Plautus: Casina

Thus for him, in place of the girl, a little slave-lad is substituted,
a good-for-nothing, who mauls the master and the steward.
The adolescent weds the citizen-woman Casina, acknowledged.

PROLOGVS

PROLOGUE

Saluere iubeo spectatores optumos,
Fidem qui facitis maxumi et uos Fides.
Si uerum dixi, signum clarum date mihi,
Vt uos mi esse aequos iam inde a principio sciam.
Qui utuntur uino uetere sapientis puto
Et qui lubenter ueteres spectant fabulas.

I bid hail, most excellent spectators,
you who make the greatest Good Faith, and you too, Faith.
If I have spoken truth, give me a clear sign,
that I may know you to be fair to me from the very beginning.
Those who use old wine I reckon wise,
and those who gladly watch old plays.

Antiqua opera et uerba quom uobis placent,
Aequomst placere ante alias ueteres fabulas.
Nam nunc nouae quae prodeunt comoediae
Multo sunt nequiores quam nummi noui.
Nos postquam populi rumore intelleximus
Studiose expetere uos Plautinas fabulas,
Antiquam eius edimus comoediam,
Quam uos probastis qui estis in senioribus:
Nam iuniorum qui sunt, non norunt, scio,
Verum ut cognoscant dabimus operam sedulo.

Since ancient works and words please you,
it is just that old plays should please before other ones.
For now the new comedies that come forth
are much more worthless than new coins.
After we understood by the people’s rumor
that you studiously seek out Plautine plays,
we are putting on an ancient comedy of his,
which you who are among the elders have approved:
for those who are among the younger do not know it, I know,
but that they may come to know it we will give diligent effort.

Haec quom primum actast, uicit omnis fabulas.
Ea tempestate flos poetarum fuit,
Qui nunc abierunt hinc in communem locum:
Sed tamen absentes prosunt pro praesentibus.
Vos omnes opere magno esse oratos uolo,
Benigne ut operam detis ad nostrum gregem.

When this was first acted, it conquered all plays.
At that time the flower of the poets was,
who now have departed hence into the common place:
But yet, absent, they profit in place of those present.
I wish you all to be entreated with great effort,
that kindly you give your effort to our troupe.

Eicite ex animo curam atque alienum aes
Nequis formidet flagitatorem suom:
Ludi sunt, ludus datus est argentariis,
Tranquillumst, Alcedonia sunt circum forum.
Ratione utuntur: ludis poscunt neminem
Secundum ludos reddunt autem nemini.
Aures uociuae si sunt, animum aduortite:
Comoediai nomen dare uobis uolo.

Cast out from your mind care and alien money (debt)
Let no one fear his collector:
It is the Games; a holiday has been given to the bankers,
It is tranquil; Halcyon-days are around the forum.
They proceed by a rule: at the games they exact from no one
however, after the games they repay to no one.
If your ears are at leisure, turn your mind:
I want to give you the name of the comedy.

Clerumenoe uocatur haec comoedia
Graece, latine Sortientes. Deiphilus
Hanc graece scripsit, postid rursum denuo
Latine Plautus cum latranti nomine.
Senex hic maritus habitat: eist filius:
Is ima cum patre in illisce habitat aedibus.

This comedy is called Clerumenoe
in Greek, in Latin the Sortientes. Deiphilus
wrote this in Greek; after that again anew
Plautus in Latin, with a barking name.
Here a married old man lives: he has a son:
He lives down below with his father in that house.

Est ei quidam seruos, qui in morbo cubat —
Immo hercle uero in lecto, nequid mentiar —:
Is seruos, sed abhinc annos factumst sedecim,
Quom conspicatust primulo crepusculo
Puellam exponi. adit extemplo ad mulierem,
Quae illam exponebat: orat, ut eam det sibi.
Exorat, aufert, detulit recta domum:
Dat erae suae: orat, ut eam curet educet.

He has a certain slave, who lies sick — nay, by Hercules, truly in bed, so that I may not say anything untrue —:
this slave, but sixteen years ago, when at the very first twilight he had caught sight of a girl being exposed,
goes at once to the woman who was exposing her: he begs that she give her to him.
He prevails, carries her off, brought her straight home:
he gives her to his mistress: he begs that she care for her and educate her.

Era fecit, educauit magna industria,
Quasi si esset ex se nata, non multo secus.
Postquam ea adoleuit ad eam aetatem, ut uiris
Placere posset, eam puellam hic senex
Amat efflictim et item contra filius.
Nunc sibi uterque contra legiones parat
Paterque filiusque clam alter alterum.

The mistress made her, educated her with great industry,
as if she were born from her, not much otherwise.
After she grew up to that age that she could please men,
this old man loves that girl desperately,
and likewise in turn the son.
Now each for himself readies legions against the other,
both father and son, secretly, each against each.

Pater adlegauit uilicum, qui posceret
Sibi istanc uxorem: is sperat, si ei sit data,

The father has delegated the farm-steward to demand
that woman as a wife for himself: he hopes, if she be given to him,

Sibi fore paratas clam uxorem excubias foris.
Filius is autem armigerum adlegauit suom,
Qui sibi eam uxorem poscat: scit, si id impetret,
Futurum quod amat intra praesepis suas.
Senis uxor sensit uirum amori operam dare:
Propterea una consentit cum filio.

that for himself vigils would be prepared outside, unbeknownst to his wife.
The son, however, has enlisted his own armiger,
to ask that girl for him as wife: he knows, if he obtains that,
what he loves will be within his own stalls.
The old man’s wife perceived that her husband is giving effort to love:
therefore together she consents with the son.

Ille autem postquam filium sensit suom
Eandem illam amare et esse impedimento sibi,
Hinc adulescentem peregre ablegauit pater.
Sciens ei mater dat operam absenti tamen.
Is—ne exspectetis—hodie in hac comoedia
In urbem non redibit: Plautus noluit:
Pontem interrupit, qui erat ei in itinere.

But he, after he sensed that his son loved that same woman and was an impediment to himself,
from here the father sent the young man abroad.
Knowing, his mother gives her effort to him, though absent nonetheless.
He—do not expect it—today in this comedy
will not return into the city: Plautus did not wish it:
he broke the bridge which was for him on the journey.

Sunt hic, inter se quos nunc credo dicere:
`Quaeso hercle, quid istuc est? seruiles nuptiae?
Seruin uxorem ducent aut poscent sibi?

There are here those who, among themselves, I now think are saying:
`I beg you, by Hercules, what is that? servile nuptials?
Will slaves lead home a wife or demand one for themselves?'

Nouom attulerunt, quod fit nusquam gentium.'
At ego aio id fieri in Graecia et Carthagini
Et hic in nostra terra, in Apulia:
Maioreque opere ibi seruiles nuptiae
Quam liberales etiam curari solent.
Id ni fit, mecum pignus, siquis uolt, dato
In urnam mulsi, Poenus dum iudex siet
Vel Graecus adeo uel mea causa Apulus.
Quid nunc?

They have brought something novel, which happens nowhere among the nations.
But I assert that it does happen in Greece and Carthage
and here in our own land, in Apulia:
and with greater effort there are servile nuptials
than even freeborn ones are wont to be attended to.
If that is not so, give a pledge with me, if anyone wishes,
into an urn of mulsum, provided that a Punic be judge,
or even a Greek, or, for my sake, an Apulian. What now?

nil agitis? sentio, nemo sitit.
Reuortar ad illam puellam expositiciam,
Quam serui summa ui sibi uxorem expetunt.

You do nothing? I perceive, no one is thirsty.
I will return to that exposed girl (a foundling),
whom the slaves with the greatest force seek for themselves as a wife.

Ea inuenietur et pudica et libera,
Ingenua Atheniensis: neque quidquam stupri
Faciet profecto in hac quidem comoedia.

She will be found both modest and free,
a freeborn Athenian:
nor assuredly will she commit any debauchery, at least in this comedy.

Mox hercle uero post transactam fabulam
Argentum siquis dederit, ut ego suspicor,
Vltro ibit nuptum, non manebit auspices.
Tantumst. ualete, belle rem gerite et uincite
Virtute uera, quod fecistis antidhac.

Soon, by Hercules, indeed, after the play has been finished,
if anyone should give silver, as I suspect,
she will go to wed of her own accord, she will not wait for the auspices.
That is all. Farewell; manage the matter nicely and conquer
by true virtue, as you have done before this.

ACTVS I

ACT 1

OLYMPIO VILICVS, CHALINVS SERVOS

OLYMPIO THE BAILIFF, CHALINUS THE SLAVE

OL. Non mihi licere meam rem me solum ut uolo
Loqui atque cogitare sine ted arbitro?
Quid tu, malum, me sequere? CHA. Quia certumst mihi,
Quasi umbra, quoquo tu ibis te semper sequi.

OL. Is it not permitted to me, about my own business, myself alone as I wish,
to speak and to think, without you as arbiter?
Why the devil do you follow me? CHA. Because it is certain to me,
like a shadow, wherever you will go, to follow you always.

Quin edepol etiam, si in crucem uis pergere,
Sequi decretumst: dehinc conicito ceterum:
Possisne necne clam me sutelis tuis
Praeripere Casinam uxorem, proinde ut postulas.
OL. Quid tibi negotist mecum? CHA. Quid ais, impudens?

Nay, by Pollux, even if you wish to go to the cross,
it is decreed I follow: then figure the rest out:
whether you can or not, unbeknownst to me, with your little wiles,
pre-empt Casina as wife, just as you demand. OL. What business have you with me? CHA. What say you, impudent fellow?

Quid in urbe reptas, uilice haud magni preti?
OL. Lubet. CHA. Quin ruri es in praefectura tua?

Why are you creeping about in the city, bailiff of not great price?
OL. I like it. CHA. Why are you not in the countryside in your prefecture?

Quin potius quod legatumst tibi negotium
Id curas atque urbanis rebus te apstines?
Huc mihi uenisti sponsam praereptum meam.
Abi rus, abi dierectus tuam in prouinciam.

Why not rather take care of the business that has been delegated to you,
and abstain from urban affairs? Here you have come to snatch away my betrothed from me.
Off to the countryside, off straight to your province.

OL. Chaline, non sum oblitus officium meum:
Praefeci ruri recte qui curet tamen.

OL. Chalinus, I have not forgotten my duty:
I have appointed in the countryside someone who nevertheless takes care of it properly.

Ego huc quod ueni in urbem si impetrauero,
Uxorem ut istam ducam quam tu deperis,
Bellam et tenellam Casinam, conseruam tuam:
Quando ego eam mecum rus uxorem abduxero,
Rure incubabo usque in praefectura mea.
CHA. Tun illam ducas? hercle me suspendio
Quam tu eius potior fias satiust mortuom.

If I obtain what I came here into the city for,
that I may take as wife that one whom you are desperately in love with,
the pretty and tender Casina, your fellow-slave:
when I have carried her off with me to the country as my wife,
out in the country I will lie upon her continually in my prefecture.
CHA. You take her? By Hercules, by hanging
it’s better I be dead than that you get the better of me in regard to her.

OL. Mea praedast illa: proin tu te in laqueum induas.
CHA. Ex sterculino effosse, tua illaec praeda sit?
OL. Scies hoc ita esse.

OL. That is my prey: so do you put yourself into the noose.
CHA. Dug from a dung-heap, should that be your prey?
OL. You will know this to be so.

uae tibi: quot te modis,
Si uiuo, habebo in nuptiis miserum meis.
CHA. Quid tu mihi facies? OL. Egone quid faciam tibi?

Woe to you: by how many ways,
If I live, I will have you miserable at my nuptials.
CHA. What will you do to me? OL. I—what will I do to you?

Primum omnium huic lucebis nouae nuptae facem:
(Postilla ut semper improbus nilique sis.)
Postid locorum quando ad uillam ueneris,
Dabitur tibi amphora una et una semita,
Fons unus, unum ahenum et octo dolia:
Quae nisi erunt semper plena, ego te implebo flagris
Ita te aggerunda curuom aqua faciam probe,
Vt postilena possit ex te fieri.
Post autem ruri nisi tu taceruom ederis
Aut quasi lumbricus terram, quod te postules
Gustare quicquam: numquam edepol ieiunium
Ieiunumst aeque atque ego te ruri reddibo.
Postid, quom lassus fueris et famelicus,
Noctu ut condigne te cubes curabitur.

First of all, you will bear the torch for this new bride:
(Thereafter may you always be a reprobate and a nobody.)
After that, when you come to the villa,
One amphora will be given to you and one path,
One fountain, one cauldron, and eight vats:
Which, unless they are always full, I will fill you with whips;
Thus with water-carrying I will make you properly curved,
So that a pack-saddle can be made out of you.
After that, in the country, unless you eat in silence,
Or—like an earthworm—if you ask to taste anything, earth is what
you’ll taste: never, by Pollux, is a fast
As fasting as the one I will render you in the country.
After that, when you are weary and famished,
By night it will be seen to that you lie down condignly.

CHA. Quid facies? OL. Concludere in fenestramfirmiter,
Vnde auscultare possis, quom ego illam ausculer.
Quom mihi illa dicet: mi animule, mi Olympio,

CHA. What will you do? OL. To shut you up in the window firmly,
whence you can eavesdrop, when I auscultate her.
When she says to me: my little soul, my Olympio,

Mea uita, mea mellilla, mea festiuitas:
Sine tuos ocellos deosculer, uoluptas mea,
Sine, amabo, ted amari, meus festus dies,
Meus pullus passer, mea columba, mi lepus:
Quom mi haec dicentur dicta, tum tu, furcifer,
Quasi mus in medio pariete uorsabere.
[CHA.] Nunc ne tu te mihi respondere postules.
Abeo intro: taedet tui sermonis.

My life, my little honey, my festivity:
Allow me to kiss your little eyes, my voluptuous delight,
Allow, please, yourself to be loved, my festal day,
My chick-sparrow, my dove, my little hare:
When these words are being said to me, then you, gallows-bird,
like a mouse in the middle of the wall you will be turning about.
[CHA.] Now do not presume to answer me.
I’m going inside: I am weary of your talk.

CHA. Te sequor:
Hic quidem pol certo nil ages sine med arbitro.

CHA. I follow you:
Here indeed, by Pollux, surely you will do nothing without me as arbiter.

ACTVS II

ACT 2

CLEOSTRATA MVLIER, PARDALISCA ANCILLA

CLEOSTRATA WOMAN, PARDALISCA MAIDSERVANT

CLE. Obsignate cellas, referte anulum ad me:
Ego huc transeo in proxumum ad meam uicinam.
Vir siquid uolet me, facite hinc accersatis.
PAR. Prandium iusserat senex sibi parari.

CLE. Seal the storerooms, bring the ring back to me:
I’ll go over here next door to my neighbor.
If my husband wants anything of me, see that you summon me from here.
PAR. The old man had ordered a luncheon to be prepared for himself.

CLE. St, tace atque abi: neque paro neque hodie coquetur:
Quando is mi et filio aduorsatur suo
Animi amorisque causa sui,
Flagitium illud hominis. Ego illum fame, ego illum siti,
Maledictis malefactis amatorem ulciscar.

CLE. Hush, be silent and be off: I am neither preparing nor will anything be cooked today:
Since he opposes me and his own son
for the sake of his spirit and his self-love,
that flagitious fellow of a man. I, with hunger, I, with thirst,
with maledictions and malefactions, will avenge myself on the lover.

Ego pol illum probe incommodis dictis angam:
Faciam, uti proinde ut est dignus uitam colat,
                    Acheruntis pabulum,
                    Flagiti persequentem,
                    Stabulum nequitiae.
Nunc huc meas fortunas eo questum ad uicinam.
Sed foris concrepuit atque eapse eccam egreditur foras.

By Pollux, I’ll vex him well with injurious words:
I’ll make it so that he lives his life just as he is worthy—
                    Acheron’s fodder,
                    pursued by infamy,
                    a stable of iniquity.
Now I go here to my neighbor to lament my fortunes.
But the door creaked—and look, she herself is coming out.

Non pol per tempus iter huc mihi incepi.

By Pollux, I did not begin my journey hither in time.

MYRRHINA. CLEOSTRATA
MVLIERES II

MYRRHINA. CLEOSTRATA
WOMEN 2

MY. Sequimini, comites, in proxumum me huc. heus
uos, ecquis haec quae loquor audit?
Ego hic ero, uir si aut quispiam quaeret.

MY. Follow, comrades, me here to the nearest place. hey
you, is there anyone who hears these things which I speak?
I will be here, if the husband or anyone inquires.

Nam ubi domi sola sum,
sopor manus caluitur.
Iussin colum ferri mihi?
CLE. Myrrhina, salue.

For when I am at home alone,
sleep is warmed by the hand.
Did you order the distaff to be carried to me?
CLE. Myrrhina, greetings.

MY. Salue mecastor:
sed quid tus tristis, amabo?
CLE. Ita solent omnes
quae sunt male nuptae:
Domi et foris aegre quod sit
satis semper est.
Nam ego ibam ad te. MY. Et pol ego istuc ad te.
Sed quid est, quod tuo nunc animo aegrest?

MY. Greetings, by Castor:
but why are you sad, please?
CLE. Thus are wont all
who are ill-married:
At home and out of doors, of what is grievous
there is always enough.
For I was going to you. MY. And, by Pollux, I likewise to you.
But what is it that now is grievous to your spirit?

Nam quod tibist aegre,
idem mihist diuidiae.
CLE. Credo ecastor: nam uicinam neminem amo merito magis quam te
Nec qua in plura sint mihi quae ego uelim.

For what is hard for you,
the same is a grievance to me.
CLE. I believe it, by Castor: for I love no neighbor more deservedly than you,
nor anyone in whom there are more things that I would wish.

MY. Amo te,
atque istuc expeto scire quid sit.
CLE. Vir Pessumis me modis despicatur domi.
MY. Hem.

MY. I love you,
and I desire to know what that is.
CLE. My husband despises me at home in the worst ways.
MY. Ha.

CLE. Quid est? MY. Dic idem hoc—nam pol hau satis meo
Corde accepi querellls tuas— opsecro.
CLE. Vir me habet pessumis despicatam modis
Nec mihi ius meum optinendi optiost.

CLE. What is it? MY. Say this same thing—for, by Pollux, I have not sufficiently in my heart received your complaints—I beseech you.
I beg.
CLE. My husband holds me despised in the worst ways
Nor have I the option of obtaining my right.

MY. Mira sunt, uera si praedicas: nam uiri
Ius suom ad mulieres optinere haud queunt.
CLE. Quin mihi ancillulam ingratiis postulat,
Quae meast, quae meo educta sumptu siet,
Vilico se suo dare:
sed ipsus eam amat.
MY. Obsecro, tace.

MY. Wondrous are they, if you predicate true things: for men
cannot maintain their own right over women.
CLE. Indeed he demands from me, against my will, a little maidservant,
who is mine, who would have been brought up at my expense,
to give her to his bailiff:
but he himself loves her.
MY. I beseech you, be silent.

nam hic nunc licet dicere. nos sumus. CLE. Itast.

for here now it is permitted to speak. we are the ones. CLE. It is so.

MY. Vnde ea tibist?
Nam peculi probam nil habere addecet
Clam uirum et quae habet partum ei haud commodest,
Quin uiro aut subtrahat aut stupro inuenerit.
Hoc uiri censeo esse omne quicquid tuomst.

MY. Whence is that to you?
For it does not befit a virtuous woman to have any peculium
unknown to her husband, and what she has gotten is not commodious for him,
but rather she has either subtracted it from her husband or found it by debauchery.
I reckon this to be the husband’s—whatever of yours there is.

CLE. Tu quidem aduorsum tuam amicam omnia loqueris.

CLE. You indeed speak everything against your girlfriend.

                    MY. Tace sis, stulta, et mi ausculta.
                    Noli sis tu illi aduorsari:
                    Sine amet, sine quod lubet id faciat,
                    Quando tibi nil domi delicuomst.

                    MY. Be quiet, please, foolish girl, and listen to me.
                    Please do not oppose him:
                    Let him love, let him do what it pleases him to do,
                    since you have nothing left over at home.

CLE. Satin sanas? nam tu quidem aduorsus
Tuam istaec rem loquere. MY. Insipiens,
Semper tu huic uerbo uitato abs tuo uiro.

CLE. Are you quite sane? for indeed you are speaking
this business against your own interest. MY. Fool,
Always avoid this word from your husband.

CLE. Quoi
uerbo? MY. Ei foras, mulier.
CLE. St,
Tace.

CLE. What
word? MY. Out you go, woman.
CLE. Hush,
Be quiet.

MY. Quid est? CLE. Em. MY. Quis est quem uides? CLE. Vir eccum it.
Intro abi, adpropera [age], amabo.

MY. What is it? CLE. Look. MY. Who is it that you see? CLE. A man—see, there he goes.
Go inside, hurry—come on, please.

MY. Impetras: abeo.
CLE. Mox magis quom otium mihi et tibi erit,
Igitur tecum loquar: nunc uale. MY. Valeas.

MY. You prevail; I’m off.
CLE. Soon, when there is more leisure for me and for you,
then I will speak with you: now farewell. MY. Farewell.

LYSIDAMVS. CLEOSTRATA
SENEX MVLIER

LYSIDAMUS. CLEOSTRATA
OLD MAN WOMAN

LY. Omnibus rebus ego amorem credo et nitoribus nitidis anteuenire,
Nec potis quicquam commemorari, quod plus salis plusque leporis hodie
Habeat. cocos equidem nimis demiror, qui lituntur condimentis,
Eos eo condimento uno non utier, omnibus quod praestat.
Nam ubi amor condimentum inerit, quoiuis placituram credo,
Neque salsum neque suaue esse potest quicquam, ubi amor non admiscetur:
Fel quod amarumst, id mel faciet: hominem ex tristi lepidum et lenem.

LY. I, for my part, believe love outstrips all things and glossy gleamings,
Nor can anything be mentioned that today has more salt and more charm.
I truly marvel exceedingly at cooks, who smear things with condiments,
that they do not use that one condiment which surpasses all.
For where love shall be in as a condiment, I believe it will please anyone,
nor can anything be salty nor suave where love is not mixed in:
that which is bitter gall he will make honey: out of a sad man, a charming and gentle one.

Hanc ego de me coniecturam domi facio magis quam ex auditis:

I make this conjecture about myself at home rather than from things heard:

Qui quam amo Casinam magis, inicio munditiis Munditiam antideo.
Myropolas omnis sollicito: ubiquomquest lepidum unguentum, unguor,
Vt illi placeam: et placeo, ut uideor. sed uxor me excruciat, quia uiuit.

Because the more I love Casina, I put on mundities; I set Cleanliness in the forefront.
I solicit all the perfumers: wherever there is a charming unguent, I get myself anointed,
so that I may please her: and I do please, as I seem. But my wife excruciates me, because she lives.

Tristem astare aspicio: blande haec mihi mala res appellandast.
Vxor mea meaque amoenitas, quid tu agis? CLE. Manum abi atque abstine.

I behold her standing sad: this bad affair must be addressed blandly.
My wife and my delight, what are you doing? CLE. Away with your hand, and abstain.

LY. Heia, mea Iuno, non decet esse te tam tristem tuo Ioui.
Quo nunc abis? CLE. Mitte me. LY. Mane.

LY. Hey, my Juno, it does not befit you to be so downcast toward your own Jove.
Where are you going now? CLE. Let me go. LY. Wait.

CLE. Non maneo. LY. At pol ego te sequar.
CLE. obsecro, sanun es? LY. Sanus.

CLE. I am not staying. LY. But by Pollux, I will follow you.
CLE. I beg, are you sane? LY. Sane.

quam ted amo.
CLE. Nolo ames. LY. Non potes impetrare.

how I love you.
CLE. I do not want you to love me. LY. You cannot obtain it.

CLE. Enecas.
LY. Vera dicas uelim. CLE. Credo ego istuc tibi.

CLE. You’re killing me.
LY. I’d like you to speak the truth. CLE. I do believe you in that.

LY. Respice, o mi lepos. CLE Nempe ita ut tu mihi's.
Vnde hic, amabo, unguenta olent? LY. Oh perii.

LY. Look, O my delight. CLE Indeed, just as you are to me.
Where, please, is this smell of unguents coming from here? LY. Oh, I’m done for.

Manufesto miser teneor. cesso caput pallio detergere?
Vt te bonus Mercurius perdat, myropola, quia haec mihi dedisti.

Manifestly, wretch that I am, I am caught. Do I delay to wipe my head with my cloak?
May good Mercury destroy you, perfumer, because you gave me these.

CLE. Eho tu, nili, cana culex: uix teneor, quin quae decent te dicam.
Senecta aetate unguentatus per uias, ignaue, incedis?
LY. Pol ego amico dedi quoidam operam, dum emit unguenta.

CLE. Hey you, you nothing, hoary gnat: I am scarcely held back from saying what befits you.
In senectitude, anointed with unguents, do you proceed through the streets, you sluggard?
LY. By Pollux, I gave attendance to a certain friend, while he was buying unguents.

CLE. Vt cito commentust.
Ecquid te pudet? LY. Omnia quae tu uis.

CLE. How quickly he has contrived it.
Are you at all ashamed? LY. Everything you wish.

CLE. Vbi in lustra iacuisti?
LY. Egon in lustra? CLE. Scio plus quam tu me arbitrare.

CLE. In what brothels have you lain?
LY. Me, in brothels?
CLE. I know more than you suppose I do.

LY. Quid id est? quid [tu] seis?

LY. What is that? What do you know?

CLE. Te sene omnium senem neminem esse ignauiorem.
Vnde is, nili? ubi fuisti?

CLE. You, old man—among all old men there is no one more slothful.
Where are you from, you good-for-nothing? Where have you been?

ubi lustratus? ubi bibisti?
Mades mecastor: uide palliolum ut rugat.

Where were you washed? where did you drink?
You’re soaked, by Castor: look how the little cloak wrinkles up.

LY. Di me et te infelicent,
Si ego in os meum hodie uini guttam indidi.
CLE. Immo age ut lubet bibe, es, disperde rem.
LY. Ohe, iam satis, uxor, Comprime te? nimium tinnis.

LY. May the gods make me and you ill‑fated,
If I today have put a drop of wine into my mouth.
CLE. Nay rather, come on as it pleases you—drink, eat, destroy the estate.
LY. Oh, enough now, wife, Comprime yourself, will you? you ring too much.

Relinque aliquantum orationis, cras quod mecum litiges.
Sed quid ais? iam domuisti animum, potius ut, quod uir uelit
Fieri, id facias, [potius] quam aduorsere contra?

Leave some oration over, for tomorrow, to litigate with me.
But what do you say? Have you now tamed your spirit, so that, rather, what your husband wishes
to be done, that you do, [rather] than be adverse against him?

CLE. Qua de re? LY. Rogas?
Super ancilla Casina: ut detur nuptum nostro uilico,
Seruo frugi? atque ubi illi bene sit ligno, aqua calida?

CLE. About what matter? LY. You ask?
About the handmaid Casina: that she be given in marriage to our bailiff,
a thrifty/virtuous slave? and where he may fare well with the cudgel and hot water?

cibo,
Vestimentis? ubique educat pueros quos pariat
Potius quam illi seruo nequam des armigero [nisi] atque improbo,
Quoi homini hodie peculi nummus non est plumbeus.
CLE. Mirum ecastor te senecta aetate officium tuom
Non meminisse.

with food,
with clothing? that she everywhere educate the boys whom she bears
rather than that you give her to that good-for-nothing slave, the armiger [nisi] and a wicked one,
to a man who today has not in his peculium a coin, not even a lead one.
CLE. A marvel, by Castor, that at your senescent age you do not remember your office.

LY. Quid iam? CLE. Quia, si facias recte aut commode,
Me sinas curare ancillas: quae meast curatio.
LY. Cui, malum, homini scutigerulo dare lubet?

LY. What now? CLE. Because, if you act rightly or fittingly,
you should allow me to take care of the maidservants: which is my charge.
LY. To which man, the devil, does it please you to give her—to some little shield-bearer?

CLE. Quia enim filio
Nos oportet opitulari unico. LY. At quamquam unicust,
Nilo magis ille unicust mihi filius quam ego illi pater:

CLE. Because indeed we ought to help the son, the only one.
LY. But although he is the only one,
he is no more an only son to me than I am a father to him:

Illum mi aequiust quam me illi quae uolo concedere.
CLE. Tu ecastor tibi, homo, malam rem quaeris: subolet, selltio.
LY. Egone?

It is more equitable that he concede to me the things I wish than that I to him.
CLE. By Castor, you, man, are courting a bad business for yourself: it reeks—of the stocks.
LY. I?

CLE. Tu: nam quid friguttis? quid istuc tam cupide cupis?
LY. Vt enim frugi seruo detur potius quam seruo improbo.

CLE. You: for why are you shivering? why do you so greedily covet that?
LY. So that it may be given to a frugal, worthy slave rather than to a wicked slave.

CLE. Quid si ego impetro atque exoro a uilico, causa mea
Vt eam illi permittat? LY. Quid si ego autem ab armigero impetro,
Vt eam illi permittat? atque hoc credo impetrassere.

CLE. What if I obtain and prevail upon the steward, on my account,
to permit her to him? LY. What if I, however, obtain from the armor-bearer,
to permit her to him? and this I believe I shall have obtained.

CLE. Conuenit. uin tuis Chalinum huc euocem uerbis foras?
Tu eum orato, ego autem orabo uilicum.

CLE. Agreed. Do you want me to call Chalinus out here with your words?
You ask him, and I will ask the bailiff.

LY. Sane uolo.
CLE. Iam hic erit: nunc experiemur, nostrum uter sit blandior.
LY. Hercules dique istam perdant, quod nunc liceat dicere.

LY. Certainly, I want to.
CLE. He’ll be here now: now we’ll try which of us is the more blandishing.
LY. By Hercules, and may the gods destroy that woman, now that it is permitted to say so.

Ego discrucior miser amore, illa autem quasi ob industriam
Mi aduorsatur. subolet hoc iam uxori, quod ego machinor:
Propter eam rem magis armigero dat operam de industria.

I am excruciated, wretched, by love, but she, as if on purpose,
sets herself in opposition to me. The wife now scents this, what I am machinating:
on account of that matter she, on purpose, gives her attention the more to the armor-bearer.

LYSIDAMVS. CHALINVS
SENEX SERVOS

LYSIDAMUS. CHALINUS
OLD MAN SLAVE

LY. Qui Illum di omnes deaeque perdant. CHA. Te—uxor aiebat tua
Me uocare. LY. Ego enim uocari iussi.

LY. May all the gods and goddesses destroy that fellow. CHA. You—your wife was saying
to call me. LY. For indeed I ordered you to be called.

CHA. Eloquere quid uelis?

CHA. Speak out what you wish?

LY. Primum ego te porrectiore fronte uolo mecum loqui:
Stultitiast ei te esse tristem quoius potestas plus potest.
Probum et frugi hominem iam pridem esse arbitror.
CHA. Intellego.

LY. First, I want you to speak with me with a more extended brow:
It is stupidity for you to be sad toward him whose power can do more.
I have long since judged you to be a man of probity and thrift.
CHA. I understand.

Quin, si ita arbitrare, emittis me manu? LY. Quin id uolo:
Sed nil est me cupere factum, nisi tu factis adiuuas.
CHA. Quid uelis, modo id uelim me scire.

Why not, if you judge so, manumit me? LY. Indeed, I want that:
But my desiring it to be done is nothing, unless you aid with deeds.
CHA. What you want—only I would like to know that myself.

LY. Ausculta, ego eloquar.
Casinam ego uxorem promisi uilico nostro dare.
CHA. At tua uxor filiusque promiserunt mihi.

LY. Listen, I will speak out.
I have promised to give Casina as wife to our bailiff.
CHA. But your wife and your son have promised her to me.

LY. Scio:
Sed utrum nunc tu caelibem ted esse mauis liberum
An maritum seruom aetatem degere et gnatos tuos?
Optio haec tuast: utram harum uis condicionem accipe.
CHA. Liber si sim, meo periclo uiuam: nunc uiuo tuo.

LY. I know:
But whether do you now prefer yourself to be a bachelor free,
or to spend your lifetime as a married slave—and your sons too?
This is your option: accept whichever of these conditions you wish.
CHA. If I be free, I will live at my own peril: now I live at yours.

De Casina certumst concedere homini nato nemini.
LY. Intro abi atque actutum uxorem huc euoca ante aedis cito:
Et sitellam huc tecum efferto cum aqua et sortis. CHA. Satis placet.

As for Casina, it is settled: to concede her to no man born.
LY. Go inside and immediately call my wife out here in front of the house, quickly:
And bring out here with you a bucket with water and the lots. CHA. It pleases me well enough.

LY. Ego pol istam iam aliquouorsum tragulam decidero.
Nam si sic nil impetrare potero, saltem sortiar.
Ibi ego te et suffragatores tuos ulciscar.

LY. By Pollux, I will now have shot that javelin off in some direction or other.
For if I can obtain nothing thus, at least I will draw lots.
There I will avenge myself on you and your suffragators.

CHA. Attamen
Mihi obtinget sors. LY. Vt quidem pol pereas cruciatu malo.
CHA. Mihi illa nubet: machinare quidlubet quouis modo.

CHA. Nevertheless
the lot will fall to me. LY. Why yes, by Pollux, may you perish in evil cruciation.
CHA. She will marry me: machinate whatever you please by whatever method.

LY. Abin hinc ab oculis? CHA. Inuitus me uides: uiuam tamen.

LY. Will you get out of my sight? CHA. You see me unwilling; nevertheless I shall live.

LY. Sumne ego miser homo? satin omnes res sunt aduorsae mihi?
Iam metuo, ne Olympionem mea uxor exorauerit,
Ne Casinam ducat.

LY. Am I a miserable man? Are all things quite adverse to me?
Now I fear that my wife has prevailed upon Olympio,
that he should lead Casina in marriage.

si id factumst, ecce me nullum senem.
Si non impetrauit, specula etiam in sortitust mihi.
Si sors autem decolassit, gladium faciam culcitam
Eumque incumbam.

if that has been done, behold me no old man.
If she has not obtained it, a watch-post too has by lot fallen to me.
If the lot, however, has come down against me, I will make the sword a cushion
and I will lie upon it.

sed progreditur optume eccum
Olympio.

but he comes forward very well—look—
Olympio.

OLYMPIO. LYSIDAMVS
SERVOS SENEX

OLYMPIO. LYSIDAMVS
SLAVE OLD MAN

OL. Vna edepol opera in furnum calidum condito
Atque ibi torreto me pro pane rubido,
Era, qua istuc opera a me impetres quod postulas.
LY. Saluos sum: salua spes est, ut uerba audio.
OL. Quid tu me uera libertate territas?

OL. With one and the same effort, by Pollux, put me into a hot oven,
and there toast me in place of a ruddy loaf,
Mistress, by what effort could you impetrate from me that which you demand.
LY. I am safe: hope is safe, as I hear the words.
OL. Why do you frighten me with true liberty?

Quin si tu nolis filiusque etiam tuos,
Vobis inuitis atque amborum ingratiis
Vna libella liber possum fieri.
LY. Quid istuc est? quicum litigas, Olympio?

Why, even if you do not wish it, and your son too,
with you unwilling and to the displeasure of you both,
with a single libella I can become free.
LY. What is that? with whom are you litigating, Olympio?

OL. Cum eadem qua tu semper. LY. Cum uxore mea?
OL. Quam tu mi uxorem?

OL. With the same one as you always. LY. With my wife?
OL. Whom do you call my wife?

quasi uenator tu quidem es:
Dies atque noctes cum cane aetatem exigis.
LY. Quid agit? quid loquitur tecum?

You are indeed like a hunter:
day and night you spend your time with a dog.
LY. What does he do? what does he say to you?

OL. Orat obsecrat
Ne Casinam uxorem ducam. LY. Quid tu postea?
OL. Negaui enim ipsi me concessurum Ioui
Si is mecum oraret.

OL. He prays, he beseeches
that I not take Casina as wife. LY. What did you do afterward?
OL. For I denied that I would concede even to Jupiter himself
if he should entreat me.

LY. Di te seruassint mihi.
OL. Nunc in fermento totast: ita turget mihi.

LY. May the gods preserve you for me.
OL. Now she’s all in ferment: so she swells at me.

LY. Ego edepol illam mediam diruptam uelim.
OL. Credo edepol esse, siquidem tu frugi bonae's.
Verum edepol tua mihi odiosast amatio:
Inimicast tua uxor mihi, inimicus filius,
Inimici familiares. LY. Quid id refert tua?

LY. By Pollux, I’d like her split right down the middle.
OL. By Pollux, I do believe it is so, since you’re a man of good thrift.
But, by Pollux, your love-affair is hateful to me:
your wife is hostile to me, your son hostile,
your familiars hostile. LY. What does that matter to you?

Vnus tibi hic dum propitius sit Iuppiter,
Tu istos minutos caue deos flocci feceris.
OL. Nugae sunt istae magnae: quasi tu nescias,
Repente ut emoriantur humani Ioues.
Sed tandem si tu Iuppiter sis [e]mortuos,
Quom ad deos minoris redierit regnum tuom,
Quis mihi subueniet tergo aut capiti aut cruribus?

So long as this one Jupiter here is propitious to you,
take care you do not reckon those minute gods at a flocc.
OL. Those are mighty trifles: as if you didn’t know
how human Joves die suddenly.
But say, if at last you, Jupiter, should be dead,
when your reign has returned to the lesser gods,
who will come to my aid—of my back or my head or my legs?

LY. Opinione melius res tibi habet tua,
Si hoc impetramus, ut ego cum Casina cubem.
OL. Non hercle opinor posse: ita uxor acriter
Tua instat, ne mihi detur. LY. At ego sic agam:
Coniciam sortis in sitellam et sortiar
Tibi et Chalino.

LY. Your affair stands better than expected for you,
if we obtain this, that I lie with Casina.
OL. By Hercules, I do not think it possible: your wife presses so sharply
that it not be granted to me. LY. But I will act thus:
I will throw the lots into a little-urn and cast lots
for you and for Chalinus.

ita rem natam intellego:
Necessumst uorsis gladiis depugnarier.
OL. Quid si sors aliter quam uoles euenerit?
LY. Benedice: dis sum fretus, deos sperabimus.

so I understand the matter as it has arisen:
It is necessary to fight it out with drawn swords.
OL. What if the lot turns out otherwise than you wish?
LY. Speak well: I am reliant on the gods; we shall hope in the gods.

OL. Non ego istuc uerbum empsim titiuillicio:
Nam omnes mortales deis sunt freti: sed tamen
Vidi ego deis fretos saepe multos decipi.
LY. St, tace parumper. OL. Quid uis?

OL. I would not buy that word for a trifle:
For all mortals are relying on the gods; but nevertheless
I have seen many, relying on the gods, often be deceived.
LY. Hush, be quiet a moment. OL. What do you want?

LY. Eccum exit foras
Chalinus intus cum sitella et sortibus:
Nunc nos conlatis signis depugnabimus.

LY. Look, here comes Chalinus out
from inside, with the little bucket and the lots:
Now we will fight it out with standards joined.

CLEOSTRATA. CEALINVS. LYSIDAMVS. OLYMPIO
MVLIER SERVOS SENEX SERVOS

CLEOSTRATA. CEALINUS. LYSIDAMUS. OLYMPIO
WOMAN SLAVE OLD MAN SLAVE

CLE. Face, Chaline, certiorem me, quid meus uir me uelit.
CHA. Ille edepol uidere ardentem te extra portam mortuam.
CLE. Credo ecastor uelle.

CLE. Make me more certain, Chalinus, what my husband wants of me.
CHA. He, by Pollux, to see you burning, dead, outside the gate.
CLE. I believe, by Castor, he wants that.

CHA. At pol ego hau credo, sed certo scio.
LY. Plus artificumst mi quam rebar: hariolum hunc habeo domi.
Quid si propius attollamus signa eamusque obuiam?

CHA. But, by Pollux, I don’t believe it, but I know for certain.
LY. I have more men of craft than I supposed: I’ve this soothsayer at home.
What if we raise the standards nearer and go to meet them?

Sequere. quid uos agitis? CHA. Adsunt quae imperauisti omnia:
Vxor, sortes, situla atque egomet.

Follow. What are you doing? CHA. Present are all the things you commanded: the wife, the lots, the bucket, and I myself.

OL. Te uno adest plus quam ego uolo.
CHA. Tibi quidem edepol ita uidetur: stimulus ego nunc sum tibi:
Fodico corculum: adsudascis iam ex metu, mastigia.
CLE. Tace, Chaline.

OL. Your presence alone is more than I want.
CHA. To you indeed, by Pollux, it seems so: I am now a goad to you;
I prod your little heart: you’ll be breaking into a sweat now from fear, you whip-scourged wretch.
CLE. Be quiet, Chalinus.

OL. Comprime istum. CHA. Immo istunc qui didicit dare.
LY. Adpone hic sitellam, sortis cedo mihi: animum aduortite.

OL. Restrain that fellow. CHA. No—rather, that one who has learned to deal them.
LY. Set the bucket here, hand over the lots to me: turn your attention.

Atqui ego censui aps te posse hoc me[cum] impetrare, uxor mea,
Casina ut uxor mihi daretur, et nunc etiam censeo.
CLE. Tibi daretur illa? LY. Mihi enim — ah — non id uolui dicere:
Dum mihi uolui, huic dixi atque adeo mihi dum cupio — perperam

And yet I judged I could obtain this from you, my wife, that Casina be given to me as wife, and even now I judge so.
CLE. That she be given to you?
LY. To me indeed — ah — that is not what I wished to say:
While I wished it for myself, I said it for this fellow; and indeed while I desire it for myself — amiss.

Iam dudum hercle fabulor. CLE. Pol tu quidem, atque etiam facis.
LY. Huic— immo hercle mlhi — uah, tandem redii uix ueram in uiam.

I have been talking for a long time now, by Hercules. CLE. By Pollux, indeed you are, and you are even doing so.
LY. To this man— nay, by Hercules, to me — vah, at last I have scarcely returned into the true way.

CLE. Per pol saepe peccas. LY. Ita fit, ubi quid tanto opere expetas.
Sed te uterque tuo pro iure ego atque hic oramus.

CLE. By Pollux, you often sin. LY. So it happens, when you desire something to such a degree.
But we both entreat you, each according to his right, I and this fellow.

CLE. Quid est?
LY. Dicam enim, mea mulsa: de istac Casina huic nostro uilico
Gratiam facias. CLE. At pol ego nec facio neque censeo.

CLE. What is it?
LY. I’ll say then, my honey‑sweet: regarding that Casina, show grace to this our bailiff.
CLE. But, by Pollux, I neither do so nor do I judge it so.

LY. Tum igitur ego sortis utrimque iam CLE. Quis uotat?
LY. Optumum atque aequissumum istud esse iure iudico.
Postremo si illuc quod uolumus eueniet, gaudebimus:
Sin secus, patiemur animis aequis.

LY. Then therefore I, lots on both sides now— CLE. Who votes?
LY. I judge by right that that is the best and most equitable.
Finally, if that which we wish comes about, we shall rejoice:
But if otherwise, we shall endure with even-tempered minds.

tene sortem tibi:
Vide quid scriptumst. OL. Vnum. CHA. Iniquomst, quia isti prius quam mihist.

hold the lot for yourself:
See what is written. OL. One. CHA. It’s unfair, because it’s his before it is mine.

LY. Accipe hanc sis. CHA. Cedo. mane: unum uenit in mentem modo.

LY. Take this, please. CHA. Hand it over. Wait: one thing has just now come to mind.

Vide, nequa illic insit alia sortis sub aqua. LY. Verbero,
Men te censes esse? CLE. Nullast: habe quietum animum modo.

See that there isn’t any other lot hidden beneath the water there. LY. Scourge!
Do you think yourself to be me? CLE. There’s none: only keep a quiet mind.

OL. Quod bonum atque fortunatum [tuum] sit mihi. CHA. Magnum malum.
OL. Tibi quidem edepol, credo, eueniet: noui pietatem tuam.

OL. May this be good and fortunate [yours] for me. CHA. A great evil. OL. For you indeed, by Pollux, I believe, it will befall: I know your piety.

Sed mane dum: num ista aut populna sors aut abiegnast tua?

But wait a moment: is that lot of yours of poplar or of fir?

CHA. Quid tu id curas? OL. Quia enim metuo, ne in aqua summa natet.
LY. Auge caue.

CHA. Why do you care about that? OL. Because indeed I fear lest it float on the top of the water.
LY. Auge, beware.

conicite sortis nunciam am[a]bo huc. eccere:
Vxor, aequa. OL. Noli uxori credere.

cast the lots now at once, please, here. look here:
Wife, equitable. OL. Do not trust the wife.

LY. Habe animum bonum.
OL. Credo hercle, hodie deuotabit sortis, si attigerit. LY. Tace.

LY. Have good courage.
OL. I believe, by Hercules, today he will curse the lots, if he touches them. LY. Be quiet.

OL. Taceo: deos quaeso— CHA. Vt quidem tu hodie canem et furcam feras.
OL. Mihi ut sortito eueniat,— CHA. Vt quidem hercle pedibus pendeas.
OL. At tu ut oculos emungare ex capite per nasum tuos.

OL. I am silent: I beseech the gods— CHA. That indeed you today may carry the dog and the fork.
OL. That it may befall me by lot,— CHA. That indeed, by Hercules, you may hang by your feet.
OL. But that you may blow your eyes out from your head through your nose.

CHA. Quid times? paratum oportet esse iam laqueum tibi.
OL. Periisti.

CHA. Why are you afraid? The noose ought to be ready for you by now.
OL. You're done for.

LY. Animum aduortite am[a]bo. OL. Taceo. LY. Nunc tu, Cleostrata,
Ne a me memores malitiose de hac re factum aut suspices,
Tibi permitto: tute sorti. OL. Perdis me. CHA. Lucrum facit.

LY. Turn your mind, please. OL. I’ll be quiet. LY. Now you, Cleostrata,
so that you may not later recall or suspect that anything in this matter was done by me maliciously,
I permit it to you: you yourself draw lots. OL. You’re ruining me. CHA. He’s making a profit.

CLE. Bene facis. CHA. Deos quaeso, ut tua sors ex sitella effugerit.
OL. Ain tu? quia tute es fugitiuos, omnis te imitari cupis?

CLE. You do well. CHA. I pray the gods that your lot has escaped from the urn.
OL. Is that so? because you yourself are a fugitive, you want everyone to imitate you?

CEA. Vtinam tua quidem sicut Herculei praedicant
Quondam prognatis ista in sortiendo sors deliquerit.
OL. Tu ut liquescas ipse, actutum uirgis calefactabere.

CEA. Would that indeed, just as they proclaim about the Herculean progeny once, your lot—this very one—had slipped in the drawing of lots.
OL. As for you, so that you yourself may liquefy, you will straightway be heated up with rods.

LY. Hoc age sis, Olympio. OL. Si hic litteratus me sinat.

LY. Do this, please, Olympio. OL. If this literate man here would allow me.

LY. Quod bonum atque fortunatum mihi sit. OL. Ita uero, et mihi.
CHA. Non.

LY. May it be good and fortunate for me. OL. Yes indeed, and for me.
CHA. No.

OL. Immo herCLE. CHA. Immo mihi hercle CLE. Hic uincet, tu uiues miser.
LY. Percide os tu illi odio: age, ecquid fit? CLE. Caue obiexis manum.

OL. Nay indeed, by HerCLE. CHA. Nay, by Hercules, for me. CLE. This one will win; you will live a wretch.
LY. Smash his face, you—out of spite: come on, is anything happening? CLE. Beware, don’t thrust out your hand.

OL. Compressan palma an porrecta ferio? LY. Age ut uis. OL. Em tibi.

OL. With the palm compressed or outstretched do I strike? LY. Go on as you wish. OL. Here—take that!

CLE. Quid tibi istunc tactiost? OL. Quia Iuppiter iussit meus.
CLE. Feri malam ut ille rursum.

CLE. What business have you to touch that fellow? OL. Because my Jupiter ordered me.
CLE. Hit his cheek, so that he hits back in turn.

OL. Perii: pugnis caedor, Iuppiter.
LY. Quid tibi tactio hunc fuit? CHA. Quia iussit haec Iuno mea.

OL. I perish: I am being beaten with fists, Jupiter.
LY. What business had you to touch him? CHA. Because this my Juno ordered it.

LY. Patiundumst, siquidem me uiuo mea uxor imperium exhibet.
CLE. Tam huic loqui [qui] licere oportet quam isti. OL. Cur omen mihi
Vituperat?

LY. It must be endured, since, while I live, my wife exercises imperium.
CLE. It ought to be permitted for this fellow to speak [who] just as much as for that one. OL. Why does he reproach the omen on my account?

LY. Malo, Chaline, tibi cauendum censeo.
CHA. Temperi, postquam oppugnatumst os. LY. Age, uxor [mea], nunciam
Sorti: uos aduortite animum. prae metu ubi sim nescio.

LY. Rather, Chalinus, I judge that you must beware.
CHA. Timely, since the face has been assaulted. LY. Come, wife [mine], now then, Sorti: you, advert your mind. For fear I do not know where I am.

[OL.] Perii: cor lienosum, opinor, habeo: iam[iam] dudum salit.
De labore pectus tundit. CLE. Teneo sortem.

[OL.] I’m done for: I think I have a spleeny heart: now[now] for a long time it’s been leaping.
From labor it pounds my breast. CLE. I hold the lot.

LY. Ecfer foras.
CHA. Iamne mortuos? OL. Ostende: meast.

LY. Bring it out.
CHA. Already dead? OL. Show it: it’s mine.

CHA. Mala crucias quidem.
CLE. Victus es, Chaline. LY. Quom nos di iuuere, Olympio,

CHA. You do torment grievously indeed.
CLE. You are vanquished, Chalinus. LY. When the gods aided us, Olympio,

Gaudeo. OL. Pietate factumst mea atque maiorum meum.
LY. Intro abi, uxor, atque adorna nuptias.

I am glad. OL. It has been done by my piety and by that of my ancestors.
LY. Go inside, wife, and adorn the nuptials.

CLE. Faciam ut iubes.
LY. Scin tu rus hinc esse ad uillam longe quo ducat? CLE. Scio.

CLE. I will do as you order.
LY. Do you know from here out into the countryside to the villa, how far it is and which way it leads? CLE. I know.

LY. Intro abi: et quamquam hoc tibi aegrest, tamen fac accures. CLE. Licet.
LY. Eamus nos quoque intro: hortemur, ut properent.

LY. Go inside; and although this is grievous to you, nevertheless see that you hurry. CLE. It is permitted.
LY. Let us go inside as well: let us exhort them, that they hasten.

OL. Numquid moror?
Nam praesente hoc plura uerba fieri non desidero.

OL. Am I delaying at all?
For with this man present I do not desire more words to be made.

CHALINVS
SERVOS

CHALINUS
SLAVE

Si nunc me suspendam, meam operam luserim
Et praeter operam restim sumpti fecerim
Et meis inimicis uoluptatem creauerim.
Quid opus est, qui sic mortuos tequidem tamen?
Sorti sum uictus: Casina nubet uilico.

If now I should hang myself, I will have trifled away my labor,
and besides my labor I will have made the expense of a rope,
and I will have created pleasure for my enemies.
What need is there, since thus I am as good as dead to you anyway?
I am vanquished by the lot: Casina will wed the bailiff.

Atque id non tam aegrest iam, uicisse uilicum,
Quam id expetiuisse opere tam magno senem,
Ne ea mihi daretur atque ut illi nuberet.
Vt ille trepidabat, ut festinabat miser,
Vt subsultabat, postquam uicit uilicus.
Attat, concedam huc: audio aperiri fores.

And that is not so grievous now, that the bailiff has won,
as that the old man has sought it with so great an effort,
that she not be given to me and that she marry him.
How he was in a trepidation, how the poor wretch was hastening,
how he was capering, after the bailiff won.
Ah, I will withdraw here: I hear the doors being opened.

Mei beneuolentis atque ameici prodeunt.
Hinc ex insidiis hisce ego insidias dabo.

My well-wishers and friends are coming forth.
From here, from these ambushes, I will lay ambushes.

OLYMPIO. LYSIDAMVS. CALINVS
SERVOS SENEX SERVOS

OLYMPIO. LYSIDAMUS. CALINUS
SLAVE OLD MAN SLAVE

OL. Sine modo rus [e]ueniat: ego remittam ad te uirum
Cum furca in urbem tamquam carbonarium.
LY. Ita fieri oportet. OL. Factum et curatum dabo.

OL. Only let the country-trip come off: I will send back to you the man
with the fork into the city, like a charcoal-man.
LY. So it ought to be done. OL. I will have it done and seen to.

LY. Volui Chalinum, si domi esset, mittere
Tecum obsonatum, ut etiam in maerore insuper
Inimico nostro miseriam hanc adiungerem.
CHA. Recessim cedam ad parietem: imitabor nepam:
Captandust horum clanculum sermo mihi.
Nam illorum me alter cruciat, alter macerat.

LY. I wished, if Chalinus were at home, to send him to buy provisions with you, so that even in mourning, moreover, I might add this misery to our enemy.
CHA. I’ll step back toward the wall: I’ll imitate the nepa;
I must catch their talk on the sly.
For of those men, the one torments me, the other macerates me.

At candidatus cedit hic mastigia,
Stimulorum loculi. protollo mortem mihi:
Certumst, hunc Acheruntem praemittam prius.
OL. Vt tibi ego inuentus sum obsequens.

But here comes the candidate, this lash‑worthy wretch,
a little coffer of goads. I protract death for myself:
It is certain, I will send this one ahead to Acheron first.
OL. See how I am found compliant to you.

quod maxume
Cupiebas, eius copiam feci tibi:
Erit hodie tecum quod amas clam uxorem. LY. Tace:
Ita me di bene ament, ut ego uix reprimo labra,
Ob istanc rem quin te deosculer, uoluptas mea.
CHA. Quid, deosculere?

that which you most desired, I have made provision of it for you:
there will be today with you what you love, clandestinely from your wife. LY. Hush:
so may the gods love me well, that I scarcely restrain my lips,
on account of this matter, from kissing you, my delight. CHA. What, to kiss?

quae res? quae uoluptas tua?
Ecfodere hercle hic uolt, credo, uesicam uilico.

what thing? what pleasure of yours?
By Hercules, this fellow wants, I believe, to dig out the farm-steward’s bladder.

OL. Ecquid amas nunc me? LY. Immo edepol me quam te minus.
Licetne amplecti te? CHA. Quid, amplecti? OL. Licet.

OL. Do you love me at all now? LY. No indeed, by Pollux, myself less than you.
May it be permitted to embrace you? CHA. What, embrace? OL. It is permitted.

LY. Vt, quia te tango, mel mihi uideor lingere.
OL. Vltro te, amator, apage te a dorso meo.
CHA. Illuc est, illuc, quod hic hunc fecit uilicum.

LY. Just because I touch you, I think I am licking honey.
OL. Uninvited, lover, away—be off from my back.
CHA. There it is, there it is—that’s why this fellow made him bailiff.

Et idem me pridem, quom ei aduorsum ueneram,
Facere atriensem uoluerat sub ianua.
OL. Vt tibi morigerus hodie, ut uoluptati fui.
LY. Vt tibi, dum uiuam, bene uelim plus quam mihi.

And that same man earlier, when I had come opposite to him, wanted to make me a hall-steward at the doorway.
OL. How obsequious to you today, how I have been for your pleasure.
LY. How I, so long as I live, would wish you well more than myself.

CHA. Hodie hercle, opinor, hi conturbabunt pedes:

CHA. Today, by Hercules, I think these will throw their feet into confusion:

Solet hic barbatos sane sectari senex.
LY. Vt ego hodie Casillam deosculabor, ut mihi
Bona multa faciam clam meam uxorem. CHA. Attatae.

This old man is indeed accustomed to pursue bearded men.
LY. How I will today osculate Casilla, how I will procure many boons for myself without my wife's knowledge. CHA. Ah!

Nunc pol ego demum in rectam redii semitam:
Hic ipsus Casinam deperit. habeo uiros.
LY. Iam hercle amplexari, iam osculari gestio.

Now, by Pollux, I have at last returned to the right path:
This very man is perishing for Casina. I have the men.
LY. Now, by Hercules, I am eager to embrace, now to kiss.

OL. Sine prius deduci. quid, malum, properas? LY. Amo.

OL. Allow her first to be led out. Why the devil are you hurrying? LY. I am in love.

OL. At non, opinor, fieri hoc posse hodie. LY. Potest,
Siquidem cras eenses te posse emitti manu.
CHA. Enim uero huc aures magis sunt adhibendae mihi:
Iam ego uno in saltu lepide apros capiam duos.

OL. But I suppose this cannot be done today. LY. It can,
Since indeed you reckon that you can be manumitted tomorrow.
CHA. Indeed, in truth, I must apply my ears more here:
Now I, with a single leap, will neatly catch two boars.

LY. Apud hunc sodalem meum atque uicinum mihi
Locus est paratus: ei ego amorem omnem meum
Concredui, is mihi se locum dixit dare.
OL. Quid eius uxor? ubi erit?

LY. With this my comrade and neighbor of mine
a place is prepared: to him I have entrusted all my amour;
he said he would give me the place.
OL. What of his wife? where will she be?

LY. Lepide repperi:
Mea uxor uocabit huc eam ad se in nuptias,
Vt hic sit secum, se adiuuet, secum cubet.
Ego iussi, et dixit se facturam uxor mea.
Illa hic cubabit, [si] uir ab[i]erit faxo domo.

LY. Cleverly I have hit upon it:
My wife will call her here to herself for the nuptials,
that she may be here with her, assist her, lie with her.
I ordered it, and my wife said she would do it.
She will sleep here; I’ll see to it the husband goes away from the house.

Tu rus uxorem duces: id rus hic erit,
Tantisper dum ego cum Casina faciam nuptias:
Hinc tu ante lucem rus cras duces postea.
Satin astu[te]? OL. Docte. CHA. Age modo, fabricamini:
Malo hercle uostro tam uorsuti uiuitis.

You will lead your wife to the countryside: that countryside will be here,
for the meanwhile until I perform nuptials with Casina:
from here before dawn tomorrow you will then lead her to the countryside.
Is it astute[ly] enough? OL. Clever. CHA. Come now, just contrive:
by Hercules, you live to your own harm, being so wily.

LY. Scin quid nunc facias? OL. Loquere. LY. Tene marsuppium.

LY. Do you know what you should do now? OL. Speak. LY. Hold the purse.

Abi atque obsona, propera: sed lepide uolo,

Go and buy provisions, hurry: but I want it done nicely,

Molliculas escas, ut ipsa molliculast. OL. Licet.
LY. Emito sepiolas, lopadas, loligunculas,
Hordeias, — CHA. Immo triticeias, si sapis.

Soft little dainties, as she herself is soft. OL. All right.
LY. Buy little cuttlefish, lopades (pans), little squids,
Barley-cakes,— CHA. No, wheat-cakes rather, if you are wise.

LY. Soleas. CHA. Qui, quaeso, potius quam sculponeas,
Quibus battuatur tibi os, senex nequissume?
OL. Vin lingulacas?

LY. Sandals. CHA. Why, pray, rather than clogs,
with which your face might be beaten, most worthless old man?
OL. Do you want little tongues?

LY. Quid opust, quando uxor domist?
Ea lingulacast nobis: nam numquam tacet.
OL. In re praesenti ex copia piscaria
Consulere quid emam potero.

LY. What need is there, since the wife is at home?
She is a tongue-fish for us: for she never holds her tongue.
OL. In the present matter, from the fishery’s abundance
I shall be able to decide what to buy.

LY. Aequom oras: abi[s].
Argento parci nolo: obsonato ampliter.
Nam mihi uicino hoc etiam conuentost opus,
Vt quod mandaui curet. OL. Iamne abeo?

LY. You ask for what is equitable: be off.
I do not wish to be sparing with silver: buy provisions amply.
For with my neighbor this too has been agreed, that he may see to what I have entrusted. OL. Am I to go now?

LY. Volo.
CHA. Tribus non conduci possum libertatibus,
Quin ego illis hodie comparem magnum malum
Quinque hanc omnem rem meae erae iam faciam palam.
Manufesto teneo in noxia inimicos meos.

LY. I want it.
CHA. I cannot be hired even by three manumissions,
nay, today I will procure for them a great evil,
nay rather, I will now make this whole affair plain to my mistress.
I hold my enemies manifestly in wrongdoing.

Sed si nunc facere uolt era officium suom,
Nostra omnis lis est: pulcre praeuortar uiros.
Nostro omine it dies: iam uicti uicimus.
Ibo intro, ut id quod alius condiuit coquos
Ego nuna uicissim ut alio pacto condiam:
Quod id quod paratumst, ut paratum ne siet,
Si[e]tque ei paratum quod paratum non erat.

But if now my mistress is willing to do her own duty,
the whole case is ours: I will neatly forestall the men.
The day goes by under our omen: already, though beaten, we have conquered.
I will go inside, so that what another has seasoned for the cooks
I in turn may season in another fashion:
so that what is prepared may be unprepared,
and that there may be prepared for them what was not prepared.

LYSIDAMVS. ALCESIMVS
SENES II

LYSIDAMUS. ALCESIMUS
OLD MEN 2

LY. Nunc amicine anne inimici sis imago, Alcesime,
Mihi sciam: nunc specimen specitur, nunc certamen cernitur.

LY. Now whether you are the image of a friend or of an enemy, Alcesime,
I shall know for myself: now the specimen is inspected, now the contest is discerned.

Cur amem me castigare, id ponito ad compendium:
`Cano capite, aetate aliena' eo addito ad compendium.
`Quoi sit uxor', id quoque illuc ponito ad compendium.
AL. Miseriorem ego ex amore quam te uidi neminem.

Why I should love to castigate myself, set that down to the compendium:
`With gray head, of alien age' add that to the compendium.
`That he has a wife', put that there too to the compendium.
AL. I have seen no one more miserable from love than you.

LY. Fac uacent aedes. AL. Quin edepol seruos ancillas domo
Certumst omnis mittere ad te. LY. Oh, nimium scite scitus es.
Sed facitodum merula per uersus quod cantat colas:
`Cum cibo, cum quiqui facito ut; ueniant, quasi eant Sutrium.'
AL. Meminero. LY. Em, nunc enim tu demum nullo scito scitus es.
[LY.] Cura, ego ad forum modo ibo: iam hic ero.

LY. See that the house be vacant. AL. Why, by Pollux, it’s settled to send all the male and female slaves from the house to you. LY. Oh, you are too cleverly clever.
But do keep, as the blackbird sings through its verses, to what it sings:
‘With provisions, with whosoever, see to it that they come, as if they were going to Sutrium.’
AL. I will remember. LY. There—now indeed at last you are clever with no wit at all.
[LY.] See to it; I’ll just go to the forum: I’ll be here presently.

AL. Bene ambula.
LY. Fac habeant linguam tuae aedes. AL. Quid ita?

AL. Go well.
LY. See that your house have a tongue. AL. Why so?

LY. Quom ueniam, uocent.
AL. Attatae, caedundus tu homos: nimias delicias facis.
LY. Quid me amare refert, nisi sim doctus ac dicaculus?

LY. When I come, let them call.
AL. Ah, you're a fellow fit to be beaten: you indulge in excessive delicacy.
LY. What does it profit me to be loved, unless I be learned and dicacious?

Sed tu caue in quaesitione mihi sis. AL. Vsque adero domi.

But take care you don’t subject me to an inquisition. AL. I will be at home constantly.

ACTVS III

ACT 3

CLEOSTRATA
MVLIER

CLEOSTRATA
WOMAN

Hoc erat ecastor [id], quod me uir tanto opere orabat meus,
Vt properarem arcessere hanc ad me uicinam meam:
Liberae aedes ut sibi essent, Casinam quo deducerent.
Nunc adeo nequaquam arcessam, ne illis ignauissumis
Liberi loci potestas sit uetulis uerbecibus.
Sed eccum egreditur senati columen, praesidium popli,
Meus uicinus, meo uiro qui liberum praehibet locum.

This was, by Castor, the very thing which my husband was begging me so greatly,
that I should hasten to summon this neighbor of mine to me:
that there might be a free house for himself, to which they might lead down Casina.
Now indeed I will by no means summon her, lest to those most slothful
old wethers there be the power of a free place.
But look, out comes the column of the Senate, the presidium of the people,
my neighbor, who affords to my husband a free place.

Non ecastor ullis emptust modius qui uenit salis.

By Castor, not for any price has a peck of salt that is sold been bought.

ALCESIMVS CLEOSTRATA
SENEX MVLIER

ALCESIMUS CLEOSTRATA
OLD MAN WOMAN

AL. Miror huc iam non arcessi in proxumum uxorem meam,
Quae iam dudum, si arcessatur, ornata exspectat domi.
Sed eccam: opino[r] arcessit. salue Cleostrata.

AL. I marvel that my wife is not now being summoned here, next door,
who long since, if she is summoned, waits at home adorned.
But look—here she is: I think she is being summoned. Hello, Cleostrata.

CLE. Et tu, Alcesime.
Vbi tua uxor? AL. Intus illa te, si se arcessas, manet:
Nam tuos uir me orauit, ut eam isto ad te adiutum mitterem.

CLE. And you, Alcesimus.
Where is your wife? AL. Inside she awaits you, if you summon her:
For your husband begged me to send her here to you to give aid.

Vin uocem? CLE. Sine eam: te nolo, si occupatast. AL. Otiumst.

Do you want me to call her? CLE. Leave her be: I don’t want you to, if she’s occupied. AL. She’s at leisure.

CLE. Nil moror: molesta ei esse nolo: post conuenero.
AL. Non ornatis isti apud uos nuptias? CLE. Orno et paro.

CLE. I do not delay: I do not wish to be troublesome to her: later I will convene with her.
AL. Do you not adorn those nuptials among you? CLE. I adorn and prepare.

AL. Non ergo opus est adiutrice? CLE. Satis domist: ubi nuptiae
Fuerint, tum istam conuenibo. nunc uale atque istanc iube.

AL. Then there is no need of an adjutress? CLE. There is enough at home: when the nuptials
have been, then I will confer with that one. Now farewell, and bid that woman.

AL. Quid ego nunc faciam? flagitium maxumum feci miser
Propter operam illius irqui improbi edentuli,
Qui hoc mihi contraxit. operam uxoris polliceor foras
Quasi catillatum.

AL. What am I to do now? I, wretch, have done a most flagrant disgrace
because of the service of that shameless, toothless billy-goat,
who has contracted this for me. I promise my wife's service outside
as if for a dish-licking.

flagitium hominis, qui dixit mihi
Suam uxorem hanc arcessituram esse: ea se eam negat morarier.
Atque edepol mirum ni subolet iam hoc huic uicinae meae.
Verum autem altrouorsum quom eam mecum rationem puto,
Siquid eius esset, esset mecum postulatio.

What a disgrace of a man, who told me
that his wife would summon this woman; she says she is not detaining her.
And, by Pollux, I shouldn’t wonder if this already gives off a scent to this neighbor of mine.
But indeed, when I reckon that account with myself the other way round,
if there were anything in it, there would be a claim against me.

[CLE.] Ibo intro, ut subducam nauim rusum in puluinaria.
CLE. Iam hic est lepide ludificatus. miseri ut festinant senes.

[CLE.] I will go inside, to haul the ship back again onto the cushions.
CLE. Now this one has been cleverly made sport of. poor old men, how they hurry.

Nunc ego illum nili, decrepitum, meum uirum ueniat uelim
Vt eum ludificem uicissim, postquam hunc delusi alterum.
Nam ego aliquid contrahere cupio litigi inter eos duos.
Sed eccum incedit: at quom aspicias tristem, frugi censeas.

Now I value him at nil, that decrepit one—my husband—I’d like him to come,
so that I may make sport of him in turn, after I’ve deluded this other one.
For I want to contract some litigation between those two.
But look, here he comes; and when you look at him, gloomy, you’d reckon him frugal.

LYSIDAMVS. CLEOSTRATA
SENEX MVLIER

LYSIDAMVS. CLEOSTRATA
OLD MAN WOMAN

LY. Stultitia magnast mea quidem sententia
hominem amatorem ullum ad forum procedere
In eum diem, quo[i] quod amet in mundo siet:
Sicut ego feci stultus. Contriui diem,
Dum asto aduocatus quoidam cognato meo.
Quem hercle ego litem adeo perdidisse gaudeo,
Ne me nequiquam sibi hodie aduocauerit.

LY. In my opinion, it is a very great folly
for any lover to proceed to the forum
on that day when that which he loves may be in the world:
Just as I, foolish, have done. I wore the day away,
while I stood as advocate for a certain kinsman of mine.
By Hercules, I actually rejoice to have lost that lawsuit,
so that he may not have summoned me to himself today as advocate in vain.

Nam meo quidem animo, qui aduocatos aduocet,
Rogitare oportet prius et percontarier,
Adsitne ei animus necne ei adsit quem aduocet.
Si neget adesse, exanimatum amittat domum.
Sed uxorem ante aedis eccam.

For, at least in my mind, whoever summons advocates,
ought first to ask and to interrogate,
whether the mind be present to him or not to him whom he summons as advocate.
If he says it is not present, let him send him home exanimate.
But look—my wife before the house.

ei misero mihi:
Metuo, ne non sit surda atque haec audiuerit.
CLE. Audiui ecastor cum malo magno tuo.
LY. Accedam propius.

ah, miserable me:
I fear she is not deaf and has heard this.
CLE. I heard, by Castor, to your great harm.
LY. I’ll come closer.

quid agis, mea festiuitas?
CLE. Te ecastor praestolabar. LY. Iamne ornata re[s e]st?
Iamne hanc traduxti huc ad nos uicinam tuam
Quae te adiutaret?

What are you doing, my festivity?
CLE. By Castor, I was waiting for you. LY. Is the matter now made ready?
Have you already brought over here to us that neighbor of yours
who would aid you?

CLE. Arcessiui ut iusseras:
Verum hic sodalis tuos, amicus optumus,
Nescioquid se sufflauit uxori suae:
Negauit posse, quoniam arcesso, mittere.
LY. Vitium tibi istuc maxumumst: blandas parum.
CLE. Non matronarum offLciumst, sed meretricium,
Viris alienis, mi uir, subblandirier.

CLE. I summoned as you had ordered:
However, this comrade of yours, your very best friend,
murmured some excuse to his wife:
he said he could not send her, since I am summoning her.
LY. That is your greatest fault: you blandish too little.
CLE. It is not the office of matrons, but of meretrices,
to blandish to alien men, my husband.

I tu atque arcesse illam: ego intus quod factost opus
Volo accurare, mi uir. LY. Propera ergo. CLE. Licet.

Go you and fetch her: inside I want to attend to what needs to be done,
I want to take care of it, my husband. LY. Hurry then. CLE. It is permitted.

Iam pol ego huic aliquem in pectus iniciam metum.
Miserrumum hodie ego hunc habebo amasium.

Now, by Pollux, I will inject some fear into his breast.
Today I will have this lover most miserable.

ALCESIMVS. LYSIDAMVS
SENES II

ALCESIMUS. LYSIDAMUS
OLD MEN 2

AL. Viso huc, amator si a foro rediit domum,
Qui me atque uxorem ludificatust larua.
Sed eccum ante aedis. ad te hercle ibam commodum
LY. Et hercle ego ad te. quid ais, uir minumi preti?

AL. I go to see here whether the lover has returned home from the Forum,
who has been making a mockery of me and my wife—a specter.
But look—here he is before the house. By Hercules, I was just going to you.
LY. And by Hercules, I to you. What do you say, man of the least price?

Quid tibi mandaui? quid tecum oraul? AL. Quid est?

What did I mandate to you? what did I beg of you? AL. What is it?

LY. Vt bene uociuas aedis fecisti mihi.
Vt traduxisti huc ad nos uxorem tuam.
Satin propter te pereo ego atque occasio?

LY. How well you have made me a vacant house.
How you have brought your wife over here to us.
Is it enough that I and the occasion perish because of you?

AL. Quin tu suspendis te? nempe tute dixeras
Tuam arcessituram esse uxorem uxorem meam.
LY. Ergo arcessiuisse ait sese et dixisse te
Eam non missurum. AL. Quin eapse ultro mihi
Negauit eius operam se morarier.

AL. Why don’t you hang yourself? Surely you yourself had said
that your wife was going to summon my wife.
LY. So she says she herself summoned her, and that you said
you would not send her. AL. Why, she herself, of her own accord, told me
she was not delaying/detaining her service.

LY. Quin eapse me adlegauit qui istam arcesserem.
AL. Quin nili facio. LY. Quin me perdis.

LY. Why, she herself delegated me to fetch that woman.
AL. Why, I count it as nothing. LY. Why, you are destroying me.

AL. Quin benest.
LY. Quin etiam diu morabor. AL. Quin cupio tibi—
LY. Quin — AL. aliquid aegre facere.

AL. Why, it is well.
LY. Why, I will even delay a long time. AL. Why, I desire to—
LY. Why— AL. do you an ill turn.

LY. Quin faciam lubens.
Numquam tibi hodie quin erit plus quam mihi.
AL. Quin hercle di te perdant postremo quidem.

LY. Indeed I will do it willingly.
Never today will there fail to be more for you than for me.
AL. Indeed, by Hercules, may the gods destroy you at least in the end.

LY. Quid nunc? missurun es ad me uxorem tuam?
AL. Ducas easque in maxumam malam crucem
Cum hac, cum istac cumque amica etiam tua.

LY. What now? Are you going to send your wife to me?
AL. Take them—and take them to the very greatest evil cross—
With this one, with that one, and with your girlfriend too.

Abi et aliud cura: ego iam per hortum iussero
Meam istuc transire uxorem ad uxorem tuam.
LY. Nunc tu mihi amicus es in germanum modum.

Go away and take care of something else: I will now have my wife go across there through the garden to your wife.
LY. Now you are a friend to me in brother-german fashion.

Qua ego hunc amorem mi esse aui dicam datum?
Aut quod ego umquam erga Venerem inique fecerim:
Quoi sic amanti mi obuiam eueniunt morae. Attat,
Quid illuc clamoris, opsecro, in nostrast domo?

By what bird shall I say this love has been given to me?
Or what ever have I done unjustly toward Venus,
that, I loving thus, delays come to meet me? Ha!
What is that shouting, I pray, in our house?

PARDALISCA. LYSIDAMVS
ANCILLA SENEX

PARDALISCA. LYSIDAMVS
MAIDSERVANT OLD MAN

PAR. Nulla sum, nulla sum: tota, tota occidi.
Cor metu mortuomst, membra miserae tremunt:
Nescio unde auxili praesidi perfugi
Mi aut opum copiam comparem aut espetam.
Tanta factu modo mira miris modis
Intus uidi, nouam atque integram audaciam.

PAR. I am nothing, I am nothing: I am wholly, wholly undone.
My heart is dead with fear, the limbs of the wretched woman tremble:
I know not whence I might procure or expect for myself a supply of help, protection, refuge,
or resources. Such great marvels in the doing just now, wonders in wondrous ways,
inside I have seen, a new and entire audacity.

Caue tibi, Cleostrata, apscede ab ista, opsecro,
Nequid in te mali faxit ira percita.
Eripite isti gladium, quae suist impos animi.
LY. Nam quid est, quod haec huc timida atque exanimata exslluit?

Take care of yourself, Cleostrata, step away from that one, I beseech you,
lest anger, provoked, do any harm to you.
Wrench the sword from that woman, who is not in control of her mind.
LY. For what is it, that she, timid and breathless, has sprung out here?

Pardalisca. PAR. Perii: unde meae usurpant aures sonitum?
LY. Respice modo ad me. PAR. O ere mi—LY. Quid tibist?

Pardalisca. PAR. I have perished: whence do my ears usurp the sound?
LY. Just look toward me. PAR. O my master—LY. What’s the matter with you?

quid timidas? PAR. Perii.
LY. Quid, peristi?

why are you afraid? PAR. I have perished.
LY. What, you have perished?

PAR. Perii: et tu peristi. LY. Ah, perii? quid ita?

PAR. I have perished; and you have perished too. LY. Ah, I have perished? Why so?

PAR. Vae tibi. LY. Immo uae tibi sit. PAR. Ne cadam, amabo, tene me.
LY. Quicquid est eloquere mihi cito.

PAR. Woe to you. LY. Rather, may woe be to you. PAR. Lest I fall, please, hold me.
LY. Whatever it is, speak it out to me quickly.

PAR. Contine pectus:

PAR. Contain your heart:

Face uentum, amabo, pallio. LY. Timeo hoc negoti quid siet,
Nisi haec meraco se uspiam percussit flore Liberi.
PAR. Optine auris, amabo.

Make wind, please, with your cloak. LY. I fear what this business may be,
unless she has somewhere struck herself with the unmixed flower of Liber. PAR. Keep your ears open, please.

LY. in malam a me crucem.
Pectus auris caput teque di perduint.
Nam nisi ex te scio quicquid hoc est cito, hoc
Iam tibi istuc cerebrum dispercutiam, excetra tu,
Ludibrio, pessuma, adhuc quae me habulsti.

LY. to the bad cross from me with you!
May the gods destroy your chest, ears, head, and you.
For unless I learn from you whatever this is, quickly, this
now I’ll smash that brain of yours, you viper,
you laughing-stock, vilest hussy, who up to now have held me to ridicule.

PAR. Ere mi. LY. Quid uis, mea tu ancilla?
PAR. Nimium saeuis. LY. Numero dicis.

PAR. My master. LY. What do you want, you my slave-girl?
PAR. Too savage. LY. You say it exactly.

Sed hoc quicquid est eloquere, in pauca confer:
Quid intus tumulti fuit? PAR. Scibis, audi.
Malum pessumumque hic modo intus apud nos
Tua ancilla hoc pacto exordiri coepit,
Quod haud Atticam condecet disciplinam.

But whatever this is, speak it out; compress it into few words:
What tumult was inside? PAR. You will know; listen.
An evil—the worst—just now inside among us
your maidservant began in this fashion,
which does not befit Attic discipline.

LY. Quid est id? PAR. Timor praepedit dicta linguae.
LY. Possum scire ego istuc ex te? quid negotist? PAR. Dicam.

LY. What is that? PAR. Fear impedes the tongue’s words.
LY. Can I know that from you? what’s the business? PAR. I will say.

Tua ancilla, quam tu tuo uilico uis
Dare uxorem, ea intus— LY. Quid intus? quid est?
PAR. Imitatur malarum malam discipinam,
Viro quae suo interminatur uitam.

Your maidservant, whom you wish to give as a wife to your farm-steward, she indoors— LY. What indoors? what is it?
PAR. She imitates the bad discipline of bad women, who threatens her own husband’s life.

LY. Quid ergo? PAR. Ah. LY. Quid est? PAR. Interemere ait uelle uitam.

LY. What then? PAR. Ah. LY. What is it? PAR. She says she wants to take his life.

Gladium— LY. Hem. PAR. Gladium— LY. Quid eum gladium?
PAR. Habet.

A sword— LY. Eh? PAR. A sword— LY. What about that sword?
PAR. She has it.

LY. Ei misero mihi. cur eum habet?

LY. Ah, miserable me. Why does he have it?

Insectatur omnis domi per aedis
Nec quemquam prope ad sese sinit adire:
Ita omnis sub arcis, sub lectis latentes
Metu mussitant. LY. Occidi atque interii.
Quid illic obiectumst mali tam repente?

He hounds everyone at home through the rooms
nor does he allow anyone to come near to himself:
thus all, hiding under chests, under beds,
whisper in fear. LY. I am slain and undone.
What harm has been thrown at that fellow so suddenly?

PAR. Insanit. LY. Scelestissumum me esse credo.
PAR. Immo si scias dicta quae dixit hodie.

PAR. He is insane. LY. I believe that I am most wicked.
PAR. Nay rather, if you knew the words that he said today.

LY. lstuc expeto scire: quid dixit? PAR. Audi.
Per omnis deos et deas deierauit
Occisurum eam hac nocte quicum cubaret.

LY. That I desire to know: what did he say? PAR. Hear.
By all the gods and goddesses he swore
that he would kill her this night, with whomever she might lie.

LY. Men occidet? PAR. An quippiam ad te attinet? LY. Vah.

LY. Will he kill me? PAR. Or does it concern you at all? LY. Bah.

PAR. Quid cum ea negoti tibist? LY. Peccaui: Illuc
Dicere uilicum uolebam.
PAR. Sciens de uia in semitam degredire.

PAR. What business have you with her? LY. I have sinned: at that—
I wanted to tell the farm-steward.
PAR. Knowingly you step off the road onto a bypath.

LY. Num quid mihi minatur? PAR. Tibi infesta solist
Plus quam quoiquam. LY. Quam ob rem?

LY. Does she menace me at all? PAR. She alone is hostile to you
More than to anyone. LY. For what reason?

PAR. Quia se des uxorem Olympioni:
Neque se tuam nec suam neque uiri uitam sinere
In crastinum protolli: id huc missa sum tibi ut dicerem,
Ab ea ut caueas tibi. LY. Perii hercle ego miser. PAR. Dignu's tu.
LY. Neque est neque fuit me senex quisquam amator
Adaeque miser.

PAR. Because you give her as a wife to Olympio:
Nor does she allow either your life, nor her own, nor her husband’s life
to be protracted into the morrow: for this I have been sent here to tell you,
that you beware of her for yourself. LY. I am ruined, by Hercules, poor me. PAR. You deserve it.
LY. Nor is there nor has there been any old-man lover
as wretched as I.

PAR. Ludo ego hinc facete:
Nam quae facta dixi, omnia huic falsa dixi.
Era atque haec dolum ex proxumo hunc protulerunt:
Ego huc missa sum ludere. LY. Heus, Pardalisca.

PAR. I jest here facetiously:
for the things I said were done, all of them I told falsely to this man.
My mistress and this girl have brought out this stratagem on the spot:
I was sent here to play. LY. Hey, Pardalisca.

PAR. Quid est? LY. Est— PAR. Quid? LY. Est, quod uolo exquirere ex te.
PAR. Moram offers mihi.

PAR. What is it? LY. It is— PAR. What? LY. There is something that I want to inquire of you.
PAR. You offer me delay.

LY. At tu mihi offers maerorem.
Sed etiamne habet nunc Casina gladium?
PAR. nabet, sed duos.

LY. But you offer me grief.
But does Casina even now have a sword?
PAR. She does—indeed, two.

LY. Quid, duos? PAR. Altero te
Occisurum ait, altero uilicum hodie.
LY. Occisissumus sum omnium qui uiuont.

LY. What, two? PAR. With the one, he says he is going to kill you,
with the other, the steward today.
LY. I am the most slain of all who live.

Loricam induam: mi optumum esse opinor.
Quid uxor mea? non adiit atque ademit?

I will put on a cuirass: I think it is best for me.
What about my wife? Did she not approach and take it away?

PAR. Nemo audet prope aceedere. LY. Exoret. PAR. Orat:
Negat ponere alio modo filio profecto,
Nisi se sciat uilico non datum iri.

PAR. No one dares to come near. LY. Let him be prevailed upon. PAR. He entreats:
He refuses to set it down otherwise, indeed for the son’s sake,
unless he knows that it is not going to be given to the bailiff.

LY. Atqui ingratiis quoi non uolt nubet hodie:
Nam cur non ego id perpetrem quod coepi,
Vt nubat mihi —Illud quidem dicere uolebam:
Nostro uilico. PAR. Saepiuscule, peccas.
LY. Timor praepedit uerba.

LY. And yet, against her will, she will wed today the one she does not want:
For why should I not perpetrate what I have begun,
that she marry me —That indeed I wished to say:
our bailiff. PAR. Rather often, you sin.
LY. Fear impedes my words.

uerum, obsecro te,
Dic me uxorem orare, ut exoret illam:
Gladium ut ponat et redire me intro ut liceat. PAR. Nuntiabo.
LY. Et tu orato.

but, I beseech you,
say that I beg my wife, that she entreat that woman:
that she put down the sword and that it be permitted for me to go back inside. PAR. I will announce it.
LY. And you, too, plead.

PAR. Et ego orabo. LY. At blande orato ut soles. sed audin?

PAR. And I too will entreat. LY. But blandly entreat, as you are wont. But do you hear?

Si effexii hoc, soleas tibi
Dabo et anulum in digito aureum et bona pluruma.

If you effect this, I will give you sandals,
and a golden ring on your finger, and very many goods.

PAR. Operam dabo. LY. Face ut impetres.
PAR. Eo nunciam, nisi quippiam remorare me. LY. Abi et cura.

PAR. I will give my effort. LY. See that you obtain it.
PAR. I’m going right now, unless you detain me with something. LY. Go and take care.

Redit eccum tandem opsonatu meus adiutor: pompam ducit.

Here he comes back—look!—at last from provisioning, my helper: he is leading a procession.

OLYMPIO. LYSIDAMVS. CITRIO
SERVOS SENEX COQVOS

OLYMPIO. LYSIDAMUS. CITRIO
SLAVE OLD MAN COOK

OL. Vide, fur, ut sentis sub signis ducas. CI. Qui uero hi sunt sentis?
OL. Quia quod tetigere, ilico rapiunt: si eas ereptum, ilico scindunt.

OL. See to it, thief, that you lead the brambles under the standards. CI. Who indeed are these brambles?
OL. Because whatever they touch, straightway they snatch; if you go to snatch it away, straightway they rend.

Ita quoquo adueniunt, ubi ubi sunt, duplici damno dominos multant.
CI. Heia. OL. Attat, cesso magnufice patriceque amicirier atque
Ita ero meo ire aduorsum?

Thus wherever they arrive, wherever they are, they mulct their masters with double loss.
CI. Hey! OL. Aha, why do I delay to be cloaked magnificently and patrician-fashion and
so go to meet my master?

LY. Bone uir, salue. OL. Fateor. LY. Quid fit?

LY. Good man, greetings. OL. I confess. LY. What is happening?

OL. Tu amas, ego essurio et sitio.
LY. Lepide excuratus [in]cessisti. OL. Aha, hodie * * * * * lus.

OL. You are in love; I am hungry and thirsty.
LY. Nicely, well-groomed, you have come in. OL. Aha, today I’m neat *****lus.

LY. Mane uero, quamquam fastidis. OL. Fy fy, foetet tuos mihi sermo.
LY. Quae res?

LY. Wait indeed, though you are fastidious. OL. Fie, fie, your discourse stinks to me.
LY. What’s the matter?

OL. Haec res. LY. Etiamne adstas? OL. Enim uero
pr'agmat'a moi par'eqeis.

OL. This thing. LY. Are you still standing here? OL. Indeed, truly,
you are laying troubles upon me.

LY. Dabo tibi m'ega kak'on, ut
Ego opinor, nisi rebistis.
OL.W Ze~u, potin a med abeas,
Nisi me uis uomere hodie?
LY. Mane.

LY. I will give you a great evil, as
I suppose, unless you draw back.
OL.O Zeus, could you go away from me,
unless you want me to vomit today?
LY. Wait.

OL. Quid est? quis hic est homo?
LY. Erus sum.

OL. What is it? who is this man?
LY. I am the master.

OL. Quis erus? LY. Quoius tu seruos.
OL. Seruos?

OL. Who is the master? LY. The one whose servant you are.
OL. Servant?

ego? LY. Atque meus. O L. Non sum ego liber?

I? LY. And mine. O L. Am I not free?

Memento, memento. LY. Mane atque asta. OL. Omitte.

Remember, remember. LY. Wait and stand still. OL. Drop it.

LY. Seruos sum tuos. OL. Optumest. L Y. Opsecro te,
Olympisce mi, mi pater, mi patrone.

LY. I am your slave. OL. Excellent. L Y. I beseech you,
my Olympiscus, my father, my patron.

OL. Em,
Sapis sane.
L Y. Tuos sum equidem.
OL. Quid mihi opust seruo tam nequam?

OL. There,
You are truly sapient.
L Y. I am yours indeed.
OL. What need have I of a slave so good-for-nothing?

LY. Quid nunc? quam mox recreas me?
OL. Cena modo si sit cocta.
LY. Eisce ergo abeant.

LY. What now? How soon do you refresh me?
OL. Only if dinner be cooked.
LY. Then let these fellows be off.

OL. Propere, Citrio, intro ite et cito deproperate.
Ego iam intus ero: facite
Cenam mihi ut ebria sit.
Sed lepide nitideque uolo: nil moror barbarico bliteo.

OL. Quickly, Citrio, go inside and hasten quickly.
I will now be inside: see to it
that the dinner be drunken for me.
But I want it charmingly and neatly: I do not care for barbaric blite.

Stasne etiam? i sis. LY. Ego hic habeo.

Are you still standing even now? go, please. LY. I have it here.

OL. Numquid est ceterum quod morae siet?

OL. Is there anything else to cause delay?

LY. Gladium Casinam intus habere ait,
Qui me atque te interimat.
OL. Scio. sic sine habere:
Nugas agunt: noui
Ego illas malas merces.

LY. He says that Casina has a sword within,
Which may kill me and you.
OL. I know. Allow her to have it so:
They are trifling: I know
I know those bad wares.

Quin tu i modo mecum domum. LY. At pol malum metuo.
I tu modo: perspicito prior quid intus agatur.

Why don’t you just go home with me? LY. But, by Pollux, I fear trouble.
Just go: look closely first at what is being done inside.

OL. Tam mihi mea uita
Tua quam tibi carast.
[LY.] Verum i modo. LY. Si tu iubes, em, ibitur tecum.

OL. So to me your life
has been as dear as to you.
[LY.] But go on then. LY. If you bid, look, there will be going with you.

ACTVS IV

ACT 4

PARDALISCA
ANCILLA

PARDALISCA
MAIDSERVANT

Nec pol ego Nemeae credo neque ego Olympiae
Neque usquam ludos tam festiuos fieri
Quam hic intus fiunt ludi ludificabiles
Seni nostro et nostro Olympioni uilico.
Omnes festinant intus totis aedibus,
Senex in culina clamat, hortatar coquos:
`Quin agitis hodie? quin datis, siquid datis?

By Pollux, I for my part do not believe at Nemea nor at Olympia
nor anywhere that games so festive are held
as the ludicrous games that are going on in here
for our old man and for our Olympio the steward.
Everyone is hurrying inside through the whole house,
the old man in the kitchen shouts, urges on the cooks:
`Why don’t you get moving today? Why don’t you serve, if you serve anything?

Properate: cenam iam esse coctam oportuit.'
Vilicus is autem cum corona candide
Vestitus lautus exornatusque ambulat.

Make haste: the dinner ought to have been cooked by now.'
But the overseer, with a white crown,
sumptuously dressed and adorned, walks about.

Illae autem in cubiculo armigerum exornant duae,
Quem dent pro Casina nuptum nostro uilico:
Sed nimium lepide dissimulant, quasi mi sciant
Fore huius quod futurumst. digne autem coqui
Nimis lepide ei rei dant operam, ne cenet senex:
Aulas peruortunt, ignem restingunt aqua:
Illarum oratu faciunt. illae autem senem
Cupiunt extrudere incenatum ex aedibus,
Vt ipsae solae uentres distendant suos.

But those two, in the bedchamber, are adorning the armiger,
whom they mean to give, in place of Casina, as wedded to our bailiff:
but they dissemble too cleverly, as if they knew for me
what in this matter is going to be. And fittingly the cooks
very cleverly give their effort to that affair, that the old man not dine:
they overturn the pots, they quench the fire with water:
they do it at those women’s entreaty. The women, however, the old man
wish to thrust out unfed from the house,
so that they themselves alone may distend their bellies.

Noui ego illas ambestrices: corbitam cibi
Comesse possunt. sed aperitur ostium.

I know those go‑betweens: they can eat up a cargo‑ship of food.
But the door is opening.

LYSIDAMVS. PARDALISCA
SENEX ANCILLA

LYSIDAMUS. PARDALISCA
OLD MAN MAIDSERVANT

LY. Si sapitis, uxor, uos tamen cenabitis,
Cena ubi erit cocta: ego ruri cenauero.
Nam nouom maritum et nouam nuptam uolo
Rus prosequi—noui hominum mores maleficos—
Nequis eam abripiat. facite uostro animo uolup.

LY. If you are wise, wife, you nevertheless will dine,
when dinner has been cooked: I shall dine in the country.
For I want to escort the new husband and the new bride
to the country—I know the maleficent ways of men—
lest someone snatch her away. Do what is pleasing to your mind.

Sed properate istum atque istam actutum emittere,
Tandem ut ueniamus luci: ego cras hic ero:
Cras habuero, uxor, ego tamen conuiuium.
PAR. Fit, quod futurum dixi: incenatum senem
Foras extrudunt mulieres. LY. Quid tu hic agis?

But hurry to send that man and that woman out at once,
so that at last we may come to the light of day: I will be here tomorrow:
Tomorrow, wife, I nevertheless will have a banquet.
PAR. What I said would happen happens: the women
thrust the old man outside without dinner. LY. What are you doing here?

PAR. Ego eo quo me ipsa misit. LY. Veron? PAR. Serio.

PAR. I go where she herself sent me. LY. Really? PAR. In earnest.

LY. Quid hic speculare? PAR. Nil equidem speculor. LY. Abi:
Tu hi[n]c cunctas: intus alii festinant.

LY. What are you spying here? PAR. I, indeed, am spying on nothing. LY. Be off:
You dawdle here; inside the others are hastening.

PAR. Eo.
LY. Abi hinc sis ergo, pessumarum possuma.
Iamne abiit illaec? dicere hic quiduis licet:
Qui amat, tamen hercle si esurit, nullum esurit.

PAR. I’m going.
LY. Be off from here then, please, worst of the very worst. Has that woman gone now? Here one may say whatever you like: He who is in love, however—by Hercules—if he is hungry, hungers for nothing.

Sed eccem progreditur cum corona et lampade
Meus socius compar, commaritus, uilicus.

But look, he comes forward with a garland and a torch:
my associate, compeer, co-husband, the bailiff.

OLYMPIO. LYSIDAMVS
SERVOS SENEX

OLYMPIO. LYSIDAMVS
SLAVE OLD MAN

OL. Age, tibicen, dum illam educunt huc nouam nuptam foras,
Suaui cantu concelebra omnem hanc plateam hymenaeo. Io,
Hymen hymenaee, o hymen.
LY. Quid agis, mea salus?

OL. Come, piper, while they lead that new bride out here outside,
With sweet song celebrate this whole street with the hymenaeus. Io,
Hymen, Hymenaee, O Hymen.
LY. What are you doing, my darling?

OL. Esurio hercle, atque adeo hau salubriter.
LY. At ego amo. OL. At ego hercle nili facio: tibi amor pro cibost:
Mihi ieiunitate iam dudum intestina murmurant.

OL. I am hungry, by Hercules, and indeed not very salubriously.
LY. But I am in love. OL. But I, by Hercules, make nothing of it: for you love is in place of food:
My intestines have been murmuring from fasting for quite a while now.

LY. Nam quid illaec nunc tam diu intus remorantur remeligines?
Quasi ob industriam, quanto ego plus propero, procedit minus.
OL. Quid si etiam si occentem hymenaeum, siqui citius prodeant?

LY. For why do those there now tarry so long inside—the dawdlers?
As if on purpose: the more I hasten, the less it advances.
OL. What if I even strike up the hymenaeum—might they come out any quicker?

LY. Censeo: et ego te adiuuabo in nuptiis communibus.
LY. OL. Hymen, hymenaee, o hymen.
LY. Perii hercle ego miser: dirrumpi cantando hymenaeum lieet
Illo morbo, quo dirrumpi eupio, non est copiae.

LY. I think so: and I too will aid you in our common nuptials.
LY. OL. Hymen, Hymenaeus, O Hymen.
LY. I am undone, by Hercules, wretch that I am: the hymenaeal can be burst by singing,
but for that sickness by which I long to be burst, there is no means.

OL. Edepol, ne tu si equos esses, esses indomabilis.
LY. Quo argumento? OL. Nimis tenax es. LY. Num me expertus uspiam?

OL. By Pollux, surely if you were a horse, you would be indomitable.
LY. By what argument? OL. You are too tenacious. LY. Have you tested me anywhere?

OL. Di melius faciant. sed crepuit ostium: exitur foras.
LY. Di hercle me cupiunt seruatum.

OL. May the gods do better. but the door creaked: someone is coming out.
LY. By Hercules, the gods desire me preserved.

iam oboluit Csinus procul.

Now Csinus already reeks from afar.

PARDALISCA CHALINVS CLEOSTRATA
ANCILLA SERVATOS MULIER
\\smallskip
OLYMIPIO LYSIDAMVS
SERVATOS SENEX

PARDALISCA CHALINVS CLEOSTRATA
HANDMAID SLAVE WOMAN
\smallskip
OLYMIPIO LYSIDAMVS
SLAVE OLD MAN

PAR. Sensim supera tolle limen pedes, mea noua nupta:
Sospes iter incipe hoc, ut uiro tuo
Semper sis superstes,
Tuaque ut potior pollentia sit, uincasque uirum uictrixque sies.
Tua uox superet tuomque imperium: uir te uestiat, tu uirum despolies.
Noctuque et diu ut uiro subdola sis,
Opsecro memento.

PAR. Gently lift above the threshold your feet, my new bride:
Begin this journey safe, so that for your husband
you may always be the survivor,
and that your superior puissance be, and that you vanquish the man and be the victress.
Let your voice surpass and your command: let the man clothe you, you despoil the man.
And by night and by day be subdolous toward your husband,
I beseech, remember.

OL. Malo maxumo suo hercle ilico, ubi tantillum peccassit—

OL. By Hercules, to his very great harm instantly, whenever he has committed even the tiniest peccadillo—

LY. Tace. OL. Non taceo. LY. Quae res?

LY. Be silent. OL. I am not silent. LY. What’s the matter?

OL. Malae male monstrant.
LY. Facies tu hanc rem mi ex parata imparatam:
Id quaerunt uolunt, haec ut infecta faciant.
CLE. Age, Olympio, quando uis uxorem,
Accipe hanc ab nobis.

OL. My jaws show ill.
LY. You will make this matter for me from prepared to unprepared:
They seek that; they want to make these things as if not done.
CLE. Come, Olympio, since you want a wife,
Take this one from us.

OL. Date ergo, daturae si umquam estis hodie uxorem.
LY. Abite intro. CLE. Amabo, integrae atque imperitae huic
Impercito.

OL. Give then, if you are ever going to give a wife today.
LY. Go inside. CLE. Please, to this intact and inexperienced girl
Initiate her.

OL. Futurumst.
Valete. LY. Ite iam, ite iam.

OL. It will be.
Farewell. LY. Go now, go now.

CLE. Valete.
LY. Iamne abscessit uxor? OL. Domist: ne time.

CLE. Farewell.
LY. Has the wife left already? OL. She is at home: do not be afraid.

LY. Euax,
Nunc pol demum ego sum liber.
Meum corculum, melculum, uerculum. OL. Heus tu,
Malo, si sapis, cauebis:
Meast haec.

LY. Hurrah,
Now, by Pollux, at last I am free.
My little heartlet, little honey, little dearie. OL. Hey, you,
If you are wise, you will beware the cudgel:
She is mine.

LY. Scio: sed meus fructus est prior.
OL. Tene hanc lampadem. LY. fmmo ego hanc tenebo.

LY. I know: but my fruit is prior.
OL. Hold this lamp. LY. No, rather, I will hold this one.

                    Venus multipotens, bona multa mihi
Dedisti, huius quom copiam mihi dedisti. o,
                    Corplisculum malacum.
                    OL. Mea uxorcula — quae res?

                    Venus multipotent, you have given me many good things,
when you gave me access to this one. O,
                    soft little body.
                    OL. My little wifey — what’s the matter?

LY. Quid est? OL. institit planta
[LY.] Quasi luca bos. LY. Tace sis.

LY. What is it? OL. She planted her sole.
[LY.] As if in a wrestle, like an ox. LY. Be quiet, please.

Nebula haud est mollis aeque atque huius est pectus.

A nebula is by no means as soft as this one’s breast.

[OL.] Edepol papillam bellulam. OL. Ei misero mihi.
LY. Quid est?

[OL.] By Pollux, what a pretty little nipple. OL. Alas, poor me!
LY. What is it?

OL. Pectus mi icit non cubito, uerum ariete.
LY. Quid tu ergo hanc, quaeso, tractas tam dura manu?
At mihi, qui belle hanc tracto, non uallum facit.

OL. She smites my chest not with an elbow, but with a battering-ram.
LY. Why then do you handle her, I pray, with so hard a hand?
But for me, who handle her nicely, she does not make a rampart.

OL. Vah. LY. Quid negotist? OL. opsecro, ut ualentulast:
Paene exposiuit cubito.

OL. Bah. LY. What’s the matter? OL. I beseech you, how sturdy she is:
She almost pitched me over with her elbow.

LY. Cubitum ergo ire uolt.
OL. Quin imus ergo? LY. I, belle belliatula.

LY. So she wants to go to bed, then.
OL. Why don’t we go, then? LY. Go on, nicely, pretty little darling.

ACTVS V

ACT 5

CLEOSTRATA. MYRRHINA. PARDALISCA
MVLIERES II ANCILLA

CLEOSTRATA. MYRRHINA. PARDALISCA
WOMEN 2 MAIDSERVANT

MY. Acceptae bene et commode eximus intus
Ludos uisere huc in uiam nuptialis.
Numquam ecastor ullo die risi adaeque
Neque hoc quod relicuomst plus risuram opinor.
PAR. Lubet Chalinum quid agat scire, nouom nuptum cum nouo marito.

MY. Having been well and conveniently welcomed, we come out from indoors
to view the nuptial games here in the street.
By Castor, never on any day have I laughed as much,
nor do I think I shall laugh more at what remains than at this.
PAR. It pleases me to know what Chalinus is doing—the newly-wed with his new husband.

MY. Nec fallaciam astutiorem ullus fecit
Poeta atque ut haec est fabre facta ab nobis.
CLE. Optunso ore nunc peruelim progrediri
Senem, quo senex: nequior nullus uiuit.
Ne illum quidem nequiorem arbitror esse * * * * * qui locum praebet illi

MY. Nor has any poet made a more astute fallacy
than this, and how skillfully this has been fashioned by us.
CLE. With a battered mouth I would now very much like the old man to step forward—
that old man, than whom no more-wicked lives.
Nor do I even reckon that one to be more-wicked * * * * * who affords him a place.

* * * * * * nunc praesidem
Volo hic, Pardalisca, esse: qui hiuc exeat
Eum ut ludibrio habeas. PAR. Lubens Fecero et solens.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * spectato hinc omnia, intus quid agant.

* * * * * * now a guardian
I want here, Pardalisca, to be: whoever comes out here
make sport of him. PAR. Willingly I will do it, and as I am wont.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * watch from here everything, what they do inside.

* * * pone me amabo. MY. Et ibi audacius licet
Quae uelis libere proloqui. PAR. Tace:
Vostra foris crepuit.

* * * put me behind, please. MY. And there it is permitted more audaciously
to speak forth freely what you wish. PAR. Hush:
your door has creaked.

OLYMPIO. CLEOSTRATA. MYRRHINA
SERVOS MVLIERES II

OLYMPIO. CLEOSTRATA. MYRRHINA
SLAVE WOMEN 2

PARDALISCA
ANCILLA

PARDALISCA
MAIDSERVANT

OL. Neque quo fugiam neque ubi lateam neque hoc dedecus quomodo celem
Scio: tantum erus atque ego flagitio superauimus nuptiis nostris.
Ita nunc pudeo atque ita nunc paueo atque ita inridiculo sumus ambo.
Sed ego insipiens noua nunc facio: pudet quem prius non puditumst umquam.

OL. Neither where I might flee nor where I might hide nor how I might conceal this disgrace
I know: so greatly my master and I have exceeded, in scandal, in our nuptials.
So now I am ashamed, and so now I quake, and so we both are a laughingstock.
But I, foolish, am doing something novel now: now it shames one whom it never shamed before.

Operam date, dum mea facta itero: est operae pretium auribus accipere:
Ita ridicula auditu iteratu ea sunt, quae ego intus turbaui.
Vbi intro hanc nouam nuptam deduxi, recta uia in conclaue abduxi.

Give attention, while I rehearse my deeds: it is worth the effort to take in with your ears:
So ridiculous to hear and in the retelling are the things which I have disturbed indoors.
When I led this new bride inside, straightway I led her off into the chamber.

Sed tam[en] tenebrae ibi erant [tam]quam in puteo: dum senex abest, decumbe inquam.
Conloco fulcio mollio blandior
Vt prior quam senex nup * * *
Tardus esse llico coepi, quoniam * * *
Respecto identidem ne SENEX * * * *
Inlecebram stupri principio eam sauium posco * *
Reppulit mihi manum: neque enim dare sibi sauium me siuit.
                    Enim iam magis iam adpropero,
                    Magis iam lubet in Casinam inruere:
                    Cupio illam operam seni surripere:
                    Forem obdo, ne senex me opprimeret.

But even so the darkness there was as in a well: while the old man is away, lie down, I say.
I place, I brace, I soften, I flatter
So that, before the old man, I * * *
At once I began to be slow, since * * *
I keep looking back again and again lest the OLD MAN * * * *
As an enticement to debauchery at the outset, I ask her for a kiss * *
She pushed my hand away: for she did not allow me to give her a kiss.
                    For now, more and more, I hasten,
                    Now it pleases me more to rush in upon Casina:
                    I long to filch that service from the old man:
                    I bar the door, lest the old man overpower me.

CLE. Age dum, tu adi hunc. PAR. Opsecro, ubi tua noua nuptast?
OL. Perii hercle ego, manufesta res est.

CLE. Come on then, you go up to him. PAR. I beseech you, where is your new bride?
OL. I’m ruined, by Hercules—it’s manifest.

PAR. Omnem in ordinem
Fateri ergo aequomst. quid intus agitur? quid agit Casina?

PAR. Everything in order
Therefore it is equitable to confess. what is being done inside? what is Casina doing?

satin morigerast?
                    OL. Pudet dlcere me.
                    PAR. Memora ordine,
                    Vt occeperas.
                    OL. Pudet herCLE.
                    PAR. Age, audacter * * * * *
Postquam decubuisti, inde uolo memorare: quid est factum *
OL. * flagitiumst.

have you been compliant enough?
                    OL. I am ashamed to say.
                    PAR. Tell it in order,
                    as you had begun.
                    OL. I am ashamed, by HerCLE.
                    PAR. Come, boldly * * * * *
After you lay down, from there I want you to recount: what was done *
OL. * it’s a scandal.

PAR. Cauebunt qui audierint faciant *

PAR. Those who hear will beware of doing *

* * * * hoc magnus est. OL. Perdis. PAR. Quin tu pergis?

* * * * this is major. OL. You're killing me. PAR. Why don't you go on?

OL. Vbi
* * * * us suptus porro *
PAR. Quid? OL. Babae. PAR. Quid?

OL. Where
* * * * us suptus further on *
PAR. What? OL. Wow. PAR. What?

OL. Papae.
PAR. * * * * est? OL. Oh, erat maxumum:
* * * * haberet metui: id quaerere occepi * * *
Dum gladium quaero ne habeat, * arripio * * capulum.

OL. Good heavens.
PAR. * * * * is it? OL. Oh, it was very great:
* * * * he might have it, there was cause to fear: I began to inquire into that * * *
While I search to see that he does not have a sword, * I seize * * the hilt.

Sed quom cogito, non habuit gladium: nam esset frigidus.
PAR. Eloquere. OL. At pullet.

But when I think on it, he did not have a sword: for he would have been frigid.
PAR. Speak out. OL. But—a chick.

PAR. Num radix fuit?
OL. Non fuit. PAR. Num cucumis?

PAR. Was it a radish?
OL. It was not. PAR. Was it a cucumber?

OL. Profecto hercle * * * non fuit quicquam holerum:
Nisi quicquid erat, calamitas profecto attigerat numquam:
fta quicquid erat, grande erat.
PAR. Quid fit denique, edisserta. OL. Vbi appello Casinam, inquit,
Amabo, mea uxorcula, cur uirum tuom sic me spernis?

OL. Indeed, by Hercules, * * * there was nothing of the greens:
Unless whatever there was, calamity surely had never touched it:
so whatever there was, it was grand.
PAR. What comes of it, then, in the end? Expound. OL. When I address Casina, I say,
Please, my little wife, why do you, your husband, spurn me so?

Nimis tu quidem hercle immerito
Meo mihi haec facis, quia mihi te expetiui.
Illam haud uerbum facit et saepit ueste id qui estis.
Vbi illum saltum uideo opsaeptum, rogo ut altero * * sin adire.

By Hercules, you indeed far too undeservedly do these things to me, to my own harm, because I sought you for myself.
She says not a word and hedges with her garment that thing you are after.
When I see that pass hedged in, I ask to be allowed to approach by the other * *.

Volo, ut obuortam, cubitis im * * * * * * * *
Vllum muttit e * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Surgo, ut in eam in * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Atque illam in * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
MY. Perlepide narrat * * * * * * * * * * * *
OL. Sauium * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ita quasi saetis labra mihi conpungit barba * * *

I want her to turn toward me, with her elbows in * * * * * * * *
She mutters not a single thing from * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I rise, to into her in * * * * * * * * * * * * *
And her into * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
MY. He narrates most charmingly * * * * * * * * * * * *
OL. A kiss * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Thus, as with bristles, the beard prickles my lips * * *

Continuo in genua ut astiti, peetus mihi pedibus pereutit.
Decido de lecto praecipes: subsilit, optundit os mihi.
Inde foras tacitus profugiens exeo hoc ornatu quo uides,
Vt senex hoc eodem po0ulo quo ego bibi biberet.

Immediately, as I stood up onto my knees, he strikes my chest with his feet.
I fall headlong from the couch: he springs up and batters my face.
Then, slipping out silently, fleeing, I go outside in this attire which you see,
so that the old man might drink from this same cup from which I drank.

PAR. optumest.
Sed ubist palliolum tuom? OL. Hic intus reliqui.

PAR. It’s optimal.
But where is your little cloak? OL. I left it in here.

PAR. Quid nunc? satin lepide aditast uobis manus? OL. Merito.

PAR. What now? Was there a neatly laid-on hand for you all? OL. Deservedly.

Sed concrepuerunt fores. num illa me nunc sequitur?

But the doors have creaked. Surely she is not following me now?

LYSIDAMVS. OLYMPIO. CLEOSTRATA.
SENEX SERVOS MVLIER

LYSIDAMUS. OLYMPIO. CLEOSTRATA.
OLD MAN SLAVE WOMAN

MYRRHINA. PARDALISCA
MVLIER ANCILLA

MYRRHINA. PARDALISCA
WOMAN HANDMAID

                    LY. Maxumo ego ardeo dagitio
                    Nee quid agam meis rebus scio,
                    Nec meam ut uxorem aspiciam
                    Contra oculis: ita disperii.
                    Omnia palam sunt probra:
                    Omnibus modis occidi miser.
* * * * * * * ita manufesto faucibus teneor.

                    LY. I burn with the maximum vexation;
                    Nor do I know what I should do about my affairs,
                    Nor how I might look my wife in the face
                    with my eyes: so I have perished.
                    All disgraces are in the open;
                    In every way I, poor wretch, am slain. * * * * * * * so manifestly I am held by the throat.

* * * * * * quibus modis purgem scio me meae uxori.
* * * * * * que expalliatus sum miser:
* * * * * * * clandestinae nuptiae.
* * * * * * * * * censeo
* * * * * * * * mi optumumst

* * * * * * by what modes I may purge myself to my wife I know.
* * * * * * and, poor wretch, I have grown pallid:
* * * * * * * clandestine nuptials.
* * * * * * * * * I judge
* * * * * * * * it is best for me

* * * * * intro ad uxorem [m]eam
Sufferamque ei meum tergum ob iniuriam.
Sed ecquis est, qul homo munus uelit fungier
                    Pro me? quid nunc agam?
                    Nescio, nisi ut improbos
                    Famulos imiter ac domo
                    Fugiam: nam nullast salus
                    Scapulis, si domum redeo.

* * * * * I’ll go in to my [m]y wife
And I will offer my back to her for the injury.
But is there anyone, any man, who would wish to perform the function
                    in my place? What am I to do now?
                    I do not know, unless that I
                    imitate the wicked servants and from home
                    flee: for there is no salvation
                    for my shoulders (scapulae), if I return home.

Nugas istic dicere licet: uapulo hercle ego inuitus tamen,
Etsi malum merui.
Hac dabo protinam et fugiam. CLE. Heus, sta ilico, amator.

It is permitted to speak nonsense there: by Hercules, I am beaten unwilling, though,
although I have deserved ill.
I will make off this way straightway and flee. CLE. Hey, stop right there, lover.

LY. occidi, reuocor. quasi non audiam, abibo.

LY. I am slain, I am recalled. As if I did not hear, I will go away.

CHALINVS. LYSIDAMVS. CLEOSTRATA
SERVOS SENEX MVLIER

CHALINVS. LYSIDAMVS. CLEOSTRATA
SLAVE OLD MAN WOMAN

MYRRHINA. PARDALISCA OLYMPIO
MVLIER ANCILLA SERVOS

MYRRHINA. PARDALISCA OLYMPIO
WOMAN MAIDSERVANT SLAVE

CHA. Vbi tu's hic qui colere mores Massilienses postulas?
Nunc tu si ueis subigitare me, probast occasio.
Redi sis in cubiculum.

CHA. Where are you, here, you who demand that we cultivate Massilian morals?
Now, if you want to subjugate me, the occasion is favorable.
Please go back into the bedchamber.

periisti hercle: age, accede huc modo.
Nunc ego tecum aequom arbitrum extra considium captauero.

you have perished, by Hercules: come, just come here.
Now I will have secured with you an equitable arbiter outside the sitting.

LY. Perii, fusti defloccabit iam illic homo lumbos meos.
Hac iter faeifindumst: nam illac lumbifragiumst obuiam.
CLE. Iubeo te saluere, amator.

LY. I am undone; that fellow there will now beat the stuffing out of my loins with a club.
This way the journey must be taken; for that way a loin‑fracture is to meet one.
CLE. I bid you hail, lover.

LY. Ecce autem uxor obuiamst.
Nunc ego inter sacrum saxumque sum nec quo fugiam scio:
Hac lupi, hac eanes: lupina scaeua fusti rem gerit.
Hercle, opinor, permutaui ego illuc nunc uerbum uetus.

LY. But look, my wife is meeting me.
Now I am between the sacred and the stone, nor do I know where to flee:
On this side wolves, on that dogs: a wolfish sinister hand carries on the business with a cudgel.
By Hercules, I suppose, I have now transposed that old proverb to that.

Hac ibo: caninam scaeuam spero meliorem fore.
CLE. Quid agis, dismarite? mi uir, unde hoe ornatu aduenis?

This way I’ll go: I hope the doggish sinister will be better.
CLE. What are you doing, ill-married man? my husband, from where do you arrive in this attire?

Quid fecisti scipione[m] aut quod habuisti pallium?
PAR. In adulterio, dum moechissat Casinam, credo perdidit
LY. Occidi. CHA. Etiamne imus cubitum?

What did you do with the staff, or with the cloak you had?
PAR. In adultery: while he was committing adultery with Casina, I believe he lost it.
LY. I am slain. CHA. Are we going to bed yet?

Casina sum. LY. in malam crucem.
CHA. Non amas me? CLE. Quin responde: tuo quid faetumst pallio?

I am Casina. LY. to the gallows.
CHA. Do you not love me? CLE. Come, answer: what has been begotten by your cloak?

LY. Baeehae hercle, uxor— CLE. Bacchae? LY. Bacchae hercle, uxor—MY. Nugatur seiens.
Nam ecastor nunc Bacchae nullae ludunt.

LY. Baeehae, by Hercules, wife— CLE. Bacchae? LY. The Bacchae, by Hercules, wife—MY. He’s jesting knowingly. For, by Castor, just now no Bacchae are playing.

LY. Oblitus fui.
Sed tamen Bacchae— CLE. Quid Bachae? LY. Sin id fieri non potest —
CLE. Times eeastor.

LY. I forgot.
But still, the Bacchae— CLE. What Bacchae? LY. But if that cannot be done—
CLE. By Castor, you’re afraid.

LY. Egone? mentire herCLE.
CLE. Nam palles male.
N * * * quid me * * * * us * * am me rogas?

LY. Me? You lie, by HerCLE.
CLE. For you are very pallid.
N * * * why do you * * * * us * * am ask me?

* * * * * male r * * * * * mihi.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * gratulor.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * senex.

* * * * * badly r * * * * * to me.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I congratulate.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * old man.

Ho * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * unc Casinust * * * *
Qui hic * * * * *lem frus * * * ram * * dis
Qui etiam me miserum famosum fecit flagitiis suis.
LY. Non taces? OL. Non hercle uero taceo: nam tu maxumo
Me opsecrauisti opere, Casinam ut poscerem uxorem mihi.

Ho * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * this Casina * * * *
Who here * * * * *lem frus * * * ram * * dis
Who also made me, miserable, infamous by his flagitious deeds.
LY. Won’t you be silent? OL. By Hercules, indeed I am not silent: for you with the greatest
You have besought me with the greatest effort, that I should ask Casina as wife for myself.

LY. Tui amoris calisa ego istuc feci. CLE. Immo Hector Ilius
Te quidem oppressit. LY. Feci ego istaec tdicta quae uos dicitis?

LY. I did that for the cause of your love. CLE. Nay rather, Hector of Ilium
indeed overwhelmed you. LY. Did I do these things which you say?

CLE. Rogitas etiam? LY. Si quidem hercle feci, feci nequiter.
CLE. Redi modo huc intro: monebo, siqui meministi minus.

CLE. Do you ask still? LY. If indeed—by Hercules—I did it, I did it wickedly.
CLE. Just come back in here: I’ll admonish you, if you’ve remembered too little.

LY. Hercle opinor potius uobis credam quod uos dlcitis.
Sed, uxor, da uiro hanc ueniam. Myrrhina, ora Cleostratam.

LY. By Hercules, I opine I should rather believe you in what you say.
But, wife, grant your husband this pardon. Myrrhina, entreat Cleostrata.

Si umquam posthac aut amasso Casinam aut occepso modo,
Ne ut eam amasso, si ego umquam adeo posthac tale admisero,
Nulla causast, quin pendentem me, uxor, uirgis uerberes.
MY. Censeo ecastor ueniam hanc dandam. CLE. Faciam, ut iubes.

If ever hereafter I either love Casina or so much as make a start,
nay—even that I should love her—if ever hereafter I admit such a thing,
there is no cause, wife, why you should not flog me with rods while I am hanging.
MY. I judge, by Castor, that this pardon is to be given. CLE. I will do as you bid.

Propter eam rem hanc tibi nunc ueniam millus grauate prospero,
Hanc ex longa longiorem ne faciamus fabulam.
LY. Non iratas? CLE. Non sum irata.

For that reason I now grant you this pardon, without reluctance I hasten,
so that we not make this fable longer than long.
LY. Not angry? CLE. I am not angry.

LY. Tuaen fidei credo? CLE. Meae.
LY. Lepidiorem uxorem nemo quisquam, quam ego habeo hanc, habet.

LY. Do I trust your faith? CLE. Mine.
LY. No one whatsoever has a more charming wife than this one I have.

CLE. Age, tu redde huic scipionem et pallium. CHA. Tene, si lubet.
Mihi quidem edepol insignite factast magna iniuria:
Duobus nupsi, neuter fecit quod nouae nuptae solet.

CLE. Come now, you, give back to this one the staff and cloak. CHA. Take it, if you like.
Indeed, by Pollux, a notably great injury has been done to me:
I married two men; neither did what is wont to be done to a new bride.

PAR. Spectatores, quod futurumst intus, id memorabimus.
Haec Casina huius reperietur filia esse ex proxumo
Eaque nubet Euthynico nostro erili filio.
Nunc uos aequomst manibus meritis meritam mercedem dare.

PAR. Spectators, what is going to happen inside, that we will recount.
This Casina will be found to be the daughter of this man, from next door,
And she will wed our Euthynicus, the master’s son.
Now it is fair for you to give with your deserving hands the merited meed.

Qui faxit, clam uxorem ducet semper scortum quod uolet:
Verum qui non manibus clare quantum poterit plauserit,
Ei pro scorto supponetur ircus unctus nautea.

Whoever does so will, unbeknownst to his wife, always take whatever harlot he wishes;
but whoever shall not have applauded with his hands clearly as much as he can,
for him, instead of a prostitute, a he-goat smeared with nautical grease will be put under.