Bacchides
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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The Captain, then, shall take her off; don’t you be present at all if you don’t choose.
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PISTOCLERUS
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And am I a thing of nothing, who cannot moderate my own passions?
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1st BACCHIS
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What’s there for you to fear?
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PISTOCLERUS
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There’s nothing; all nonsense. Madam, I resign myself to you. I’m yours; to you do I devote my services.
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1st BACCHIS
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You are a dear man. Now I wish you to do this. To-day I want to give a welcome entertainmentA welcome entertainment: Caena viatica was an entertainment offered to a person by his friends immediately on his arrival from a voyage or journey. to my sister.
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For that purpose I shall at once order the moneyOrder the money: This she says artfully, well knowing that he will at once offer to bear the expense of the entertainment. to be brought you from in-doors. Do you take care and cater for us a splendid entertainment.
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PISTOCLERUS
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No, I’ll stand treat; for it would be a shame, that on my account you both should take trouble for me, and by reason of that trouble should pay the expense from your own means.
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1st BACCHIS
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But I can’t allow you to give anything.
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PISTOCLERUS
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Do let me.
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1st BACCHIS
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Well, I’ll let you, if you choose.
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Prithee, do make haste.
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PISTOCLERUS
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I shall be here again, before I cease to love you.
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2nd BACCHIS
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You entertain me pleasantly upon my return, my sister.
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1st BACCHIS
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How so, prithee?
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2nd BACCHIS
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Because, in my way of thinking, this day a lucky haul has fallen to your lot.
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1st BACCHIS
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He’s mine, assuredly. Now, sister, with respect to Mnesilochus, I’ll give you my aidGive you my aid: They will try to get Mnesilochus to advance the-money to redeem her from the Captain., that here at home you may be receiving gold, rather than be going hence together with the Captain.
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2nd BACCHIS
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That’s my desire.
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1st BACCHIS
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My aid shall be given you. The water’s warm; let’s go in, that you may bathe. For, as you have travelled on board ship, you are faint, I think.
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2nd BACCHIS
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A little so, sister. (PISTOCLERUS is seen at a distance.) Besides, he’s beginning to cause I don’t know what bustle. Let’s begone hence.
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1st BACCHIS
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Follow me this way in-doors to bathe, that you may relieve your weariness.
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LYDUS
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For some time, Pistoclerus, I’ve been following you in silenceFollowing you in silence: We must not be surprised to find Lydus a Lydian slave, as his name imports, acting as the paedagogus, or tutor, of Pistoclerus. Among the wealthy, the sons of the family were committed to the paedagogi at their sixth or seventh year, and of course that officer was selected from the most trustworthy and most learned among the slaves. The youths remained under the tutor till they reached the years of puberty. His duty was rather to watch and protect them and accompany them to their school and the gymnasium or palaestra, the place of exercise, than to instruct them himself; indeed; the praeceptores, or teachers, are expressly distinguished by Quintilian from the paedagogi, or conductors of the youths. Eunuchs were sometimes appointed to this office. Among the Romans, a tutor attended on both boys and girls very frequently, as they were not confined at home according to the Grecian custom. During the Empire, much care was taken in the training of the paedagogi.,
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watching what you were doing in this dressIn this dress: He has put on the malacum pallium, the soft garment, mentioned in l. 71, as being about to join the entertainment which he is providing.. For, so may the Gods favour me, even Lycurgus himselfLycurgus himself: He says that such company is enough to corrupt Lycurgus himself, a man of the most moral and strict habits. He was the lawgiver of Sparta. seems to me as if he could be led into debauchery here. Whither now are you betaking yourself hence in an opposite direction with such a train?
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PISTOCLERUS
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To this place (pointing to the house.)
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LYDUS
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Why to this place? Who lives there?
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PISTOCLERUS
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Love, Pleasure, Venus, Beauty, Joy, Jesting, Dalliance, Converse, and Sweet-kissing.
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LYDUS
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What intercourse have you with these most destructive Deities?
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PISTOCLERUS
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Bad are those men who speak evil of the good. You speak not well of even the Gods themselves; you do what is not right.
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LTD.
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Is Sweet-kissing, then, some God?
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PISTOCLERUS
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And do you not think she is? O Lydus, why, what a barbariansWhat a barbarian: He alludes to Lydia, the country of Lydus, which was barbara. you are, you, whom I had deemed to be far more wise than Thales hinselfThan Thales himself: Thales of Miletus was one of the seven wise men of Greece. He was the founder of the Ionic sect of philosophers.. Go to, you are more foolish than Potitius, the foreignerPotitius, the foreigner: Barbaro signifies Roman, the scene being in Attica. We learn from St. Augustine that the Potitii received the epithet of stulti, unwise, from the following circumstance. They were the hereditary priests of Hercules, at Rome. Wishing to lighten their duties, they instructed some slaves in their office, for which, by the wrath of the Divinity twelve families of them were destroyed in one night., who, at an age so advanced, knew not the names of the Divinities.
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LYDUS
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This dress of yours pleases me not.
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PISTOCLERUS
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But no one prepared it for you; it was prepared for myself, whom it pleases well.
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LYDUS
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And do you commence upon your repartees against myself even? You, who, if you had even ten tongues, ought to be silent.
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PISTOCLERUS
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Not every age, Lydus, is suited for schoolSuited for school: There is here a Paronomasia, or jingle upon the resemblance of the words Lyde, Lydus, and ludo, a school..
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One thing especially is just now on my mind, how the cook may with due care attend to these things as befits the elegance of the entertainment.
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LYDUS
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Now have you undone yourself and me and all my labours, me who so oft have shown you what is right, all to no purpose.
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PISTOCLERUS
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In the same place have I lost my labour where you’ve lost yours: your instructions profit neither me nor yourself.
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LYDUS
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O obdurate heart!
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PISTOCLERUS
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You are troublesome to me. Hold your tongue, Lydus, and follow me.
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LYDUS
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Now, see that, please; he no longer callsHe no longer calls: He is shocked at the want of respect shown to him by his pupil. me tutor, but mere Lydus.
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PISTOCLERUS
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It seems not proper, nor can it be fit, that,
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when a person is in a house, and is reclining at the feast together with his mistress, and is kissing her, and the other guests are reclining too, the tutor should be there too in their presence.
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LYDUS
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Are these provisions purchased for such a purpose, pray?
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PISTOCLERUS
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My intentions, indeed, expect so; how it falls out, is in the hands of the Gods.
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LYDUS
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Will you be having a mistress?
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PISTOCLERUS
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When you see, then you’ll know.
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LYDUS
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Aye, but you shall not have one, and I won’t allow it. Go back again home.
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PISTOCLERUS
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Do leave me alone, Lydus, and beware of mischiefBeware of mischief: This is a threat of vengeance if Lydus presumes to interfere any further..
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LYDUS
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What? Beware of mischief?
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O yawning gulf, where art thou now? How gladly would I avail myself of thee!
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Already have I lived far longer than I could have wished.
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’Twere much better now to have once existed than to be living still.
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That any pupil should thus threaten his tutor!
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PISTOCLERUS
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My years are now advanced beyond your tutorship.
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LYDUS
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I want no pupils for me with heated bloodWith heated blood: Plenus sanguinis. Literally, full of blood..
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An up-grown one may harass me thus devoid of strength.
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PISTOCLERUS
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As I guess, I shall become a Hercules, and you a LinusYou a Linus: Linus instructed Hercules in music, and was slain by his scholar with his musical instrument..
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LYDUS
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I’ faith, I fear more that through your goings-on I shall become a PhœnixBecome a Phœnix: Phœnix was the preceptor who attended Achilles to the Siege of Troy, and brought the account of his death to his father Peleus., and have to tell the news to your father that you are dead.
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PISTOCLERUS
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Enough of these stories.
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LYDUS
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This youth is lost to shameIs lost to shame: Hic vereri perdidit. Literally, He has lost how to be ashamed.;
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the man’s ruined. And does it then recur to you that you have a father?
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PISTOCLERUS
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Am I your servant, or you mine?
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LYDUS
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By my troth, you made an exchange not desirable for that age of yours,
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when you gained these impudent ways.
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Some bad master has been teaching you all this, not I. You are a scholar far more apt at these pursuits
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than at those lessons which I taught you when I was losing my labour. Troth, ’twas a bad piece of deceit you were guilty of at your age, when you concealed these vicious tendencies from myself and from your father.
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PISTOCLERUS
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Lydus, you have thus far had liberty of speech; that is enough. So now do you follow this way, and hold your tongueHold your tongue: The interval between this Act and the next is filled up with the time necessary for preparing the entertainment which Pistoclerus is giving to Bacchis and her sister..
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CHRYSALUS
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All hail, land of my master! which I joyfully behold after the two years that I have been absent hence at Ephesus. I salute thee, neighbour ApolloNeighbour Apollo: He is supposed to refer to Apollo Prostitorus, whose statue was placed in the vestibule of the houses, and to whom the Athenians paid veneration as the tutelar God of their habitations., who dost have thy shrine close by our house, and to thee do I make my prayer, that thou wilt not let me meet our old gentleman, Nicobulus, before I have seen
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Pistoclerus, the friend of Mnesilochus, him to whom Mnesilochus has sent the letter about his mistress, Bacchis.
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PISTOCLERUS
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’Tis strange that you are so earnestly begging me to return, who am able by no possible means to depart hence, if I were willing,
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so bound downSo bound down: Vadatus was a term properly applied to a person bound under a penalty as surety for another., and so enchained with love do you hold me.
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CHRYSALUS
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O, ye immortal Gods, I espy Pistoclerus! O, Pistoclerus, hail!
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PISTOCLERUS
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Hail, Chrysalus, to you!
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CHRYSALUS
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I will at present compress many speeches for you in a small space. You are glad that I am come; I give you credit for it.
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You promise me lodging and an entertainment coming from my journey, as it is befitting, and I agree to come. I bring you the sincere greetings of your friend. Would you ask me where he is? He’s come.
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PISTOCLERUS
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Is he alive and well?
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CHRYSALUS
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That I was wishful to enquire of yourself.
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PISTOCLERUS
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How can I know?
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CHRYSALUS
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No one better.
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PISTOCLERUS
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Why, in what way?
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CHRYSALUS
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Because if she has been found whom he so loves, he is alive and well. If she is not found, he is not well, and is like to die. His mistress is the very life of a lover. If she is away, he is non-existent; if she is with him, his property is non-existent, and himself worthless and wretched.
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But what have you done in respect of his commission?
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PISTOCLERUS
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And ought I not to have his request complied with against his arrival, which his messenger brought to me from him? I’d sooner be dwelling in the realms of Acheron than not.
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CHRYSALUS
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How now, have you found out this Bacchis?
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PISTOCLERUS
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Yes, and a Samian one too.
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CHRYSALUS
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Prithee, do take care that no one handles her carelessly: you know how soon a Samian vesselA Samian vessel: He plays upon the word Samian, as the isle of Samos was celebrated for the quality of its earthenware, which, as he here says, was very brittle. is wont to break.
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PISTOCLERUS
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What now, your old habit?
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CHRYSALUS
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Prithee, do tell me where she now is.
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PISTOCLERUS
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Here, where you just now saw me coming out.
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CHRYSALUS
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How capital that is! She’s living almost next door. Does she at all remember Mnesilochus?
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PISTOCLERUS
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Do you ask me that? Aye, him alone does she esteem at the very highest value.
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CHRYSALUS
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Indeed!
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PISTOCLERUS
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Yes, and were you to believe her, distractedly in love—she quite longs for him.
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CHRYSALUS
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That’s good.
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PISTOCLERUS
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Yes, Chrysalus; see, now; not even so small
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a space of time ever passes by as thisPasses by as this: This is doing what the Greeks call δεικτικῶς. Suiting the action to the word, he points at the time of speaking to something very small, perhaps the breadth of his finger-nail., out that she is uttering his name.
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CHRYSALUS
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I’ faith, so much the better.
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PISTOCLERUS
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Yes; but—
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CHRYSALUS
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Yes, faith Yes, faith: It has been suggested that Chrysalus is put out of patience here by the frequent repetition by Pistoclerus of the word immo, aye, or yes. on which he rejoins, immo, &c., yes, and I’ll be off., I’d rather be off.
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PISTOCLERUS
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And do you so unwillingly hear how your master’s interests have prospered?
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CHRYSALUS
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No, not the subjectNo, not the subject: He seems to mean that he is not displeased with the subject. but at the tedious way in which Pistoclerus relates it to him., but the actor offends my feelings with his tediousness. Even Epidicus, a play that I love quite as much as my own self,