Truculentus
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
186c
186c
DINARCHUS
186c
Well done, lands and tenements; you have come to my aid in good time. (To ASTAPHIUM.) But how say you, Astaphium—?
187b
187b
ASTAPHIUM
187b
What do you want?
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DINARCHUS
71
Is Phronesium in-doors just now?
188b
188b
ASTAPHIUM
188b
To you at all events she’s in-doors.
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DINARCHUS
72
Is she well?
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189b
ASTAPHIUM
189b
Aye, faith, and I do believe she’ll be still better when she sees you.
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DINARCHUS
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This is our greatest fault: when we’re in love, then we are undone; if that which we wish is told us, when manifestly they are telling lies, in our folly we believe it to be true; verily as though with a tide we fluctuate.
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ASTAPHIUM
74
Heyday now—such is not the fact.
193b
193b
DINARCHUS
193b
Do you say that she loves me?
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193c
ASTAPHIUM
193c
Aye, you only, alone.
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DINARCHUS
75
I heard that she was brought to bed.
194b
194b
ASTAPHIUM
194b
Oh, prithee, Dinarchus, do hold your tongue.
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194c
DIN,
194c
Why so?
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ASTAPHIUM
76
I shudder in my alarm, as often as mention is made of childbirth, with such difficulty has Phronesium survived for you. Prithee, do come in-doors now; do go to see her and wait there a little. She’ll be out just now; for she was at the bath.
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DINARCHUS
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What do you say? She who was never pregnant, how could she be brought to bed? For really, I never, that I am aware of, perceived her to be in a breeding state.
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ASTAPHIUM
78
She concealed it from you and was afraid, lest you should persuade her to have recourse to abortionRecourse to abortion: The practice of procuring abortion was not deemed criminal either at Rome or Athens; though at the latter place there was a law which imposed a penalty on any person who administered a potion to a woman for that purpose., and so destroy the child.
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DINARCHUS
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Troth then, who’s the father of this child?
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ASTAPHIUM
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A Babylonian Captain,The first part of this sentence is in line 202 in the Latin. whose arrival she is now expecting.
203b
So much so, indeed, that, according as was reported, they say that he’ll be here just now. I wonder he has not arrived by this.
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DINARCHUS
81
Shall I go in, then?
205b
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ASTAPHIUM
205b
Why not? As boldly as at home, into your own house; for even still are you now one of us, Dinarchus.
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DINARCHUS
82
How soon are you on your return?
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ASTAPHIUM
207b
I’ll be there this instant; it’s close at hand where I was going.
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DINARCHUS
83
But do return directly; meanwhile I’ll wait for you at your house. (He goes into the house of PHRONESIUM.)
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ASTAPHIUM
84
Ha, ha, ha! I’m at rest,
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since my plague has gone in-doors; now, indeed, I shall speak according to my own inclination, freely, as I please. My mistress has sung a funeral dirgeA funeral dirge: Naenia was a funeral song among the Romans, recited or chanted by hired female mourners, called praeficae. at our house for this fellow, her lover, over his estate; for his lands and tenements are mortgaged for his treats in his amour.
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But with him does my mistress speak freely upon the objects of her plans, and so he is rather a friend by way of counsel to her than by way of maintenance. While he had it, he gave; now he has got nothing; what he did have, we have got; what we had, he has now got the same. The common course of things has happened. Fortunes are wont to change upon the instant. Life is checquered.
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We remember him as rich, and he us as poor; our reminiscences have shifted places. He must be a fool to wonder at it. If he is in want, it’s necessary that he should allow us to make a living; that’s proper to be done. ’Twere a disgrace for us to have compassion on men that squander away their fortunes. A clever Procuress ought to have good teeth;
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to smile upon whoever comes, to address him in flattering terms; to design mischief in her heart, but to speak fairly with her tongue. A Courtesan it befits to be like a briar; whatever man she touches, for either mischief or loss certainly to be the result. A Courtesan ought never to listen to the plea of a lover,
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but, when he has nothing to give, do you pack him off home from service as a deserterAs a deserter: Infrequente, a soldier negligent of his duty—a deserter. She alludes to a custom among the Romans of dismissing bad soldiers from the service; sometimes, however, they merely secluded them from the other soldiers or as we say sent them to Coventry.; and never is any gallant good for anything unless he’s one who is the enemy of his own fortune. It’s trifling, if, when he has just given, he doesn’t take a pleasure in giving afresh. That person’s esteemed with us who forgets that that has been given which he has given. As long as he has anything, so long let him go on loving; when he has got nothing, then let him look out another employment;
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if he himself has got nothing, let him, with a contented mind, make way for others who have. He’s a proper lover who, neglecting his affairs, squanders away his property. But among themselves the men declare that we act ill, and are greedy. Prithee, do we in fact at all act ill? For, by my troth, never did any lover whatever give enough to his mistress;
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nor, i’ faith, have we ever received enough, nor has any woman ever asked for enough. For when a gallant is barren with his gifts If he denies that he has anything to give, alone Nor do we receive enough, when a person has not enough to give us. It is ever our duty to look after fresh givers,
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who take from untouched treasures, and make presents to us. Just like this young man from the country, who dwells here (pointing to the house where STRABAX lives), i’ faith, a very pleasant creature, and a very bounteous giver. But he, without the knowledge of his father, even this very last night, leapt over the wall by way of the garden, and came to our house. I wish to meet with him.
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But one servant has he, a very great savage, who, when he sees any one of us near the door, if you approach that way, drives us off just as he scares the geese away with his noise from the corn; he’s such a bumpkin. But come what may, I’ll knock at the door.
254.255
(Knocks at the door, and calls.) Who, I wonder, has the keeping of this door? Is anybody coming out from in-doors?
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STRATILAX
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Who’s thisWho’s this: Except that in one or two instances he coins words, there is no proof, so far as the language of the original is concerned, that Stratilax, the churl or clodhopper, speaks in any peculiar manner. But from the fact of his being introduced as a perfect specimen of a rude clown, there can be little doubt that on the stage he speaks the Latin language with the burr or patois of a countryman. In the translation, an attempt has been made to denote this probable peculiarity of speech, by making him to substitute thee for thou, before verbs in the second person singular. Warner, in his version, represents him throughout as speaking in a sort of Somersetshire dialect., that’s so sturdily plying his batteringram against our door?
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ASTAPHIUM
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It’s I. Look round at me.
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STRATILAX
257b
Who’s I?
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ASTAPHIUM
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Am I not seen by you?Part of line 257b in the Latin.
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STRATILAX
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Woe worth thee! What mean you by this coming so near this door, or why’s this knocking?
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ASTAPHIUM
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Health to you.
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STRATILAX
259b
Enow of thy health have I; I care nought for’t, I’ve got no health;
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I’d rather be sick, than be a bit the sounder with health from thee. This I want to know, what’s owing thee here in our house?
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ASTAPHIUM
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Do keep close—
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STRATILAX
262b
Yea, faith, to my own good woman I trust; let him keep close to thee whose habit ’tis. A rare fine joke! a silly hussy to be tempting a countryman to naughty tricks.
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ASTAPHIUM
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Keep close your anger, I meant.
264a
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STRATILAX
264a
As thee’st begun with me, so I’d e’en lay a wagerLay a wager: The meaning of this passage seems to be, according to the way you have begun, I’d lay a wager your equal can’t be found; but the passage seems hopelessly corrupt, though a dozen different readings have been suggested. there’s not another like thee.Part of line 264 in the Latin. The purported pun on eiram and iram is not captured by this translator.
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ASTAPHIUM
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Really this fellow’s very churlish.
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STRATILAX
265b
Woman, dost thee go on abusing me?
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ASTAPHIUM
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Why, what did I say to you?
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STRATILAX
266b
Why, because thee dost call me churlish. Therefore now, if thee doesn’t be off this instant, and tell me quickly what thee want’st, adzookers, woman, I’ll be, here this very instant, trampling thee beneath my feet like a sow her piglings.
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ASTAPHIUM
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This is indeed right country,
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and no mistake; ’tis an abominable and truly a monkey race.
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STRATILAX
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Dost thee throw the country in my teeth, when thee hast found a man who’s ashamed of what’s foul?
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Hast thee come hither to tempt me with thy decked out bonesDecked out bones: Ossibus, with your bones. Probably, in allusion to her thinness, he insinuates that she is a skeleton. Exornatis may apply either to her dress or to the paint upon her face.? Was it for that, shameless slut, thee dyed thy mantle of its smoke-dried colour, or art thee so fine because that thee’s been a stealing?
272a
Come thee towards me then.
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ASTAPHIUM
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Now you charm me.
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STRATILAX
273a
How much I wish I could charm thee.
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ASTAPHIUM
273aa
You tell a lie.Part of line 273 in a variant reading of the Latin.
273ab
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STRATILAX
273ab
Tell me—Part of line 273 in the Latin.
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ASTAPHIUM
273ac
What? Part of line 273 in the Latin.
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STRATILAX
273b
What I ask thee. Dost thee wish to be taken for a bondswoman, who dost carry on thee those rings?
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ASTAPHIUM
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They give them to those who are worthy.
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STRATILAX
275a
These are the spoils of LavernaSpoils of Laverna: Laverna was the tutelary Divinity of thieves and he intends to insinuate that she has stolen the rings. which thee dost possess.Part of line 275 in the Latin?
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ASTAPHIUM
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Don’t be touching me.
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STRATILAX
276b
I, touch thee? So help me my weeding-hoe, I’d rather i’ the country for me to be harnessed like an ox with crumpled horns, and with it spend the livelong night upon the straw, than that a hundred nights with thee, with a dinner apiece, were given me for nothing!
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But what business, woman, hast thee at our house? Why dost thee come running this way as often as we come to town?
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ASTAPHIUM
110
I want to meet with your women.
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STRATILAX
283b
What women art thee talking to me about, when there’s not even a single woman-fly within the house?
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ASTAPHIUM
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What, does no woman live here?
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STRATILAX
285b
They’ve gone into the country, I say. Be off.
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ASTAPHIUM
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Why are you bawling out, you lunatic?
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STRATILAX
286b
If thee doesn’t make haste to get away from this with prodigious speed, I’ll forthwith be separating even from thy brains those falsified, daintily arranged, corkscrew curls of thine, with all their grease as well.
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ASTAPHIUM
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For what reason, pray?
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STRATILAX
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Why, because thee hast even presumed to approach our door anointed up with thine unguents, and because thee hast those cheeks so nicely, painted pink.
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ASTAPHIUM
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I’ troth, it was by reason of your clamour that I coloured in my alarm.
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STRATILAX
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And is it so? Thee coloured? As though, hussy, thee really hadst left to thy skin the power of receiving any colour. Redden up thy cheeks, thee hast given all thy skin its colour with chalkIts colour with chalk: Chalk was much used by the Roman females for the purposes of a cosmetic..
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Ye are scoundrelly jades.
295b
What’s the reason, abominable hussies, that this way ?
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I know more than thee think’st I know.
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ASTAPHIUM
296b
Prithee, what’s this that you know?
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STRATILAX
297b
How Strabax, my master’s son, is ruining himself at your house; how you are all enticing him to fraud and present-making.
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ASTAPHIUM
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If you appeared in your senses, I’d tell you. You’re uttering abuse only;
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not a person is in the habit of being ruined here at our house; they waste their property; when they’ve wasted their property, they may go bare thence, if they choose. I don’t know this young man of yours.
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STRATILAX
302b
Indeed so.
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ASTAPHIUM
302a
In sober truth.Part of line 302b in the Latin.
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STRATILAX
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Aye, but that garden wallThat garden wall: Maceria. This was a wall made of loose tiles or bricks, laid on each ether without mortar. that’s in our garden says so, which is becoming every night less by a brick, over which he travels to your house on the road to destruction.
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ASTAPHIUM
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The wall’s an old one; it isn’t wonderful if the bricks, being old, do tumble down.
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STRATILAX
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And says thee, hussy, that old bricks do tumble down? By my fakes, may never any mortal man henceforth trust me upon the two grand pointsThe two grand points: Alciatus thinks that the two things here mentioned are yes and no. Turnebus thinks that they mean things human and divine., if I don’t inform of these goings on of yours to my elder master.
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ASTAPHIUM
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Is he a savage as well?
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STRATILAX
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Why, he didn’t get his money by enriching harlots, but by thriftiness,
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and living hard; which now, however, is being carried off to you, abominable jades. (Takes her by the shoulders and shakes her.) There’s for thee, six-clawed hussy; a wretched life to both of ye. Am I to keep mum about these matters? But, lookye now, I’ll be off to the Forum at once and tell these goings on to the old gentleman, that he mayn’t somehow be cherishing within this mattingWithin this matting: In segestro. He seems to derive his metaphor from the usage in gardening of covering up trees with straw or bass matting, and of insects getting into the folds and hatching their eggs and swarming there. a whole swarm of misfortunes.
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ASTAPHIUM
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Upon my faith, if this fellow were living on mustard, I don’t think he could possibly be as snappish. But, i’ troth, how much a well-wisher to his master he is. Still, although he is a savage, I trust that he can be changed by coaxing, allurements, and other arts of the courtesan. I’ve seen a horse from unruly become tamed, and other brutes as well.
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Now I’ll go back to see my mistress. But see, my plague’s coming out. (The door of PHRONESIUM’S house is opened.) He’s coming out with a sad air; he hasn’t even yet had a meeting with Phronesium.
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DINARCHUS
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I do believe that the fishes, that are always bathing as long as they live, do not take so long in bathing as this Phronesium does in bathing. If women could be loved on as long as As long as: Warner says that he does not well comprehend this passage. The meaning, however, seems to be, that if women could be courted as long a time as they took in bathing, then lovers would certainly be keeping baths, or becoming bath-men, that they might be able for so long a time to enjoy the opportunity of courting them. they take in bathing,
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all lovers would be becoming bath-keepers.
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ASTAPHIUM
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Can’t you endure waiting for a short time even?
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DINARCHUS
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Why, ’pon my faith, I’m wretchedly tired with waiting already.
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ASTAPHIUM
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I, as well, shall be obliged to go bathe from weariness
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DINARCHUS
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But, i’ faith, Astaphium, prithee do go in-doors and tell her