., bountiful portions, acclamations, imperiousness, vehicles inlaid with ivory, superb mantles and purple, I can’t abide, things that by their extravagance reduce men to slavery.
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EUNOMIA
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Tell me, pray, who is she whom you would like to take for a wife?
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MEGADORUS
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I’ll tell you. Do you know that Euclio, the poor old man close by?
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EUNOMIA
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I know him; not a bad sort of man, i’ faith.
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MEGADORUS
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I’d like his maiden daughter to be promised me in marriage. Don’t make any wordsDon’t make any words: Ben Jonson has imitated this passage in his Silent Woman, Act I., sc. 5: I know what thou wouldst say: She’s poor, and her friends deceased. She has brought a wealthy dowry in her silence. about it, sister; I know what you are going to say; that she’s poor. This poor girl pleases me.
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EUNOMIA
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May the Gods prosper it.
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MEGADORUS
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I hope the same.
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EUNOMIA
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What do you want me now for? Do you wish for anything?
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MEGADORUS
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Farewell.
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EUNOMIA
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And you the same, brother.
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MEGADORUS
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I’ll go meet Euclio, if he’s at home. But, see! the very person is betaking himself home, whence, I know not.
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EUCLIO
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My mind had a presentiment that I was going to no purpose when I left my house; and therefore I went unwillingly; for neither did any one of the wardsmen come,
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nor yet the master of the ward, who ought to have distributed the money. Now I’m making all haste to hasten home; for I myself am here, my mind’s at home.
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MEGADORUS
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May you be well, and ever fortunate, Euclio!
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EUCLIO
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May the Gods bless you, Megadorus!
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MEGADORUS
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How are you? Are you quite well, and as you wish?
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EUCLIO
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It isn’t for nothing when a rich man accosts a poor man courteously;
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now this fellow knows that I’ve got some gold; for that reason he salutes me more courteously.
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MEGADORUS
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Do you say that you are well?
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EUCLIO
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Troth, I’m not very well in the money line.
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MEGADORUS
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I’ faith, if you’ve a contented mind, you have enough to passing a good life with.
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EUCLIO
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By my faith, the old woman has made a discovery to him about the gold; ’tis clear it’s all out. I’ll cut off her tongue, and tear out her eyes, when I get home.
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MEGADORUS
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Why are you talking to yourself?
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EUCLIO
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I’m lamenting my poverty; I’ve a grown-up girl without a portion, and one that can’t be disposed of in marriage; nor have I the ability to marry her to anybody.