Terence: Hecyra

INCIPIT TERENTI HECYRA
ACTA LVDIS MEGALENSIBVS
SEXTO IVLIO CAESARE CN. CORNELIO DOLABELLA
AEDILIBVS CVRVLIBVS
MODOS FECIT FLACCVS CLAVDI
TIBIS PARIBVS
TOTA GRAECA MENANDRV
FACTA EST V
ACTA PRIMO SINE PROLOGO DATA
SECVNDO CN. OCTAVIO TITO MANLIO COS.
RELATA EST LVCIO AEMILIO PAVLO LUDIS FVNERALIBUS
NON EST PLACITA
TERTIO RELATA EST Q. FULVIO LVC. MARCIO AEDILIBVS CVRVLIBVS
EGIT LVC AMBIVIVS LVC SERGIVS TVRPIO
PLACVIT

HERE BEGINS TERENCE’S HECYRA
PERFORMED AT THE MEGALENSIAN GAMES
SEXTUS JULIUS CAESAR AND GNAEUS CORNELIUS DOLABELLA
CURULE AEDILES
FLACCUS, OF CLAUDIUS, COMPOSED THE MELODIES
FOR EQUAL PIPES
WHOLLY GREEK, BY MENANDER
IT WAS PRODUCED 5 TIMES
PERFORMED THE FIRST TIME, GIVEN WITHOUT A PROLOGUE
THE SECOND TIME, WHEN GNAEUS OCTAVIUS AND TITUS MANLIUS WERE CONSULS
IT WAS REPRISED AT THE FUNERAL GAMES OF LUCIUS AEMILIUS PAULLUS
IT DID NOT PLEASE
A THIRD TIME IT WAS REPRISED UNDER QUINTUS FULVIUS AND LUCIUS MARCIUS, CURULE AEDILES
PRESENTED BY LUCIUS AMBIVIUS AND LUCIUS SERGIUS TURPIO
IT PLEASED

PERSONAE

PERSONS

PROLOGVS
PHILOTIS MERETRIX
SYRA ANVS
PARMENO SERVOS
(SCIRTVS SERVOS)
LACHES SENEX
SOSTRATA MATRONA
PHIDIPPVS SENEX
PAMPHILVS ADVLESCENS
SOSIA SERVOS
MYRRINA MATRONA
BACCHIS MERETRIX
CANTOR

PROLOGUE
PHILOTIS, COURTESAN
SYRA, OLD WOMAN
PARMENO, SLAVE
(SCIRTUS, SLAVE)
LACHES, OLD MAN
SOSTRATA, MATRON
PHIDIPPUS, OLD MAN
PAMPHILUS, YOUNG MAN
SOSIA, SLAVE
MYRRINA, MATRON
BACCHIS, COURTESAN
CANTOR

PERIOCHA
C. SVLPICI APOLLINARIS

SUMMARY
GAIUS SULPICIUS APOLLINARIS

Vxorem ducit Pamphilus Philumenam,
cui quondam ignorans uirgini uitium obtulit,
cuiusque per uim quem detraxit anulum
dederat amicae Bacchidi meretriculae.
dein profectus in Imbrum est: nuptam haud attigit.
hanc mater utero grauidam, ne id sciat socrus,
ut aegram ad sese transfert.

Pamphilus takes as wife Philumena,
to whom once, unknowingly, while a virgin, he imposed a violation,
and whose ring, which he tore off by force,
he had given to his girlfriend, Bacchis the little courtesan.
then he set out to Imbros: he did not touch his bride.
her mother, she being pregnant in the womb, lest the mother-in-law know it,
transfers her to her own house as though sick.

reuenit Pamphilus,
deprendit partum, celat; uxorem tamen
recipere non uolt. pater incusat Bacchidis
amorem. dum se purgat Bacchis, anulum
mater uitiatae forte adgnoscit Myrrina.

Pamphilus returns,
he detects the birth, hides it; nevertheless he does not wish to take back his wife.
His father accuses him of love for Bacchis.
While Bacchis clears herself, the ring
is by chance recognized by Myrrina, the mother of the violated girl.

uxorem recipit Pamphilus cum filio.

Pamphilus receives back his wife with his son.

PROLOGVS (I)

PROLOGUE (1)

Hecyra est huic nomen fabulae. haec quom datast
nova, novom intervenit vitium et calamitas
ut neque spectari neque cognosci potuerit:
ita populu' studio stupidus in funambulo
animum occuparat. nunc haec planest pro nova, 5
et is qui scripsit hanc ob eam rem noluit
iterum referre ut iterum possit vendere.

Hecyra is the name of this play. When this was first given
new, a novel fault and calamity intervened,
so that it could neither be watched nor recognized:
so the people, stupid with zeal for the funambulist,
had preoccupied their mind. Now this is plainly as if new, 5
and he who wrote this on that account did not wish
to bring it on again, so that he might be able to sell it again.

alias cognostis eiu': quaeso hanc noscite.

you have recognized his others; I beg, recognize this one.

PROLOGVS (II)

PROLOGUE (2)

Orator ad vos venio ornatu prologi:
sinite exorator sim <eo>dem ut iure uti senem            10
liceat quo iure sum usus adulescentior,
novas qui exactas feci ut inveterascerent,
ne cum poeta scriptura evanesceret.
in is quas primum Caecili didici novas
partim sum earum exactu', partim vix steti.             15
quia scibam dubiam fortunam esse scaenicam,
spe incerta certum mihi laborem sustuli,
<ea>sdem agere coepi ut ab eodem alias discerem
novas, studiose ne illum ab studio abducerem.
perfeci ut spectarentur: ubi sunt cognitae,            20
placitae sunt.

Orator, I come to you in the adornment of a prologue:
allow that I be an intercessor, that as an old man it may be permitted to use the same right            10
by which right I made use when more adolescent,
I who made new pieces, once brought out, so that they might grow old,
lest the poet’s writing should vanish.
in those new ones of Caecilius which I first learned
in part I was driven out from them, in part I scarcely stood.             15
because I knew the scenic fortune to be doubtful,
with hope uncertain I undertook for myself a certain labor,
I began to act the same pieces so that from the same man I might learn other
new ones, zealously, so as not to draw him away from his study.
I brought it about that they be viewed: when they were known,            20
they were pleasing.

ita poetam restitui in locum
prope iam remmotum iniuria advorsarium
ab studio atque ab labore atque arte musica.
quod si scripturam sprevissem in praesentia
et in deterrendo voluissem operam sumere, 25
ut in otio esset potiu' quam in negotio,
deterruissem facile ne alias scriberet.
nunc quid petam mea causa aequo animo attendite.

thus I restored the poet into his place
almost now removed by the injury of adversaries
from study and from labor and from the musical art.
but if I had scorned the script at present
and had wished to take pains in deterring, 25
so that he might be at leisure rather than in business,
I would easily have deterred him from writing others.
now, for my sake, attend with an even mind to what I seek.

Hecyram ad vos refero, quam mihi per silentium
numquam agere licitumst; ita eam oppressit calamitas. 30
<ea>m calamitatem vostra intellegentia
sedabit, si erit adiutrix nostrae industriae.
quom primum eam agere coepi, pugilum gloria
(funambuli <eo>dem accessit exspectatio),
comitum conventu', strepitu', clamor mulierum 35
fecere ut ante tempus exirem foras.

I bring back Hecyra to you, which it has never been permitted me to perform in silence;
so has calamity oppressed it. 30
That calamity your understanding will soothe, if it will be a helper of our industry.
When first I began to perform it, the glory of the boxers
(a funambulist’s expectation was added there in the same place),
the gathering of attendants, the din, the clamor of the women 35
made me go out before the time.

vetere in nova coepi uti consuetudine
in experiundo ut essem; refero denuo.
primo actu placeo; quom interea rumor venit
datum iri gladiatores, populu' convolat, 40
tumultuantur clamant, pugnant de loco:
ego interea meum non potui tutari locum.
nunc turba nulla est: otium et silentiumst:
agendi tempu' mihi datumst; vobis datur
potestas condecorandi ludos scaenicos. 45
nolite sinere per vos artem musicam
recidere ad paucos: facite ut vostra auctoritas
meae auctoritati fautrix adiutrixque sit.

I began to use an old custom in a new way, so as to be in the experimenting; I bring it back anew.
In the first act I please; when meanwhile a rumor comes
that gladiators are going to be given, the people flocks together, 40
they make a tumult, they shout, they fight about their place:
I meanwhile could not defend my place.
Now there is no crowd: there is leisure and there is silence:
the time for acting has been given to me; to you is given
the power of condecorating the scenic games. 45
Do not allow through yourselves the musical art
to fall back to a few: see that your authority
be a favoring patroness and a helper to my authority.

si numquam avare pretium statui arti meae
et eum esse quaestum in animum induxi maxumum 50
quam maxume servire vostris commodis,
sinite impetrare me, qui in tutelam meam
studium suom et se in vostram commisit fidem,
ne <eu>m circumventum inique iniqui inrideant.
mea causa causam accipite et date silentium, 55
ut lubeat scribere aliis mihique ut discere
novas expediat posthac pretio emptas meo.

if I have never avariciously set a price on my art,
and have brought into my mind that this is the greatest gain: 50
to serve your advantages as much as possible,
allow me to obtain it, I who into my tutelage
he has entrusted his zeal, and himself into your trust,
lest the unjust deride him, unjustly circumvented.
mea causa receive the cause and grant silence, 55
so that it may be pleasing for others to write and for me to learn,
that hereafter it may be expedient to procure new ones, bought at my own expense.

ACTVS I

ACT 1

Philotis Syra

Philotis the Syrian

I.i
PH. Per pol quam paucos reperias meretricibus
fidelis evenire amatores, Syra.
vel hic Pamphilus iurabat quotiens Bacchidi, 60
quam sancte, uti quivis facile posset credere,
numquam illa viva ducturum uxorem domum!
em duxit.

I.i
PH. By Pollux, how few faithful lovers you find to come to courtesans, Syra.
why, this Pamphilus here used to swear to Bacchis—how solemnly—that anyone could easily believe, 60
that never, while she lived, would he lead a wife home!
there—he’s led one.

SY. ergo propterea te sedulo
et moneo et hortor ne quoiusquam misereat,
quin spolies mutiles laceres quemque nacta sis. 65
PH. utine eximium neminem habeam? SY. neminem:
nam nemo illorum quisquam, scito, ad te venit
quin ita paret sese abs te ut blanditiis suis
quam minimo pretio s<ua>m voluptatem expleat.
hiscin tu amabo non contra insidiabere? 70
PH. tamen pol eandem iniuriumst esse omnibus.

SY. therefore for that reason I diligently both warn and exhort you not to pity anyone,
but rather to despoil, mutilate, and lacerate whomever you may have gotten hold of. 65
PH. So that I should have no one exceptional? SY. No one:
for none of those men, know this, comes to you
without arranging himself with you so that by his blandishments
he may fulfill his pleasure at as minimal a price as possible.
will you, please, not in return lay ambushes against these men? 70
PH. Yet, by Pollux, it is unjust to be the same to all.

SY. iniurium autem est ulcisci advorsarios,
aut qua via te captent <ea>dem ipsos capi?
eheu me miseram, quor non aut istaec mihi
aetas et formast aut tibi haec sententia? 75

SY. but is it unjust to avenge adversaries,
or for those same men themselves to be caught by the same way by which they try to catch you?
alas, wretched me, why is it not either that age and form for me,
or this sentiment for you? 75

Parmeno Philotis Syra

I.ii
PA. Senex si quaeret me, modo isse dicito
ad portum percontatum adventum Pamphili.
audin quid dicam, Scirte? si quaeret me, uti
tum dicas; si non quaeret, nullu' dixeris,
alias ut uti possim causa hac integra. 80
sed videon ego Philotium?

1.2
PA. If the old man asks for me, just say I have gone to the harbor to inquire about the arrival of Pamphilus.
Do you hear what I say, Scirtus? If he asks for me, that you say so then; if he does not ask, say nothing,
so that I may be able to use this pretext intact on another occasion. 80
But do I see Philotis?

unde haec advenit?
Philoti', salve multum. PH. o salve, Parmeno.

Whence has she come?
Philotis, many greetings. PH. O, hello, Parmeno.

SY. salve mecastor, Parmeno. PA. et tu edepol, Syra.
dic mi, ubi, Philoti', te oblectasti tam diu?

SY. Greetings, by Castor, Parmeno. PA. And you, by Pollux, Syra.
tell me, where, Philotis, have you diverted yourself so long?

PH. minime equidem me oblectavi, quae cum milite 85
Corinthum hinc sum profecta inhumanissimo:
biennium ibi perpetuom misera illum tuli.
PA. edepol te desiderium Athenarum arbitror,
Philotium, cepisse saepe et te tuom
consilium contempsisse. PH. non dici potest 90
quam cupida eram huc redeundi, abeundi a milite
vosque hic videndi, antiqua ut consuetudine
agitarem inter vos libere convivium.

PH. by no means indeed did I amuse myself, I who with a most inhuman soldier 85
set out from here to Corinth:
there for a perpetual two years, wretched, I bore that man.
PA. by Pollux, I think a longing for Athens seized you often,
Philotium, and that you contemned your own counsel. PH. it cannot be said 90
how desirous I was of returning here, of departing from the soldier,
and of seeing you here, that according to ancient custom
I might conduct a convivium freely among you.

nam illi[c] haud licebat nisi praefinito loqui
quae illi placerent. PA. haud opinor commode 95
finem statuisse orationi militem.
PH. sed quid hoc negotist?

for there it was not permitted to speak except within a pre-set limit—only the things that pleased him. PA. I do not suppose the soldier set a convenient limit to the oration. 95
PH. but what business is this?

modo quae narravit mihi
hic intu' Bacchi'? quod ego numquam credidi
fore, ut ille hac viva posset animum inducere
uxorem habere. PA. habere autem? PH. eho tu, an non habet? 100
PA. habet, sed firmae haec vereor ut sint nuptiae.

just now what he told me
here—by Bacchus?—which I never believed
would be: that he, while this one is alive, could bring himself
to have a wife. PA. to have, then? PH. come now, does he not have one? 100
PA. he has, but I fear these nuptials are not firm.

PH. ita di deaeque faxint, si in rem est Bacchidis.
sed qui istuc credam ita esse dic mihi, Parmeno.
PA. non est opus prolato hoc: percontarier
desiste.

PH. so may the gods and goddesses grant it, if it is to the advantage of Bacchis.
but how am I to believe that that is so? tell me, Parmeno.
PA. there is no need for this to be brought forth: to interrogate
desist.

PH. nempe <ea> causa ut ne id fiat palam? 105
ita me di amabunt, haud propterea te rogo,
uti hoc proferam, sed ut tacita mecum gaudeam.
PA. numquam tam dices commode ut tergum meum
tuam in fidem committam. PH. ah noli, Parmeno:
quasi tu non multo malis narrare hoc mihi 110
quam ego quae percontor scire.

PH. surely for that reason, that it not be done openly? 105
so may the gods love me, I do not ask you for this reason,
that I may bring this forth, but that I may rejoice silently with myself.
PA. you will never say it so suitably that I will commit my back
into your good faith. PH. ah, do not, Parmeno:
as if you would not much rather narrate this to me 110
than I to know the things I am inquiring about.

PA. (vera haec praedicat
et illud mihi vitiumst maxumum.) si mihi fidem
das te tacituram, dicam. PH. ad ingenium redis.
fidem do: loquere.

PA. (She proclaims true things,
and that is my greatest fault.) If you give me your pledge
that you will be silent, I will tell. PH. You return to your nature.
I give my pledge: speak.

PA. ausculta. PH. istic sum. PA. hanc Bacchidem
amabat ut quom maxume tum Pamphilus 115
quom pater uxorem ut ducat orare occipit
et haec communia omnium quae sunt patrum,
sese senem esse dicere, illum autem unicum:
praesidium velle se senectuti suae.

PA. listen. PH. I’m here. PA. this Bacchis
Pamphilus loved then as much as ever 115
when his father begins to beg him to take a wife,
and those commonplaces which belong to all fathers,
to say that he himself is an old man, but that he is an only son:
that he wants a protection for his old age.

ill' primo se negare; sed postquam acrius 120
pater instat, fecit animi ut incertus foret
pudorin anne amori obsequeretur magis.
tundendo atque odio denique effecit senex:
despondit <ei> gnatam hui(u)s vicini proxumi.
usque illud visum est Pamphilo ne utiquam grave 125
donec iam in ipsis nuptiis, postquam videt
paratas nec moram ullam quin ducat dari,
ibi demum ita aegre tulit ut ipsam Bacchidem,
si adesset, credo ibi eiu' commiseresceret.

he at first refused; but after the father more keenly 120
presses, he made it so that he was uncertain in mind
whether he should comply with modesty (pudor) or with love more.
by hammering away and by odium at last the old man effected this:
he betrothed to him the daughter of this nearest neighbor.
up to that point it seemed to Pamphilus in no way grievous 125
until now, at the very wedding, after he sees
the preparations made and no delay at all given but that he should wed,
then at last he took it so hard that Bacchis herself,
if she were present, I believe there even she would have pitied him.

ubiquomque datum erat spatium solitudinis 130
ut conloqui mecum una posset: "Parmeno,
perii, quid ego egi! in quod me conieci malum!
non potero ferre hoc, Parmeno: perii miser."
PH. at te di deaeque perduint cum istoc odio, Lache!

wherever a space of solitude was given 130
so that she might be able to confer with me alone: "Parmeno,
I am undone, what have I done! Into what evil have I cast myself!
I will not be able to bear this, Parmeno: I am undone, poor me."
PH. but may the gods and goddesses utterly destroy you with that odium, Laches!

PA. ut ad pauca redeam, uxorem deducit domum. 135
nocte illa prima virginem non attigit;
quae consecutast nox eam, nihilo magis.
PH. quid ais? cum virgine una adulescens cubuerit
plus potu', sese illa abstinere ut potuerit?

PA. to return to a few matters, he leads the wife home. 135
on that first night he did not touch the maiden;
the night which followed it, no more.
PH. what do you say? when a young man has lain with a virgin—having drunk more—how could he have abstained from her?

non veri simile dici' neque verum arbitror. 140
PA. credo ita videri tibi. nam nemo ad te venit
nisi cupiens t<ui>; ille invitus illam duxerat.
PH. quid deinde fit?

not plausible, you say, nor do I judge it true. 140
PA. I believe it seems so to you. For no one comes to you
unless desirous of you; that fellow had married that girl unwillingly.
PH. What then happens?

PA. diebu' sane pauculis
post Pamphilus me solum seducit foras
narratque ut virgo ab se integra etiam tum siet, 145
seque ante quam eam uxorem duxisset domum,
sperasse eas tolerare posse nuptias.
"sed quam decrerim me non posse diutius
habere, eam ludibrio haberi, Parmeno,
quin integram itidem reddam, ut accepi ab suis, 150
neque honestum mihi neque utile ipsi virginist."
PH. pium ac pudicum ingenium narras Pamphili.
PA. "hoc ego proferre incommodum mi esse arbitror;
reddi patri autem, quoi tu nil dicas viti,
superbumst.

PA. indeed, within very few days
afterwards Pamphilus leads me aside alone outside
and tells that the maiden is still intact with respect to him even then, 145
and that before he led her home as a wife,
he had hoped she could tolerate those nuptials.
"But when I determined that I could no longer
keep her, that she would be held to mockery, Parmeno,
without my returning her likewise intact, as I received her from her own, 150
it is neither honorable for me nor useful to the maiden herself."
PH. you tell of Pamphilus’s pious and modest disposition.
PA. "this I judge would be inconvenient for me to bring forward;
but that she be returned to her father, to whom you would say there is no fault,
is arrogant.

sed illam spero, ubi hoc cognoverit 155
non posse se mecum esse, abituram denique."
PH. quid interea? ibatne ad Bacchidem? PA. cotidie.

"but I hope that girl, when she learns this, 155
that she cannot be with me, will go away at last."
PH. what meanwhile? Was he going to Bacchis? PA. every day.

sed ut fit, postquam hunc alienum ab sese videt,
maligna multo et mage procax facta ilico est.
PH. non edepol mirum. PA. atque ea res multo maxume 160
diiunxit illum ab illa, postquam et ipse se
et illam et hanc quae domi erat cognovit satis,
ad exemplum ambarum mores <ea>rum existimans.

but, as it happens, after she sees him alienated from herself,
she on the spot became much more malicious and more impudent. PH. By Pollux, no wonder. PA. And that matter, by far most especially, 160
disjoined him from her, after he had sufficiently come to know
both himself and her and this one who was at home,
judging their manners by the example of the two.

haec, ita uti liberali esse ingenio decet,
pudens modesta incommoda atque iniurias 165
viri omnis ferre et tegere contumelias.
hic animu' partim uxori' misericordia
devinctu', partim victus hui(u)s iniuriis
paullatim elapsust Bacchidi atque huc transtulit
amorem, postquam par ingenium nactus est. 170
interea in Imbro moritur cognatus senex
horunc: ea ad hos redibat lege hereditas.
eo amantem invitum Pamphilum extrudit pater.

she, as it befits a liberal disposition,
bashful, modest, to bear the inconveniences and injuries 165
of her man and to cover contumelies. Here his spirit, partly by pity for his wife
bound, partly overcome by this one’s injuries,
gradually slipped away from Bacchis and transferred his love hither,
after he had found a like disposition. 170
Meanwhile on Imbros a kinsman old man of these dies:
by law that inheritance was returning to them.
Thither the father drives Pamphilus, the lover, unwilling.

reliquit cum matre hic uxorem; nam senex
rus abdidit se, huc raro in urbem commeat. 175
PH. quid adhuc habent infirmitatis nuptiae?
PA. nunc audies. primo dies complusculos
bene convenibat sane inter eas.

he left his wife here with her mother; for the old man hid himself away in the country, he rarely comes here into the city. 175
PH. what weakness do the nuptials still have?
PA. now you will hear. at first, for several days,
things agreed quite well between them.

interim
miris modis odisse coepit Sostratam:
neque lites ullae inter eas, postulatio 180
numquam. PH. quid igitur? PA. siquando ad eam accesserat
confabulatum, fugere e conspectu ilico,
videre nolle: denique ubi non quit pati,
simulat se ad matrem accersi ad rem divinam, abit.

meanwhile
she began to hate Sostrata in wondrous ways:
and there were no quarrels at all between them, complaint 180
never. PH. What then? PA. whenever she went up to her
to have a talk, she would flee at once from sight,
would not wish to see her: finally, when she cannot endure it,
she pretends that she is summoned to her mother for a religious rite, and goes away.

ubi illic d<ie>s est compluris, accersi iubet: 185
dixere causam tum nescioquam. iterum iubet:
nemo remisit. postquam accersunt saepius,
aegram esse simulant mulierem.

when she has been there several days, he orders her to be sent for: 185
then they said some I-know-not-what cause. He orders again:
no one sent her back. After they summon more often,
they simulate that the woman is sick.

nostra ilico
it visere ad eam: admisit nemo. hoc ubi senex
rescivit, heri ea causa rure huc advenit, 190
patrem continuo convenit Philumenae.
quid egerint inter se nondum etiam scio;
nisi sane curaest quorsum eventurum hoc siet.

our lady straightway
goes to visit her: no one admitted her. When the old man
found this out, for that reason yesterday he came here from the countryside, 190
he immediately convened with Philumena’s father.
what they have done between themselves I do not yet even know;
except indeed the concern is to what end this will eventuate.

habes omnem rem: pergam quo coepi hoc iter.
PH. et quidem ego; nam constitui cum quodam hospite 195
me esse illum conventuram. PA. di vortant bene
quod agas!

you have the whole matter: I will proceed where I began this journey.
PH. and I too, indeed; for I have arranged with a certain guest-friend 195
that I am going to meet that man. PA. may the gods turn to good
what you do!

PH. vale. PA. et tu bene vale, Philotium.

PH. farewell. PA. and you, fare well, Philotium.

ACTVS II

ACT 2

Laches Sostrata

II.i
LA. Pro deum atque hominum fidem, quod hoc genus est, quae haec est coniuratio!
utin omnes mulieres eadem aeque studeant nolintque omnia
neque declinatam quicquam ab aliarum ingenio ullam reperias! 200
itaque adeo uno animo omnes socrus oderunt nurus.
viris esse advorsas aeque studiumst, simili' pertinaciast,
in eodemque omnes mihi videntur ludo doctae ad malitiam; et
<ei> ludo, si ullus est, magistram hanc esse sati' certo scio.

2.1
LA. By the faith of gods and men, what kind is this, what conspiracy is this!
Is it that all women equally are zealous for the same things and are unwilling in everything,
nor would you find any turned aside at all from the disposition of the others! 200
And so, to such a degree, with one mind all mothers-in-law hate their daughters-in-law.
They have an equal zeal to be adverse to their men, there is a like pertinacity,
and in the same school all seem to me taught in malice; and
of that school, if any exists, I quite certainly know this woman to be the schoolmistress.

SO. me miseram, quae nunc quam ob rem accuser nescio. LA. hem 205
tu nescis? SO. non, ita me di bene ament, mi Lache,
itaque una inter nos agere aetatem liceat.

SO. wretched me, who now do not know for what reason I am accused. LA. hah 205
you don’t know? SO. no, so may the gods love me well, my Laches,
and may it be permitted that we spend our lifetime together.

LA. di mala prohibeant.
SO. meque abs te inmerito esse accusatam post modo rescisces. LA. scio,
te inmerito?

LA. may the gods ward off the evils.
SO. and that I have been accused by you undeservedly, you will find out presently. LA. I know,
you—undeservedly?

an quicquam pro istis factis dignum te dici potest?
quae me et te et familiam dedecoras, filio luctum paras; 210
tum autem ex amicis inimici ut sint nobis adfines facis,
qui illum decrerunt dignum s<uo>s quoi liberos committerent.
tu sola exorere quae perturbes haec tua inpudentia.

or can anything worthy be said of you for those deeds?
you who disgrace me and you and the family, you are preparing mourning for your son; 210
then moreover you bring it about that, out of friends, there be enemies as in-laws for us,
who decreed him worthy, to whom they would commit their children.
you alone arise to perturb all this by your impudence.

SO. egon? LA. tu inquam, mulier, quae me omnino lapidem, non hominem putas.
an, quia ruri esse crebro soleo, nescire arbitramini 215
quo quisque pacto hic vitam vostrarum exigat?

SO. I? LA. You, I say, woman, who think me utterly a stone, not a human being.
Or, because I am wont to be in the country frequently, do you suppose I do not know 215
in what manner each one of yours here spends his life?

multo melius hic quae fiunt quam illi[c] ubi sum adsidue scio.
ideo quia, ut vos mihi domi eriti', proinde ego ero fama foris.
iampridem equidem audivi cepisse odium t<ui> Philumenam,
minimeque adeo [est] mirum, et ni id fecisset mage mirum foret; 220
sed non credidi adeo ut etiam totam hanc odisset domum:
quod si scissem illa hic maneret potiu', tu hinc isses foras.

I know much better what is done here than there where I am continually.
For this reason: as you will be to me at home, so shall I be in reputation abroad.
Long since indeed I heard that Philumena had conceived a hatred of you,
and it is by no means at all surprising, and if she had not done that, it would be more surprising; 220
but I did not believe to such a degree that she even hated this whole house:
and if I had known that, she would rather remain here, you would go outside from here.

at vide quam inmerito aegritudo haec oritur mi abs te, Sostrata:
rus habitatum abii concedens vobis et r<ei> serviens,
sumptus vostros otiumque ut nostra res posset pati, 225
m<eo> labori haud parcens praeter aequom atque aetatem meam.
non te pro his curasse rebu' nequid aegre esset mihi!
SO. non mea opera neque pol culpa evenit.

but see how undeservedly this grief arises for me from you, Sostrata:
I went off to the country to dwell, yielding to you and serving the estate,
so that our resources could bear your expenses and leisure, 225
not sparing my labor beyond what was equitable and beyond my age.
that you did not, in return for these things, take care that nothing should be grievous for me!
SO. it did not come about by my doing nor, by Pollux, by my fault.

LA. immo maxume:
sola hic f<ui>sti: in te omnis haeret culpa sola, Sostrata.
quae hic erant curares, quom ego vos curis solvi ceteris. 230
cum puella anum suscepisse inimicitias non pudet?
illi(u)s dices culpa factum?

LA. Yes, and most emphatically:
you were the only one here; upon you alone the whole fault clings, Sostrata.
you ought to have cared for the things that were here, when I freed you all from the other cares. 230
is it no shame for an old woman to have undertaken enmities with a girl?
will you say it was that one’s fault?

SO. haud equidem dico, mi Lache.
LA. gaudeo, ita me di ament, gnati causa; nam de te quidem
sati' scio peccando detrimenti nil fieri potest.
SO. qui scis an ea causa, mi vir, me odisse adsimulaverit 235
ut cum matre plus una esset?

SO. I do not indeed say so, my Laches.
LA. I rejoice, so may the gods love me, for our son’s sake; for as to you indeed
I know well enough that by sinning no detriment can be wrought.
SO. How do you know whether for that reason, my husband, she feigned to hate me 235
so that she might be more at one with her mother?

LA. quid ais? non signi hoc sat est,
quod heri nemo voluit visentem ad eam te intro admittere?
SO. enim lassam oppido tum esse <ai>bant: eo ad eam non admissa sum.

LA. what do you say? is this not enough of a sign,
that yesterday no one wanted to admit you in to visit her?
SO. for they were saying she was exceedingly tired then: for that reason I was not admitted to her.

LA. t<uo>s esse ego illi mores morbum mage quam ullam aliam rem arbitror,
et merito adeo; nam vostrarum nullast quin gnatum velit 240
ducere uxorem; et quae vobis placitast condicio datur:
ubi duxere inpulsu vostro, vostro inpulsu <ea>sdem exigunt.

LA. I reckon those manners of yours to be a malady to her rather than any other thing,
and quite deservedly; for there is not one of your women who does not wish her son 240
to take a wife; and the condition that has pleased you is given:
when they have taken wives at your impulse, at your impulse they exact those same conditions.

Phidippvs Laches Sostrata

Phidippus Laches Sostrata

II.ii
PH. Etsi scio ego, Philumena, m<eu>m ius esse ut te cogam
quae ego imperem facere, ego tamen patrio animo victu' faciam
ut tibi concedam neque tuae lubidini advorsabor. 245
LA. atque eccum Phidippum optume video: hinc iam scibo hoc quid sit.
Phidippe, etsi ego m<ei>s me omnibus scio esse adprime obsequentem,
sed non adeo ut mea facilitas corrumpat illorum animos:
quod tu si idem faceres, magis in rem et vostram et nostram id esset.
nunc video in illarum potestate esse te. PH. heia vero. 250
LA. adii te heri de filia: ut veni, itidem incertum amisti.

2.2
PH. Even though I know, Philumena, that it is my right to compel you to do what I command, yet, conquered by a fatherly spirit, I will so act as to concede to you and I will not oppose your libido. 245
LA. And look, I see Phidippus very well: from here I shall now learn what this is.
Phidippus, although I know myself to be in the highest degree compliant to my own in all things, yet not so far that my facility corrupts their minds: which, if you were to do the same, that would be more to the advantage both of yours and of ours.
Now I see that you are in their power. PH. Come now, indeed. 250
LA. I approached you yesterday about the daughter: when I came, you sent me away just as uncertain.

haud ita decet, si perpetuam hanc vis esse adfinitatem,
celare te iras. siquid est peccatum a nobis profer:
aut ea refellendo aut purgando vobis corrigemus
te iudice ipso. sin east causa retinendi apud vos 255
quia aegrast, te mihi iniuriam facere arbitror, Phidippe,
si metui' satis ut meae domi curetur diligenter.

it is not quite fitting, if you wish this affinity to be perpetual,
to conceal your angers. if anything has been sinned by us, bring it forth:
either by refuting or by purging those things we will set it right for you,
you yourself as judge. but if that is the reason for keeping her with you 255
because she is sick, I think you are doing me an injury, Phidippus,
if you are sufficiently afraid that at my house she will not be carefully cared for.

at ita me di ament, haud tibi hoc concedo--[etsi] illi pater es--
ut tu illam salvam mage velis quam ego: id adeo gnati causa,
quem ego intellexi illam haud minus quam se ipsum magni facere. 260
neque adeo clam me est quam esse eum graviter laturum credam,
hoc si rescierit: <eo> domum studeo haec priu' quam ille redeat.
PH. Laches, et diligentiam vostram et benignitatem
novi et quae dicis omnia esse ut dicis animum induco,
et te hoc mihi cupio credere: illam ad vos redire studeo 265
si facere possim ullo modo. LA. quae res te id facere prohibet?

but so may the gods love me, I do not grant you this—[even if] you are her father—
that you wish her safe more than I do: indeed for the sake of my son,
whom I have understood that she esteems no less than herself. 260
Nor is it at all unknown to me how grievously I think he will take it,
if he learns this: therefore I am eager to get her home before he returns.
PH. Laches, I know both your diligence and your kindness, and I am persuaded
that all the things you say are as you say, and I want you to believe this of me:
I am eager for her to return to you, if I can do it in any way at all. 265
LA. What prevents you from doing that?

eho num quid nam accusat virum? PH. minime. nam postquam attendi
magis et vi coepi cogere ut rediret, sancte adiurat
non posse apud vos Pamphilo se absente perdurare.

Hey, does she by any chance accuse the husband of anything? PH. Not at all. For after I paid closer attention and began by force to compel her to return, she swears solemnly that she cannot endure among you with Pamphilus absent.

aliud fortasse aliis viti est: ego sum animo leni natus: 270
non possum advorsari meis. LA. em Sostrata. SO. heu me miseram!

perhaps something else is a vice for others: I was born with a lenient spirit: 270
I cannot be adverse to my own. LA. Look, Sostrata. SO. Alas, wretched me!

LA. certumne est istuc? PH. nunc quidem ut videtur: sed num quid vis?
nam est quod me transire ad forum iam oportet.

LA. Is that certain? PH. Now at least as it seems: but do you want anything?
for there is something that now requires me to cross over to the forum.

LA. eo tecum una.

LA. I’ll go along with you.

Sostrata

II.iii
Edepol ne nos sumus inique aeque omnes invisae viris
propter paucas, quae omnes faciunt dignae ut videamur malo. 275
nam ita me di ament, quod me accusat nunc vir, sum extra noxiam.
sed non facile est expurgatu: ita animum induxerunt socrus
omnis esse iniquas: haud pol mequidem; nam numquam secus
habui illam ac si ex me esset gnata, nec qui hoc mi eveniat scio;
nisi pol filium multimodis iam exspecto ut redeat domum. 280

II.iii
By Pollux, surely we are unjustly, equally all, odious to men
on account of a few, who make all of us seem worthy of ill. 275
For, so may the gods love me, as to that for which my husband now accuses me, I am outside guilt.
but it is not easy to expurgate: they have thus induced their mind that mothers-in-law are all iniquitous: not, by Pollux, I indeed;
for I have never held her otherwise than as if she were begotten from me, nor do I know how this befalls me;
except, by Pollux, that I am now in many ways expecting my son to return home. 280

ACTVS III

ACT 3

Pamphilvs Parmeno (Myrrina)

Pamphilus Parmeno (Myrrina)

III.i
PAM. Nemini plura acerba credo esse ex amore homini umquam oblata
quam mi. heu me infelicem, hancin ego vitam parsi perdere!
hacin causa ego eram tanto opere cupidu' redeundi domum! hui
quanto fuerat praestabilius ubivis gentium agere aetatem
quam huc redire atque haec ita esse miserum me resciscere! 285
nam nos omnes quibus est alicunde aliquis obiectus labos,
omne quod est interea tempu' priu' quam id rescitumst lucrost.

3.1
PAM. I believe that to no one have more bitter things ever been offered from love
than to me. Alas, unhappy me—was it for this life that I spared from losing it!
Was it for this cause that I was so greatly desirous of returning home! Ugh!
how much more preferable it would have been to pass my life anywhere among peoples
than to return here and, wretched, learn that these things are so! 285
for we all, to whom from somewhere some trouble has been thrown in our way,
all the time that is meanwhile before that is found out is profit.

PAR. ac sic citiu' qui te expedias his aerumnis reperias:
si non rediisses, haec irae factae essent multo ampliores.
sed nunc adventum tuom ambas, Pamphile, scio reverituras: 290
rem cognosces, iram expedies, rursum in gratiam restitues.
levia sunt quae tu pergravia esse in animum induxti tuom.

PAR. and so you may more quickly find how to disentangle yourself from these afflictions:
if you had not returned, these angers would have grown much greater.
but now I know that both of them, Pamphilus, will revere your arrival: 290
you will learn the matter, you will unravel the ire, you will restore again into favor.
light are the things which you have brought your mind to think are very grave.

PAM. quid consolare me? an quisquam usquam gentiumst aeque miser?
priu' quam hanc uxorem duxi habebam alibi animum amori deditum;
tamen numquam ausu' sum recusare <ea>m quam mi obtrudit pater: 295
iam in hac re, ut taceam, quoivis facile scitust quam fuerim miser.
vix me illi<m> abstraxi atque inpeditum in ea expedivi animum meum,
vixque huc contuleram: em nova res ortast porro ab hac quae me abstrahat.

PAM. why do you console me? or is anyone anywhere in the world equally wretched?
before I took this wife, I had my mind devoted to love elsewhere;
nevertheless I never dared to recuse her whom my father obtruded upon me: 295
and in this matter— not to mention it — it is easy for anyone to know how miserable I have been.
I scarcely tore myself away from that, and, my mind impeded in it, I disentangled it,
and scarcely had I betaken myself here: look, a new matter has arisen further from this one to drag me away.

tum matrem ex <ea> re me aut uxorem in culpa inventurum arbitror;
quod quom ita esse invenero, quid restat nisi porro ut fiam miser?      300
nam matri' ferre iniurias me, Parmeno, pietas iubet;
tum uxori obnoxius sum: ita olim s<uo> me ingenio pertulit,
tot m<ea>s iniurias quae numquam in ullo patefecit loco.
sed magnum nescioquid necessest evenisse, Parmeno,
unde ira inter eas intercessit quae tam permansit diu.             305
PAR. haud quidem hercle: parvom; si vis vero veram rationem exsequi,
non maxumas quae maxumae sunt interdum irae iniurias
faciunt; nam saepe est quibus in rebus aliu' ne iratus quidem est,
quom de <ea>dem causast iracundu' factus inimicissimus.
pueri inter sese quam pro levibu' noxiis iras gerunt            310
quapropter?

then I think that from this matter I shall find my mother or my wife in fault;
and when I shall have found that it is so, what remains except that I become wretched further?      300
for dutifulness bids me, Parmeno, to bear my mother’s injuries;
then I am obligated to my wife: so once, by her own disposition she bore me,
so many my injuries which she never laid open in any place.
but something great, I know not what, must needs have happened, Parmeno,
whence anger has come between them which has so long persisted.             305
PAR. not indeed, by Hercules: a small thing; if you truly wish to pursue the true reasoning,
it is not the greatest injuries that sometimes make the greatest angers;
for it often happens that in matters where another is not even angry,
when it is for the same cause, someone irascible has been made most inimical.
how boys among themselves bear angers for very slight offenses—            310
why?

quia enim qui <eo>s gubernat animus eum infirmum gerunt.
itidem illae mulieres sunt ferme ut pueri levi sententia:
fortasse unum aliquod verbum inter eas iram hanc concivisse.
PAM. abi, Parmeno, intro ac me venisse nuntia.

for indeed they bear the mind which governs them as weak.
likewise those women are for the most part like boys, with light judgment:
perhaps some single word between them has stirred up this anger.
PAM. go, Parmeno, inside and announce that I have come.

PAR. hem quid hoc est? PAM. tace.
trepidari sentio et cursari rursum prorsum.

PAR. Hah—what is this? PAM. Be quiet.
I sense trepidation and running to and fro, back and forth.

PAR. agedum, ad fores 315
accedo propius. em sensistin? PAM. noli fabularier.

PAR. come on, to
the doors 315
I approach nearer. look, did you sense it? PAM. do not chatter.

pro Iuppiter, clamorem audivi. PAR. tute loqueris, me vetas.
(MY. intus) tace obsecro, mea gnata.

O Jupiter, I heard a clamor. PAR. you yourself are speaking, you forbid me.
(MY. inside) be silent, I beseech, my daughter.

PAM. matri' vox visast Philumenae.
nullus sum. PAR. quidum?

PAM. To the mother, the voice seemed to be Philumena’s.
I am done for. PAR. What then?

PAM. perii. PAR. quam ob rem? PAM.
nescioquod magnum malum
profecto, Parmeno, me celant.

PAM. I am undone. PAR. For what reason? PAM.
Some I-know-not-what great evil
surely, Parmeno, they are concealing from me.

PAR. uxorem Philumenam 320
pavitare nescioquid dixerunt: id si forte est nescio.
PAM. interii; quor mihi id non dixti? PAR. quia non poteram una omnia.

PAR. the wife Philumena 320
they said was in a panic about I-know-not-what: whether that is so by chance, I do not know.
PAM. I have perished; why did you not tell me that? PAR. because I could not
tell everything at once.

PAM. quid morbi est? PAR. nescio. PAM. quid?

PAM. what malady is it? PAR. I don’t know. PAM. what?

nemon medicum adduxit?
PAR. nescio.
PAM. cesso hinc ire intro ut hoc quam primum quidquid est certo sciam?

has no one brought a physician?
PAR. I do not know.
PAM. Do I delay to go in from here, that I may learn for certain what this is, as soon as possible?

quonam modo, Philumena mea, nunc te offendam adfectam?        325
nam si periclum ullum in te inest, perisse me una haud dubiumst.--
PAR. non usu' factost mihi nunc hunc intro sequi;
nam invisos omnis nos esse illis sentio:
heri nemo voluit Sostratam intro admittere.
si forte morbus amplior factus siet                  330
(quod sane nolim, maxume eri causa mei),
servom ilico introisse dicent Sostratae,
aliquid tulisse comminiscentur mali
capiti atque aetati illorum morbu' qui auctu' sit:
era in crimen veniet, ego vero in magnum malum.     335

by what manner, my Philumena, shall I now find you—afflicted?        325
for if any peril is in you, it is not doubtful that I perish together with you.--
PAR. it is not of use for me now to follow him inside;
for I perceive that we all are hateful to them:
yesterday no one was willing to admit Sostrata inside.
if by chance the illness has grown more serious                  330
(which indeed I would not wish, most of all for my master’s sake),
they will say that a slave went in straightway to Sostrata,
they will concoct that he brought in some evil thing
to the person and age of those people, whereby the disease has been augmented:
the mistress will come into accusation, and I indeed into great trouble.     335

Sostrata Parmeno Pamphilvs

Sostrata Parmeno Pamphilus

III.ii
SO. Nescioquid iamdudum audio hic tumultuari misera:
male metuo ne Philumenae mage morbus adgravescat:
quod te, Aesculapi, et te, Salus, nequid sit huius oro.
nunc ad eam visam. PAR. heus Sostrata.

3.2
SO. For some time now I, a poor wretch, have been hearing some tumult here:
I badly fear lest Philumena’s disease become more aggravated:
and so I beg you, Aesculapius, and you, Salus, that there be nothing of this.
now I will go to see her. PAR. Hey, Sostrata.

SO. hem. PAR. iterum istinc excludere.
SO. ehem Parmeno, tun hic eras?

SO. ah! PAR. again to shut me out from there!
SO. eh, Parmeno, were you here?

perii, quid faciam misera? 340
non visam uxorem Pamphili, quom in proxumo hic sit aegra?
PAR. non visas? ne mittas quidem visendi causa quemquam.

I am undone—what am I to do, wretched as I am? 340
Shall I not visit Pamphilus’s wife, when she is here next door sick?
PAR. Not visit her? Do not even send anyone for the sake of visiting.

nam qui amat quoi odio ipsus est, bis facere stulte duco:
laborem inanem ipsus capit et illi molestiam adfert.
tum filius tuos intro iit videre, ut venit, quid agat. 345
SO. quid ais? an venit Pamphilus?

for he who loves one by whom he himself is odious, I deem he acts foolishly twice:
he himself undertakes vain labor and brings annoyance to the other.
then your son went inside to see, as he came, how she is doing. 345
SO. what do you say? Has Pamphilus come?

PAR. venit. SO. dis gratiam habeo.
hem istoc verbo animu' mihi redit et cura ex corde excessit.

PAR. he has come. SO. I give thanks to the gods.
ah, at that word my spirit returns to me and care has departed from my heart.

PAR. iam ea te causa maxume nunc hoc intro ire nolo;
nam si remittent quidpiam Philumenae dolores,
omnem rem narrabit, scio, continuo sola soli 350
quae inter vos intervenerit, unde ortumst initium irae.
atque eccum video ipsum egredi: quam tristis[es]t! SO. o mi gnate!
PAM. mea mater, salve.

PAR. now for that very reason especially I do not want you to go in here;
for if Philumena’s pains remit at all,
she will narrate the whole affair, I know, immediately, alone to her alone 350
what has intervened between you, whence the beginning of the anger arose.
and look, I see the man himself coming out: how sad he is! SO. O my son!
PAM. my mother, greetings.

SO. gaudeo venisse salvom. salvan
Philumenast? PAM. meliusculast.

SO. I rejoice that you have come safe. Is
Philumena safe? PAM. She is a little better.

SO. utinam istuc ita di faxint!
quid tu igitur lacrumas? aut quid es tam tristi'? PAM. recte, mater. 355
SO. quid f<ui>t tumulti?

SO. Would that the gods make it so!
why then are you weeping? or why are you so sad? PAM. all right, mother. 355
SO. what was the tumult?

dic mihi: an dolor repente invasit?
PAM. ita factumst. SO. quid morbi est?

tell me: has pain suddenly invaded?
PAM. so it has. SO. what is the malady?

PAM. febris. SO. cotidiana?
PAM. ita aiunt.

PAM. fever. SO. quotidian?
PAM. so they say.

i sodes intro, consequar iam te, mea mater. SO. fiat.--
PAM. tu pueris curre, Parmeno, obviam atque is onera adiuta.
PAR. quid?

Go, please, inside; I will follow you now, my mother. SO. Let it be.--
PAM. You run to meet the boys, Parmeno, and help them with their burdens.
PAR. What?

non sciunt ipsi viam domum qua veniant? PAM. cessas? 360

Do they themselves not know the way home by which they may come? PAM. Do you delay? 360

Pamphilvs

Pamphilus

III.iii
Nequeo m<ea>rum rerum initium ullum invenire idoneum
unde exordiar narrare quae necopinanti accidunt;
partim quae perspexi hisce oculis, partim quae accepi auribus:
qua me propter exanimatum citius eduxi foras.
nam modo intro me ut corripui timidus, alio suspicans 365
morbo me visurum adfectam ac sensi esse uxorem: ei mihi!
postquam me aspexere ancillae advenisse, ilico omnes simul
laetae exclamant "venit", id quod me repente aspexerant.

3.3
I am unable to find any fitting beginning of my affairs whence I might begin to narrate the things that befall me unawares;
partly those which I have perceived with these eyes, partly those which I have received with my ears:
for which reason, breathless, I quickly went out-of-doors.
for just now, when I hurried myself indoors, fearful, suspecting I would see my wife afflicted by another morbus and I perceived that she was: alas for me! 365
after the maidservants saw that I had arrived, straightway all at once, joyful, they exclaim “he has come,” the very thing that they had suddenly caught sight of me.

sed continuo voltum earum sensi inmutari omnium,
quia tam incommode illic fors obtulerat adventum meum. 370
una illarum interea propere praecucurrit nuntians
me venisse: ego ei(u)s videndi cupidu' recta consequor.
postquam intro adveni, extemplo eiu' morbum cognovi miser;
nam neque ut celari posset tempu' spatium ullum dabat
neque voce alia ac res monebat ipsa poterat conqueri. 375
postquam aspexi, "o facinus indignum" inquam et corripui ilico
me inde lacrumans, incredibili re atque atroci percitus.
mater consequitur: iam ut limen exirem, ad genua accidit
lacrumans misera: miseritumst.

but immediately I sensed the faces of them all to be changed,
because chance had so incommodiously offered my arrival there. 370
meanwhile one of them ran ahead in haste, announcing
that I had come: I, desirous of seeing her, straight follow.
after I came inside, at once, poor me, I recognized her malady;
for neither did the time give any space that it could be concealed
nor could she complain in any voice other than what the matter itself admonished. 375
after I beheld, "O deed unworthy," I say, and I immediately snatched
myself from there, weeping, struck by an unbelievable and atrocious affair.
the mother follows: now as I was going out the threshold, she fell at my knees
the wretched woman, weeping: it moved me to pity.

profecto hoc sic est, ut puto:
omnibu' nobis ut res dant sese ita magni atque humiles sumus.    380
hanc habere orationem mecum principio institit:
"o mi Pamphile, abs te quam ob rem haec abierit causam vides;
nam vitiumst oblatum virgini olim a nescioquo inprobo.
nunc huc confugit te atque alios partum ut celaret suom."
sed quom orata huiu' reminiscor nequeo quin lacrumem miser.   385
"quaeque fors fortunast" inquit "nobis quae te hodie obtulit,
per eam te obsecramus ambae, si ius si fas est, uti
advorsa eiu' per te tecta tacitaque apud omnis sient.
si umquam erga te animo esse amico sensisti <ea>m, mi Pamphile,
sine labore hanc gratiam te uti sibi des pro illa nunc rogat.         390
ceterum de redducenda id facias quod in rem sit tuam.

Indeed this is thus, as I think:
for all of us, as circumstances present themselves, so we are great and humble.    380
she began at the outset to hold this discourse with me:
"O my Pamphilus, you see the cause for which she has gone away from you;
for a dishonor was brought upon the maiden once by some unknown wicked man.
now she has fled here to you and to others, to conceal her childbearing."
but when I recall her entreaties, I cannot but weep, poor wretch.   385
"and by whatever chance of fortune has today presented you to us," she says,
"by it we both beseech you, if it is right and if it is lawful, that
her adversities through you may be roofed over and kept silent among all.
if ever you sensed her to be of a friendly mind toward you, my Pamphilus,
without toil she now asks that you grant her this favor on her behalf.         390
as for bringing her back, do what will be to your own advantage.

parturire eam nec gravidam esse ex te solus consciu's:
nam aiunt tecum post duobu' concubuisse [eam] mensibus.
tum, postquam ad te venit, mensis agitur hic iam septimus:
quod te scire ipsa indicat res. nunc si potis est, Pamphile, 395
maxume volo doque operam ut clam partus eveniat patrem
atque adeo omnis.

that she is in parturition and not gravid by you—you alone are privy:
for they say that she has lain with you only after two months. Then, after she came to you, this seventh month is now underway:
which the thing itself indicates for you to know. Now if it is possible, Pamphilus, 395
I most greatly wish and I give effort that the birth may happen unknown to the father
and indeed to everyone.

sed si id fieri non potest quin sentiant,
dicam abortum esse: scio nemini aliter suspectum fore
quin, quod veri similest, ex te recte eum natum putent.
continuo exponetur: hic tibi nil est quicquam incommodi, 400
et illi miserae indigne factam iniuriam contexeris."
pollicitus sum et servare in eo certumst quod dixi fidem.
nam de redducenda, id vero ne utiquam honestum esse arbitror
nec faciam, etsi amor me graviter consuetudoque ei(u)s tenet.

but if that cannot be done without their noticing,
I will say there has been a miscarriage: I know it will be suspected otherwise by no one
nay, as is most like to the truth, that they will rightly think him born from you.
it will be set forth immediately: here there is nothing at all of inconvenience for you, 400
and you will cover over the injustice done undeservedly to that poor woman."
I have promised, and it is fixed to keep faith in this that I said.
for as to bringing her back, that indeed I deem by no means honorable
nor will I do it, although love and her familiarity hold me strongly.

lacrumo quae posthac futurast vita quom in mentem venit 405
solitudoque. o fortuna, ut numquam perpetuo's data!
sed iam prior amor me ad hanc rem exercitatum reddidit,
quem ego tum consilio missum feci: idem [nunc] huc operam dabo.

I weep when there comes into mind what life hereafter is going to be and the solitude. 405
O Fortune, how you are never given as perpetual!
but already my prior love has made me exercised for this matter,
which I then by counsel sent away: the same now I will give effort to here.

adest Parmeno cum pueris: hunc minimest opus
in hac re adesse; nam olim soli credidi 410
ea me abstinuisse in principio quom datast.
vereor, si clamorem ei(u)s hic crebro exaudiat,
ne parturire intellegat. aliquo mihist
hinc ablegandu' dum parit Philumena.

Parmeno is here with the boys: there is the least need
for him to be present in this matter; for once I entrusted to him alone 410
that I had abstained from that at the beginning when it was offered.
I fear, if he here frequently hears her clamor,
lest he understand she is in labor. I must somewhere
have him sent away from here while Philumena gives birth.

Parmeno Sosia Pamphilvs

Parmeno Sosia Pamphilus

III.iv
PAR. Ain tu tibi hoc incommodum evenisse iter? 415
SO. non hercle verbis, Parmeno, dici potest
tantum quam re ipsa navigare incommodumst.
PAR. itan est? SO. o fortunate, nescis quid mali
praeterieris qui numquam es ingressus mare.

3.4
PAR. Do you say that this inconvenience befell you on the journey? 415
SO. By Hercules, Parmeno, it cannot be told in words how much, in the reality itself, sailing is inconvenient.
PAR. Is it so? SO. O fortunate man, you do not know what evil you have passed by, you who have never entered upon the sea.

nam alias ut mittam miserias, unam hanc vide: 420
dies triginta aut plus eo in navi fui
quom interea semper mortem exspectabam miser;
ita usque advorsa tempestate usi sumus.
PAR. odiosum. SO. haud clam me est.

for, to pass over other miseries, look at this one: 420
for thirty days or more than that I was on a ship,
while meanwhile, wretched, I was always expecting death;
so continually we had adverse weather. PAR. odious. SO. it is not unknown to me.

denique hercle aufugerim
potius quam redeam, si <eo> mihi redeundum sciam. 425
PAR. olim quidem te causae inpellebant leves,
quod nunc minitare facere, ut faceres, Sosia.
sed Pamphilum ipsum video stare ante ostium:
ite intro; ego hunc adibo, siquid me velit.--
ere, etiam [nunc] tu hic stas? PAM. et quidem te exspecto.

finally, by Hercules, I would run away
rather than return, if I knew I had to return <there>. 425
PAR. indeed once light causes used to impel you
to do what now you threaten to do, Sosia, so that you did it.
but I see Pamphilus himself standing before the doorway:
go inside; I will go up to this man, if he wants anything of me.--
master, are you even [now] still standing here? PAM. yes indeed, I am waiting for you.

PAR. quid est? 430
PAM. in arcem transcurso opus est. PAR. quoi homini? PAM. tibi.

PAR. what is it? 430
PAM. we must run to the citadel. PAR. for which man? PAM. for you.

PAR. in arcem? quid eo? PAM. Callidemidem hospitem
Myconium, qui mecum una vectust, conveni.
PAR. perii.

PAR. to the citadel? why there? PAM. Meet Callidemides, a Myconian guest-friend,
who voyaged together with me.
PAR. I am undone.

vovisse hunc dicam, si salvos domum
redisset umquam, ut me ambulando rumperet? 435
PAM. quid cessas? PAR. quid vis dicam? an conveniam modo?

Shall I say that this man vowed, if ever he returned safe home, to break me by walking? 435
PAM. why do you delay? PAR. what do you want me to say? Or shall I meet him right now?

PAM. immo quod constitui me hodie conventurum eum,
non posse, ne me frustra illi exspectet. vola.
PAR. at non novi homini' faciem.

PAM. Rather, say that though I had arranged to meet him today, I cannot, so that he may not wait for me in vain. Fly.
PAR. But I do not know the man's face.

PAM. at faciam ut noveris:
magnu' rubicundu' crispu' crassu' caesius 440
cadaverosa facie. PAR. di illum perduint!
quid si non veniet?

PAM. but I’ll make it so you know him:
big, rubicund, crisp‑haired, thickset, gray‑eyed 440
with a cadaverous face. PAR. may the gods destroy him!
what if he doesn’t come?

maneamne usque ad vesperum?
PAM. maneto: curre. PAR. non queo: ita defessu' sum.--
PAM. ille abiit.

Am I to stay right up to evening?
PAM. Stay; run. PAR. I cannot: I am so exhausted.--
PAM. He has gone.

quid agam infelix? prorsus nescio
quo pacto hoc celem quod me oravit Myrrina, 445
s<uae> gnatae partum; nam me miseret mulieris.
quod potero faciam, tamen ut pietatem colam;
nam me parenti potiu' quam amori obsequi
oportet.

What am I to do, unhappy as I am? I utterly do not know
by what way I might conceal this which Myrrina implored me— 445
the childbirth of her daughter; for I pity the woman.
What I can I will do, nevertheless, so that I may cultivate piety;
for it behooves me to comply with my parent rather than with love.

attat eccum Phidippum et patrem
video: horsum pergunt. quid dicam hisce incertu' sum. 450

ah! look—here are Phidippus and my father
I see: they are proceeding hither. what I should say to these I am uncertain. 450

Laches Phidippvs Pamphilvs

Laches Phidippus Pamphilus

III.v
LA. Dixtin dudum illam dixisse se exspectare filium?
PH. factum. LA. venisse aiunt: redeat.

3.5
LA. Did you say just now that she said she was expecting her son?
PH. I did. LA. They say he has come: let him return.

PA. causam quam dicam patri
quam ob rem non redducam nescio. LA. quem ego hic audivi loqui?
PA. certum offirmare est viam me quam decrevi persequi.

PA. the reason that I might tell my father,
why I do not bring him back, I do not know. LA. whom did I hear speaking here?
PA. it is fixed; I will pursue the path which I have decreed.

LA. ipsus est de quo hoc agebam tecum. PA. salve, mi pater. 455
LA. gnate mi, salve. PH. bene factum te advenisse, Pamphile;
atque adeo, id quod maxumumst, salvom atque validum.

LA. that’s the very one I was just talking about with you. PA. greetings, my father. 455
LA. my son, greetings. PH. well done, Pamphilus, that you have arrived;
and indeed—what is most important—safe and sound and hale.

PA. creditur.
LA. advenis modo? PA. admodum.

PA. It is believed.
LA. Have you just arrived? PA. Quite so.

LA. cedo, quid reliquit Phania
consobrinu' noster? PA. sane hercle homo voluptati obsequens
f<ui>t dum vixit; et qui sic sunt haud multum heredem iuvant, 460
sibi vero hanc laudem relinquont "vixit, dum vixit, bene."
LA. tum tu igitur nil attulisti plus una hac sententia?
PA. quidquid est id quod reliquit, profuit.

LA. Come then, what did Phania, our cousin, leave behind?
PA. Truly, by Hercules, the man was obsequious to pleasure while he lived; and those who are such do not much help the heir, 460
but for themselves they leave this praise: "he lived, while he lived, well."
LA. Then you, therefore, have brought nothing more than this one sentence?
PA. Whatever it is that he left, it has profited.

LA. immo obfuit;
nam illum vivom et salvom vellem. PH. inpune optare istuc licet:
ill' revivescet iam numquam; et tamen utrum malis scio. 465
LA. heri Philumenam ad se accersi hic iussit. dic iussisse te.
PH. noli fodere.

LA. rather, it did harm;
for I would wish him alive and safe. PH. you may wish that with impunity:
he will never revive now; and yet I know which you prefer. 465
LA. yesterday this man ordered Philumena to be summoned to him. say that you ordered it.
PH. don’t prod.

iussi. LA. sed eam iam remittet. PH. scilicet.

I ordered it. LA. But he will now send her back. PH. Of course.

PA. omnem rem scio ut sit gesta: adveniens audivi modo.
LA. at istos invidos di perdant qui haec lubenter nuntiant.
PA. ego me scio cavisse ne ulla merito contumelia 470
fieri a vobis posset; idque si nunc memorare hic velim
quam fideli animo et benigno in illam et clementi fui,
vere possum, ni te ex ipsa haec mage velim resciscere;
namque <eo> pacto maxume apud te meo erit ingenio fides,
quom illa, quae nunc in me iniquast, aequa de me dixerit. 475
neque mea culpa hoc discidium evenisse, id testor deos.

PA. I know the whole matter, how it was carried out: on arriving I just heard.
LA. But may the gods destroy those envious ones who gladly report these things.
PA. I know that I took care that no affront with any desert 470
could be inflicted by you; and if I should wish now to recount here
how faithful in spirit and kindly toward her and gentle I was,
I truly can—except that I would rather you learn these things from herself;
for by that way most of all there will be trust in my character with you,
when she, who is now unfair toward me, will have spoken fairly about me. 475
And I call the gods to witness that this separation did not come about through my fault.

sed quando sese esse indignam deputat matri meae
quae concedat cui(u)sque mores toleret sua modestia,
neque alio pacto componi potest inter eas gratia,
segreganda aut mater a me est, Phidippe, aut Philumena. 480
nunc me pietas matri' potiu' commodum suadet sequi.
LA. Pamphile, haud invito ad auris sermo mi accessit tuos,
quom te postputasse omnis res prae parente intellego;
verum vide ne inpulsus ira prave insistas, Pamphile.
PA. quibus iris pulsu' nunc in illam iniquo' sim 485
quae numquam quicquam erga me commeritast, pater,
quod nollem, et saepe quod vellem meritam scio?

but since she deems herself unworthy of my mother,
who concedes and whose modesty tolerates each one’s manners,
and since in no other way can the goodwill between them be composed,
either my mother must be segregated from me, Phidippus, or Philumena. 480
now dutifulness persuades me rather to follow my mother’s advantage.
LA. Pamphilus, not unwilling, the talk has come to my ears,
since I understand that you have postponed all things in preference to your parent;
but see that, impelled by anger, you do not persist perversely, Pamphilus.
PA. By what angers, being driven, should I now be unjust against her, 485
who has never done anything toward me, father,
that I would not wish, and whom I know to have often deserved what I would wish?

amoque et laudo et vehementer desidero;
nam f<ui>sse erga me miro ingenio expertu' sum;
illique exopto ut relicuam vitam exigat 490
cum eo viro me qui sit fortunatior,
quandoquidem illam a me distrahit necessitas.
PH. tibi id in manust ne fiat. LA. si sanus sies:
iube illam redire.

and I love and laud and vehemently long for her;
for I have found her to have been toward me of marvelous disposition;
and for her I earnestly wish that she may pass the remaining life 490
with that man who is more fortunate than I,
since necessity tears her from me. PH. it is in your power that this not happen. LA. if you were sane:
order her to return.

PA. non est consilium, pater:
matris servibo commodis. LA. quo abis? mane 495
mane, inquam: quo abis?-- PH. quae haec est pertinacia?

PA. it is not the plan, father:
I will serve my mother’s interests. LA. where are you going? stay 495
stay, I say: where are you going?-- PH. what is this pertinacity?

LA. dixin, Phidippe, hanc rem aegre laturum esse eum?
quam ob rem te orabam filiam ut remitteres.
PH. non credidi edepol adeo inhumanum fore.

LA. Didn’t I say, Phidippus, that he would bear this matter ill?
wherefore I was beseeching you to send your daughter back.
PH. I did not believe, by Pollux, that he would be so inhuman.

ita nunc is sibi me supplicaturum putat? 500
si est ut velit redducere uxorem, licet;
sin aliost animo, renumeret dotem huc, eat.
LA. ecce autem tu quoque proterve iracundus es!
PH. percontumax redisti huc nobis, Pamphile!
LA. decedet iam ira haec, etsi merito iratus est. 505
PH. quia paullum vobis accessit pecuniae,
sublati animi sunt.

So now does he think that I will supplicate him? 500
if it is that he wishes to lead back his wife, let him;
but if he is of another mind, let him pay back the dowry here, and go.
LA. look, however, you too are insolently irascible!
PH. you have come back here to us, Pamphilus, over‑inquisitive!
LA. this anger will depart now, although he is angry deservedly. 505
PH. because a little money has accrued to you, you are puffed up in spirit.

LA. etiam mecum litigas?
PH. deliberet renuntietque hodie mihi
velitne an non, ut alii, si huic non est, siet.
LA. Phidippe, ades, audi paucis.-- abiit.

LA. Are you still wrangling with me?
PH. Let him deliberate and report back to me today
whether he wants it or not, so that, if there is not for this one, there may be for another.
LA. Phidippus, come, listen briefly.-- he has gone off.

quid mea? 510
postremo inter se transigant ipsi ut lubet,
quando nec gnatu' neque hic mi quicquam obtemperant,
quae dico parvi pendunt. porto hoc iurgium
ad uxorem quoi(u)s haec fiunt consilio omnia,
atque in eam hoc omne quod mihi aegrest evomam. 515

What is it to me? 510
In the end let them settle it between themselves as they please,
since neither the son nor this man obey me in anything,
they set little value on what I say. I’ll carry this quarrel
to the wife, at whose counsel all these things are done,
and upon her I will vomit out all this that is grievous to me. 515

ACTVS IV

ACT 4

Myrrina Phidippvs

Myrrina Phidippus

IV.i
MY. Perii, quid agam? quo me vortam? quid viro m<eo> respondebo
misera?

4.1
MY. I am undone; what am I to do? where shall I turn? what shall I answer my husband,
wretch that I am?

nam audivisse vocem pueri visust vagientis;
ita corripuit derepente tacitu' sese ad filiam.
quod si rescierit peperisse eam, id qua causa clam me habuisse
dicam non edepol scio. 520
sed ostium concrepuit. credo ipsum exire ad me: nulla sum.

for he seemed to have heard the voice of a boy wailing;
thus he suddenly, silently hurried himself to his daughter.
but if he finds out that she has given birth, for what reason I kept it hidden from him
I, by Pollux, do not know. 520
but the door creaked. I believe he himself is coming out to me: I’m done for.

PH. uxor ubi me ad filiam ire sensit, se duxit foras:
atque eccam: video. quid ais, Myrrina? heus tibi dico.

PH. when my wife sensed me going to the daughter, she led herself forth outside:
and lo—here she is: I see. What do you say, Myrrina? hey, I am speaking to you.

MY. mihine, vir?
PH. vir ego tuo' sim? tu virum me aut hominem deputas adeo esse?

MY. To me, husband?
PH. I your husband? Do you reckon me to be a husband, or even a man, to that degree?

nam si utrumvis horum, mulier, umquam tibi visus forem, 525
non sic ludibrio t<ui>s factis habitus essem. MY. quibus? PH. at rogitas?

for if either of these, woman, I had ever seemed to you, 525
I would not have been thus held to mockery by your deeds. MY. By which? PH. And you ask?

peperit filia: hem taces? ex qui? MY. istuc patrem rogare est aequom.

the daughter has given birth: ha, you are silent? by whom? MY. it is equitable to ask the father that.

perii! ex quo censes nisi ex illo quoi datast nuptum obsecro?
PH. credo: neque adeo arbitrari patris est aliter.

I am undone! From whom do you think, unless from that man to whom she was given in marriage, I beseech? PH. I believe so: nor indeed is it a father’s part to think otherwise.

sed demiror
quid sit quam ob rem hunc tanto opere omnis nos celare volueris 530
partum, praesertim quom et recte et tempore suo pepererit.
adeon pervicaci esse animo ut puerum praeoptares perire,
ex quo firmiorem inter nos fore amicitiam posthac scires,
potiu' quam advorsum animi t<ui> lubidinem esset cum illo nupta!
ego etiam illorum esse hanc culpam credidi, quae test penes. 535
MY. misera sum.

but I marvel
what it may be, for what reason you have wished so greatly to hide from all of us this birth, 530
especially since she has borne both rightly and at her proper time.
Are you of so stubborn a mind that you would prefer the boy to perish,
from whom you knew that hereafter there would be firmer amity between us,
rather than that she be married to him contrary to your desire!
I even believed this blame to be theirs, whereas it lies with you. 535
MY. I am wretched.

PH. utinam sciam ita esse istuc! sed nunc mi in mentem venit
de hac re quod locuta es olim, quom illum generum cepimus:
nam negabas nuptam posse filiam t<ua>m te pati
cum eo qui meretricem amaret, qui pernoctaret foris.
MY. (quamvis causam hunc suspicari quam ipsam veram mavolo.) 540
PH. multo priu' scivi quam tu illum habere amicam, Myrrina;
verum id vitium numquam decrevi esse ego adulescentiae;
nam id [omnibus] innatumst.

PH. Would that I knew that to be so! but
now it comes into my mind
about this matter what you once said, when we took him as a son-in-law:
for you were denying that you could endure your daughter to be wed
with him who loved a prostitute, who spent the night outside.
MY. (I prefer that he suspect this cause rather than the true one itself.) 540
PH. Long before you I knew that he had a mistress, Myrrhina;
but I never decreed that to be a vice of adolescence;
for that is innate [to all].

at pol iam aderit se quoque etiam quom oderit.
sed ut olim te ostendisti, eadem esse nil cessavisti usque adhuc
ut filiam ab eo abduceres neu quod ego egissem esset ratum. 545
id nunc res indicium haec facit quo pacto factum volueris.
MY. adeon me esse pervicacem censes, quoi mater siem,
ut eo essem animo, si ex usu esset nostro hoc matrimonium?

but, by Pollux, now he will be present himself too even when he hates it.
but just as you once showed yourself, you have not ceased up to now to be the same—so as to lead the daughter away from him and lest what I had done should be ratified. 545
this matter now makes an indication of in what manner you wished it done.
MY. do you reckon me to be so pervicacious, I who am her mother, as to be of that mind, if this matrimony were to be to our use?

PH. tun prospicere aut iudicare nostram in rem quod sit potes?
audisti ex aliquo fortasse qui vidisse <eu>m diceret 550
exeuntem aut intro euntem ad amicam. quid tum postea?

PH. Can you provide for or judge what serves our interest?
You perhaps heard from someone who said he had seen him 550
going out or going in to his sweetheart. What then after that?

si modeste ac raro haec fecit, nonne ea dissimulare nos
magis humanumst quam dare operam id scire qui nos oderit?
nam si is posset ab ea sese derepente avellere
quicum tot consuesset annos, non eum hominem ducerem 555
nec virum sati' firmum gnatae. MY. mitte adulescentem obsecro
et quae me peccasse ais.

If he has done these things modestly and rarely, is it not more human for us to dissimulate these
than to take pains to know it, such that he would hate us?
for if he could tear himself away from her all at once,
with whom he had been accustomed for so many years, I would not consider him a man, 555
nor a husband firm enough for our daughter. MY. Dismiss the young man, I beg,
and what you say that I have done wrong.

abi, solu' solum conveni,
roga velitne uxorem an non: si est ut dicat velle se,
redde; sin est autem ut nolit, recte ego consului meae.
PH. siquidem ille ipse non volt et tu sen[si]sti in eo esse, Myrrina, 560
peccatum, aderam quoi(u)s consilio fuerat ea par prospici.
quam ob rem incendor ira esse ausam facere haec te iniussu meo.

go, by yourself, meet him alone,
ask whether he wants a wife or not: if it is that he says he wishes it,
give her back; but if it is that he does not wish it, I have rightly taken counsel for my own daughter.
PH. If indeed that very man does not wish it and you sensed there to be in him, Myrrina, 560
a fault, I was present, by whose counsel it had been that these things were to be provided for.
for which reason I am inflamed with anger that you dared to do these things without my order.

interdico ne extulisse extra aedis puerum usquam velis.
sed ego stultior m<ei>s dictis parere hanc qui postulem.
ibo intro atque edicam servis nequoquam ecferri sinant.-- 565
MY. nullam pol credo mulierem me miseriorem vivere:
nam ut hic laturus hoc sit, si ipsam rem ut siet resciverit,
non edepol clam me est, quom hoc quod leviust tam animo irato tulit;
nec qua via sententia eiu' possit mutari scio.

I forbid you to want the boy to be carried anywhere outside the house.
but I am too foolish to demand that she obey my words.
I will go inside and proclaim to the slaves that by no means are they to allow him to be carried out.-- 565
MY. By Pollux, I believe no woman lives more miserable than I:
for how he will bear this, if he learns how the matter itself stands,
is certainly not unknown to me, since he took this, which is lighter, with so irate a spirit;
nor do I know by what way his sentence can be changed.

hoc mi unum ex plurumis miseriis relicuom fuerat malum, 570
si puerum ut tollam cogit, quoi(u)s nos qui sit nescimus pater.
nam quom compressast gnata, forma in tenebris nosci non quitast,
neque detractum <ei> tum quicquamst qui posset post nosci qui siet;
ipse eripuit vi, in digito quem habuit, virgini abiens anulum.
simul vereor Pamphilum ne orata nostra nequeat diutius 575
celare, quom sciet alienum puerum tolli pro suo.

this one evil had been left to me out of my many miseries, 570
if he forces me to raise the boy, whose father we do not know.
for when my daughter was assaulted, the appearance in the darkness could not be recognized,
nor was anything taken from him then which could afterward make it possible to recognize who he might be;
he himself by force, as he went away, snatched from the maiden the ring which she had on her finger.
at the same time I fear that Pamphilus may be unable to conceal our entreaty any longer 575
when he will know that an alien child is being raised in place of his own.

Sostrata Pamphilvs (Laches)

Sostrata Pamphilus (Laches)

IV.ii
SO. Non clam me est, gnate mi, tibi me esse suspectam, uxorem tuam
propter m<eo>s mores hinc abisse, etsi ea dissimulas sedulo.
verum ita me di ament itaque optingant ex te quae exoptem mihi ut
numquam sciens commerui merito ut caperet odium illam mei. 580
teque ante quod me amare rebar, <ei> rei firmasti fidem;
nam mi intu' tuo' pater narravit modo quo pacto me habueris
praepositam amori t<uo>: nunc tibi me certumst contra gratiam
referre ut apud me praemium esse positum pietati scias.
mi Pamphile, hoc et vobis et meae commodum famae arbitror: 585
ego rus abituram hinc cum t<uo> me esse certo decrevi patre,
ne mea praesentia obstet neu causa ulla restet relicua
quin tua Philumena ad te redeat.

4.2
SO. It is not unknown to me, my son, that I am suspected by you, that your wife
has gone away from here because of my ways, although you carefully dissemble it.
But so may the gods love me, and so may they grant from you what I desire for myself, that
I never knowingly deserved that she should take up hatred of me. 580
And as for my thinking before that you loved me, you have confirmed that belief;
for your father just now told me in what manner you have kept me
set before your love: now it is my settled purpose, in return, to repay your kindness,
so that you may know that with me a reward has been set for dutifulness.
My Pamphilus, I judge this to be an advantage both for you all and for my good fame: 585
I have firmly decided that I will go away from here to the country with your father,
so that my presence may not hinder, nor any cause remain left
why your Philumena should not return to you.

PA. quaeso quid istuc consilist?
illi(u)s stultitia victa ex urbe tu rus habitatum migres?
haud facies, neque sinam ut qui nobis, mater, male dictum velit, 590
mea pertinacia esse dicat factum, haud tua modestia.

PA. Please, what plan is that?
Overcome by her stupidity, would you move from the city to the country to dwell?
You shall not do it, nor will I allow anyone who wants to speak ill of us, mother, 590
to say that it was done by my pertinacity, not by your modesty.

tum t<ua>s amicas te et cognatas deserere et festos dies
mea causa nolo. SO. nil pol iam istaec mihi res voluptatis ferunt:
dum aetati' tempu' tulit, perfuncta sati' sum: satias iam tenet
studiorum istorum. haec mihi nunc curast maxuma ut nequoi mea 595
longinquitas aetatis obstet mortemve exspectet meam.

then as for you to desert your friends and kinswomen and the feast-days—on my account I do not wish it. SO. By Pollux, now those things bring me no pleasure: while the time suited my age, I had quite had my fill; satiety now holds me of those pursuits. this is now my greatest care, that my long age be an obstacle to no one, nor that anyone await my death. 595
long continuance of age should hinder anyone or make anyone expect my death.

hic video me esse invisam inmerito: tempust me concedere.
sic optume, ut ego opinor, omnis causas praecidam omnibus:
et me hac suspicione exsolvam et illis morem gessero.
sine me obsecro hoc effugere volgu' quod male audit mulierum. 600
PA. quam fortunatu' ceteris sum rebus, absque una hac foret,
hanc matrem habens talem, illam autem uxorem!

here I see that I am unwelcome undeservedly: it is time for me to withdraw.
thus, best, as I think, I shall cut off all causes for everyone:
and I shall exonerate myself from this suspicion and shall have complied with them.
allow me, I beg, to escape this vulgar rumor that gives women a bad name. 600
PA. how fortunate in all the other matters I would be, apart from this one,
having such a mother, and that wife!

SO. obsecro, mi Pamphile,
non tute incommodam rem, ut quaeque est, in animum induces pati?
si cetera ita sunt ut vis itaque uti esse ego illa[m] existumo,
mi gnate, da veniam hanc mihi, redduc illam. PA. vae misero mihi! 605
SO. et mihi quidem; nam haec res non minu' me male habet quam te, gnate mi.

SO. I beseech you, my Pamphilus,
will you not yourself bring it into your mind to endure the incommodious matter, just as it is? If the rest are as you wish, and as I reckon her to be, my son, grant me this indulgence, bring her back. PA. Woe to wretched me! 605
SO. And to me indeed; for this matter does not trouble me less than you, my son.

Laches Sostrata Pamphilvs

Laches Sostrata Pamphilus

IV.iii
LA. Quem cum istoc sermonem habueris procul hinc stans accepi, uxor.
istuc est sapere, qui ubiquomque opu' sit animum possis flectere;
quod sit faciundum fortasse post, idem hoc nunc si feceris.
SO. fors fuat pol.

IV.iii
LA. Wife, standing far off from here, I caught the conversation which you had with that fellow.
that is to be wise: that you can bend your mind wherever there is need;
if you do now this same thing which perhaps ought to be done later.
SO. by Pollux, may chance bring it to pass.

LA. abi rus ergo hinc: ibi ego te et tu me feres. 610
SO. spero ecastor. LA. i ergo intro et compone quae tecum simul
ferantur: dixi. SO. ita ut iubes faciam.-- PA. pater.

LA. go to the country then from here: there I will bear you, and you will bear me. 610
SO. by Castor, I hope so. LA. go then inside and arrange what may be carried along with you at the same time: I have spoken. SO. I will do so, as you order.-- PA. father.

LA. quid vis, Pamphile? PA. hinc abire matrem? minime.

LA. what do you want, Pamphilus? PA. mother to go away from here? by no means.

LA. quid ita
istuc vis?
PA. quia de uxore incertu' sum etiam quid sim facturus. LA. quid est?

LA. why so
do you want that?
PA. because concerning my wife I am still uncertain what I am going to do. LA. what is it?

quid vis facere nisi redducere? PA. equidem cupio et vix contineor; 615
sed non minuam m<eu>m consilium: ex usu quod est id persequar:
credo <ea> gratia concordes [magis], si non redducam, fore.
LA. nescias: verum id tua refert nil utrum illaec fecerint
quando haec aberit.

what do you wish to do except bring her back? PA. indeed I desire it and I can scarcely contain myself; 615
but I will not diminish my counsel: that which is of use I will pursue:
I believe for that reason we shall be in concord [more], if I do not bring her back.
LA. you do not know: but that matters nothing to you, what those women may have done when this one is away.

odiosa haec est aetas adulescentulis.
e medio aequom excedere est: postremo nos iam fabulae 620
sumu', Pamphile, "senex atque anus."
sed video Phidippum egredi per tempus: accedamus.

this age is odious to adolescents.
it is fair to withdraw from the midst; in the end we are now a fable 620
we are, Pamphilus, “an old man and an old woman.”
but I see Phidippus coming out at the right time: let us approach.

Phidippvs Laches Pamphilvs

Phidippus Laches Pamphilus

IV.iv
PH. Tibi quoque edepol sum iratus, Philumena,
graviter quidem; nam hercle factumst abs te turpiter.
etsi tibi causast de hac re: mater te inpulit. 625
huic vero nullast. LA. opportune te mihi,
Phidippe, in ipso tempore ostendis.

IV.iv
PH. By Pollux, I am angry with you too, Philumena,
gravely indeed; for, by Hercules, a deed has been done by you disgracefully.
although you have a cause in this matter: your mother impelled you. 625
for her truly there is none. LA. Opportunely you present yourself to me,
Phidippus, at the very time itself.

PH. quid est?
PA. quid respondebo his? aut quo pacto hoc aperiam?

PH. what is it?
PA. what shall I answer them? or in what manner shall I open this up?

LA. dic filiae rus concessurum hinc Sostratam,
ne revereatur minu' iam quo redeat domum. PH. ah 630
nullam de his rebu' culpam commeruit tua:
a Myrrina haec sunt mea uxore exorta omnia.
<PA.> mutatio fit.

LA. tell your daughter that Sostrata will withdraw to the country from here,
so that she may now be less bashful about returning home. PH. ah 630
she has merited no blame in these matters:
from Myrrina, my wife, all these things have arisen.
<PA.> a change occurs.

<PH.> ea nos perturbat, Lache.
PA. dum ne redducam, turbent porro quam velint.
PH. ego, Pamphile, esse inter nos, si fieri potest, 635
adfinitatem hanc sane perpetuam volo;
sin est ut aliter tua siet sententia,
accipias puerum.

<PH.> This is what perturbs us, Laches.
PA. Provided that I do not bring her back, let them be disturbed further as much as they wish.
PH. I, Pamphilus, wish this affinity between us, if it can be done, 635
to be truly perpetual;
but if your sentiment is otherwise,
accept the boy.

PA. sensit peperisse: occidi.
LA. puerum? quem puerum?

PA. she perceived that she had given birth: I am undone.
LA. a boy? what boy?

PH. natus est nobis nepos.
nam abducta a vobis praegnas fuerat filia, 640
neque f<ui>sse praegnatem umquam ante hunc scivi diem.
LA. bene, ita me di ament, nuntias, et gaudeo
natum, tibi illam salvam.

PH. A grandson has been born to us.
for, taken away from you, our daughter had been pregnant, 640
nor did I know that she had ever been pregnant before this day.
LA. Good, so may the gods love me, you announce it, and I rejoice
that a boy has been born, and that she is safe for you.

sed quid mulieris
uxorem habes aut quibu' moratam moribus?
nosne hoc celatos tam diu! nequeo satis 645
quam hoc mihi videtur factum prave proloqui.

but what of the woman?
do you have her as your wife, or by what morals is she governed?
are we the ones kept in the dark about this so long! I cannot enough 645
declare how perversely done this seems to me.

PH. non tibi illud factum minu' placet quam mihi, Lache.
PA. etiamsi dudum fuerat ambiguom hoc mihi,
nunc non est quom eam [con]sequitur alienus puer.
LA. nulla tibi, Pamphile, hic iam consultatiost. 650
PA. perii.

PH. That deed is no less pleasing to you than to me, Laches.
PA. Even if a little while ago this was ambiguous to me, now it is not, since an alien (another man’s) boy follows her.
LA. There is for you, Pamphilus, now no room for consultation here. 650
PA. I am undone.

LA. hunc videre saepe optabamus diem
quom ex te esset aliqui' qui te appellaret patrem.
evenit: habeo gratiam dis. PA. nullu' sum.

LA. We often wished to see this day
when there might be someone from you who would call you father.
It has come to pass: I have gratitude to the gods. PA. I am nothing.

LA. redduc uxorem ac noli advorsari mihi.
PA. pater, si ex me illa liberos vellet sibi 655
aut sese mecum nuptam, sati' certo scio,
non clam me haberet quae celasse intellego.
nunc quom eius alienum esse animum a me sentiam
(nec conventurum inter nos posthac arbitror),
quam ob rem redducam?

LA. bring back your wife and do not oppose me.
PA. father, if she wished children for herself from me 655
or herself to be wedded with me, I know quite for certain
she would not keep it hidden from me—she whom I understand has concealed it.
now, since I sense that her mind is alien from me
(nor do I think it will come to an accord between us hereafter),
for what reason should I bring her back?

LA. mater quod suasit sua 660
adulescens mulier fecit. mirandum[ne] id siet?
censen te posse reperire ullam mulierem
quae careat culpa?

LA. what her own mother urged, the young woman did. 660
is it to be wondered at?
do you think you can find any woman
who is without fault?

an quia non delincunt viri?
PH. vosmet videte iam, Lache et tu Pamphile,
remissan opu' sit vobis redductan domum. 665
uxor quid faciat in manu non est mea:
neutra in re vobis difficultas a me erit.
sed quid faciemu' puero?

or because men do not do wrong?
PH. you yourselves see to it now, Laches, and you, Pamphilus,
whether it be needful for you to have her sent away or brought back home. 665
what the wife does is not in my power:
in neither matter will you have difficulty from me.
but what shall we do about the boy?

LA. ridicule rogas:
quidquid futurumst, huic suom reddas scilicet
ut alamu' nostrum. PA. quem ipse neglexit pater, 670
ego alam? LA. quid dixti?

LA. you ask ridiculously:
whatever will be, you should of course restore to this one what is his
so that we may nourish our own. PA. the one whom his father himself neglected, 670
shall I nourish? LA. what did you say?

eho an non alemu', Pamphile?
prodemu' quaeso potiu'? quae haec amentiast?
enimvero prorsu' iam tacere non queo;
nam cogis ea quae nolo ut praesente hoc loquar.

Hey—are we not to nourish him, Pamphilus?
Shall we rather expose him, I pray? What insanity is this?
Indeed, in very truth, now I cannot keep silent outright;
for you force me to speak, with this man present, things I do not wish.

ignarum censes t<ua>rum lacrumarum esse me 675
aut quid sit id quod sollicitare ad hunc modum?
primum hanc ubi dixti causam, te propter tuam
matrem non posse habere hanc uxorem domi,
pollicitast ea se concessuram ex aedibus.
nunc postquam ademptam hanc quoque tibi causam vides, 680
puer quia clam test natu', nactus alteram es.
erras tui animi si me esse ignarum putas.

Do you think me ignorant of your tears, 675
or of what it is that solicits you to this degree?
First, when you stated this cause—that on account of your
mother you could not have this wife at home—
she promised that she would withdraw from the house.
Now, since you see this pretext too taken from you, 680
because a boy has been born without your knowledge, you have gotten another.
You err if you think me ignorant of your mind.

aliquando tandem huc animum ut adiungas tuom.
quam longum spatium amandi amicam tibi dedi!
sumptus quos fecisti in eam quam animo aequo tuli! 685
egi atque oravi tecum uxorem ut duceres,
tempus dixi esse: inpulsu duxisti meo;
quae tum obsecutu' mihi fecisti ut decuerat.

at last, finally, that you join your mind here.
how long a span for loving your girlfriend I have given you!
the expenses you incurred on her—how I bore them with equanimity! 685
I pressed and entreated you to take a wife,
I said it was the time: at my prompting you married;
and then, in compliance with me, you did what was fitting.

nunc animum rursum ad meretricem induxti tuom;
quoi tu obsecutu' facis huic adeo iniuriam. 690
nam in eandem vitam te revolutum denuo
video esse. PA. mene? LA. te ipsum: et facis iniuriam;
confingi' falsas causas ad discordiam,
ut cum illa vivas, testem hanc quom abs te amoveris.

now you have drawn your mind back again to the courtesan;
by being obsequious to her you thus do so great an injustice to this one. 690
for into the same life I see you revolved anew
to be. PA. me? LA. yourself: and you are doing an injustice;
you forge false causes for discord,
so that you may live with that woman, when you have removed this witness from you.

sensitque adeo uxor; nam <ei> causa alia quae fuit 695
quam ob rem abs te abiret? PH. plane hic divinat: nam id est.
PA. dabo iusiurandum nil esse istorum mihi.

and the wife even sensed it; for what other cause was there for her 695
on account of which she would go away from you? PH. plainly he divines: for that is it.
PA. I will give an oath that none of those things apply to me.

LA. ah
redduc uxorem aut quam ob rem non opu' sit cedo.
PA. non est nunc tempu'. LA. puerum accipias; nam is quidem
in culpa non est: post de matre videro. 700
PA. omnibu' modis miser sum nec quid agam scio;
tot nunc me rebu' miserum concludit pater.
abibo hinc, praesens quando promoveo parum.

LA. ah
bring back your wife, or tell me for what reason there is no need.
PA. now is not the time. LA. take the boy; for he at least
is not at fault: afterward I will see about the mother. 700
PA. in every way I am wretched, nor do I know what I should do;
my father now shuts me, poor wretch, in with so many things.
I’ll go away from here, since, being present, I accomplish little.

nam puerum iniussu credo non tollent meo,
praesertim in ea re quom sit mi adiutrix socrus. 705
LA. fugis? hem, nec quicquam certi respondes mihi?--
num tibi videtur esse apud sese? sine:
puerum, Phidippe, mihi cedo: ego alam.

for I believe they will not take up the boy without my order,
especially in this matter since my mother-in-law is my helper. 705
LA. are you running away? hey, and you give me no definite answer?—
does she seem to you to be in her senses? leave it be:
hand over the boy to me, Phidippe; I will rear him.

PH. maxume.
non mirum fecit uxor [mea] si hoc aegre tulit:
amarae mulieres sunt, non facile haec ferunt. 710
propterea haec irast; nam ipsa narravit mihi.
id ego hoc praesente tibi nolueram dicere,
neque illi credebam primo: nunc verum palamst.

PH. most certainly.
it was no marvel my wife did so, if she bore this with difficulty:
women are bitter; they do not easily bear these things. 710
for that reason she is irate; for she herself narrated to me.
that I had not wished to tell you with this one present,
nor did I credit her at first: now the truth is manifest.

nam omnino abhorrere animum huic video a nuptiis.
LA. quid ergo agam, Phidippe? quid das consili? 715
PH. quid agas?

for I see that this one's mind utterly abhors the nuptials.
LA. what then am I to do, Phidippus? what counsel do you give? 715
PH. what are you to do?

meretricem hanc primum adeundam censeo:
oremus accusemu' graviu' denique
minitemur si cum illo habuerit rem postea.
LA. faciam ut mones. eho puer<e>, curre ad Bacchidem hanc
vicinam nostram: huc evoca verbis meis. 720
et te oro porro in hac re adiutor sis mihi.

I judge that this courtesan should first be approached:
let us entreat, let us accuse, finally let us threaten more gravely
if she shall have had an affair with him afterward.
LA. I will do as you advise. Ho there, boy<e>, run to this Bacchis,
our neighbor: summon her here with my words. 720
and I beg you furthermore, in this matter be a helper to me.

PH. ah
iamdudum dixi idemque nunc dico, Lache:
manere adfinitatem hanc inter nos volo,
si ullo modo est ut possit: quod spero fore.
sed vin adesse me una dum istam convenis? 725
LA. immo vero abi, aliquam puero nutricem para.

PH. ah
I said it long ago and I say the same now, Laches:
I want this affinity to remain between us,
if in any way it can—which I hope will be.
but do you want me to be present with you while you meet that woman? 725
LA. no indeed, go away; get some nurse for the boy.

ACTVS V

ACT 5

Bacchis Laches

V.i
BA. Non hoc de nihilost quod Laches me nunc conventam esse expetit;
nec pol me multum fallit quin quod suspicor sit quod velit.
LA. videndumst ne minu' propter iram hanc impetrem quam possi<e>m,
aut nequid faciam plus quod post me minu' fecisse satiu' sit. 730
adgrediar. Bacchi', salve.

5.1
BA. This is not about nothing, that Laches now seeks to have me summoned;
nor, by Pollux, am I much mistaken that what I suspect is what he wants.
LA. It must be looked to, lest I obtain less on account of this anger than I could,
or lest I do anything in excess which afterward it would be better I had done less. 730
I will approach. Bacchis, greetings.

BA. salve, Lache. LA. credo edepol te non nil mirari, Bacchis,
quid sit quapropter te huc foras puerum evocare iussi.
BA. ego pol quoque etiam timida sum quom venit mi in mentem quae sim,
ne nomen mihi quaesti obsiet; nam mores facile tutor. 735
LA. si vera dici' nil tibist a me pericli, mulier;
nam iam aetate ea sum ut non siet peccato mi ignosci aequom:
quo magis omnis res cautius ne temere faciam adcuro.

BA. greetings, Laches. LA. I believe, by Pollux, you are not a little amazed, Bacchis,
what it is, for which reason, that I ordered the boy to call you out here.
BA. I too, by Pollux, am timid when it comes into my mind what sort I am,
lest the name of my trade hinder me; for my manners I can easily defend. 735
LA. if you speak truth, there is no danger to you from me, woman;
for I am now of such an age that it is not right for a fault to be forgiven me:
wherefore I take care all the more to do everything more cautiously, lest I do anything rashly.

nam si id facis facturave es bonas quod par est facere,
inscitum offerre iniuriam tibi [me] inmerenti iniquom est. 740
BA. est magna ecastor gratia de istac re quam tibi habeam;
nam qui post factam iniuriam se expurget parum mi prosit.
sed quid istuc est? LA. m<eu>m receptas filium ad te Pamphilum.

for if you do, or are going to do, what it is proper for a good woman to do,
it is iniquitous for [me], unknowing, to offer an injury to you, undeserving. 740
BA. by Castor, there is great gratitude for that matter which I owe you;
for he who expurgates himself after an injury has been done profits me little.
but what is that? LA. you have taken in my son Pamphilus to your place.

BA. ah.
LA. sine dicam: uxorem hanc priu' quam duxit, vostrum amorem pertuli.
mane: nondum etiam dixi id quod volui. hic nunc uxorem habet: 745
quaere alium tibi firmiorem [amicum] dum tibi tempu' consulendi est;
nam neque ille hoc animo erit aetatem neque pol tu eadem istac aetate.

BA. ah.
LA. allow me to say: before he married this wife, I bore your love.
wait: I have not yet even said what I wished. He now has a wife: 745
seek for yourself another, firmer [friend], while there is time for you to take counsel for yourself;
for neither will he be of this mind for a lifetime, nor, by Pollux, will you be in that same age.

BA. quis id ait? LA. socrus. BA. men?

BA. Who says that? LA. Mother-in-law. BA. Me?

LA. te ipsam: et filiam abduxit suam,
puerumque ob eam rem clam voluit, natu' qui est, exstinguere.
BA. aliud si scirem qui firmare meam apud vos possem fidem 750
sanctius quam iusiurandum, id pollicerer tibi, Lache,
me segregatum habuisse, uxorem ut duxit, a me Pamphilum.
LA. lepida es. sed scin quid volo potius sodes facias?

LA. you yourself: and he abducted his own daughter,
and on that account he wanted secretly to extinguish the boy who has been born.
BA. if I knew anything by which I could confirm my faith with you more sacredly than an oath, 750
I would promise you that, Laches: that I have kept Pamphilus segregated from me, since he took a wife.
LA. you are delightful. But do you know what I would rather you please do?

BA. quid vis? cedo.
LA. eas ad mulieres huc intro atque istuc iusiurandum idem
polliceare illis.

BA. what do you want? go on.
LA. go in here to the women and pledge to them that same oath.

exple animum is teque hoc crimine expedi. 755
BA. faciam quod pol, si esset alia ex hoc quaestu, haud faceret, scio,
ut de tali causa nuptae mulieri se ostenderet.
sed nolo esse falsa fama gnatum suspectum tuom,
nec leviorem vobis, quibus est minime aequom, <eu>m viderier
inmerito; nam meritu' de me est quod queam illi ut commodem. 760
LA. facilem benivolumque lingua tua iam tibi me reddidit:
nam non sunt solae arbitratae haec; ego quoque etiam credidi.
nunc quam ego te esse praeter nostram opinionem comperi,
fac eadem ut sis porro: nostra utere amicitia ut voles.

Satisfy your mind and clear yourself of this accusation. 755
BA. I will do it—for by Pollux, if there were another from this trade, she would by no means do it, I know,
to show herself to a married woman on such a cause. But I do not want your son to be suspected by false rumor,
nor to seem of less weight to you—to whom it is least fair—undeservedly; for by his desert toward me there is that which I can lend him. 760
LA. Your tongue has already rendered me easy and benevolent toward you:
for they alone did not suppose these things; I too believed it as well.
Now that I have found you to be, beyond our expectation, such as you are,
see that you remain the same hereafter: use our friendship as you wish.

aliter si facies--reprimam me ne aegre quicquam ex me audias. 765
verum hoc moneo unum, qualis sim amicus aut quid possiem
potiu' quam inimicus, periclum facias.

if you act otherwise—I will restrain myself so that you hear nothing unpleasant from me. 765
but this one thing I admonish: make the experiment of what sort I am as a friend, and what I can do,
rather than as an enemy.

Phidippvs Laches Bacchis

Phidippus Laches Bacchis

V.ii
PH. Nil apud me tibi
defieri patiar, quin quod opu' sit benigne praebeatur.
sed quom tu satura atque ebria eri', puer ut satur sit facito.
LA. noster socer, video, venit: puero nutricem adducit. 770
Phidippe, Bacchis deierat persancte . . PH. haecin east?

5.2
PH. I will not allow anything to be lacking to you with me,
but that whatever is needful be kindly provided. But when you are sated and drunk,
see to it that the boy be sated. LA. Our father-in-law, I see, is coming: he is bringing a nurse for the boy. 770
Phidippus, Bacchis swears most sacredly . . PH. Is this she?

LA. haec est.
PH. nec pol istae metuont d<eo>s neque eas respicere d<eo>s opinor.
BA. ancillas dedo: quolubet cruciatu per me exquire.

LA. This is she.
PH. By Pollux, those women neither fear the gods, nor, I opine, do the gods regard them.
BA. I hand over the maidservants: inquire by whatever torment you please, for all I care.

haec res hic agitur: Pamphilo me facere ut redeat uxor
oportet: quod si perficio non paenitet me famae, 775
solam fecisse id quod aliae meretrices facere fugitant.
LA. Phidippe, nostras mulieres suspectas f<ui>sse falso
nobis in re ipsa invenimus: porro hanc nunc experiamur.
nam si compererit crimini tua se uxor credidisse,
missam iram faciet; sin autem est ob eam rem iratu' gnatus 780
quod peperit uxor clam, id levest: cito ab eo haec ira abscedet.

this matter is being handled here: I must bring it about that the wife return to Pamphilus;
and if I accomplish this, I shall not repent, as to reputation, that I alone have done what other courtesans shrink from doing. 775
LA. Phidippus, we have found in the very matter that our women were suspected falsely: moreover, let us now put this one to the test.
for if your wife shall have learned that she believed the accusation, she will dismiss her anger; but if, however, the son is angry for this reason 780
that his wife bore a child secretly, that is light: quickly will this anger depart from him.

profecto in hac re nil malist quod sit discidio dignum.
PH. velim quidem hercle. LA. exquire: adest: quod sati' sit faciet ipsa.

surely in this matter there is nothing bad that is worthy of divorce.
PH. indeed, by Hercules, I would wish it. LA. inquire: she is present: she herself will do what is sufficient.

PH. quid mihi istaec narras? an quia non tute ipse dudum audisti
de hac re animu' meus ut sit, Laches? illis modo explete animum. 785
LA. quaeso edepol, Bacchi', quod mihi es pollicita tute ut serves.

PH. Why are you telling me these things? Or is it because you yourself did not just now hear how my mind is about this matter, Laches? Only fill their desire to the full. 785
LA. I beg, by Pollux—Bacchis, keep what you yourself have promised me.

BA. ob eam rem vin ego introeam? LA. i, atque exple animum is, coge ut credant.
BA. eo, etsi scio pol is fore m<eu>m conspectum invisum hodie.

BA. For that reason do you want me to go inside? LA. Go, and fill their minds,
compel them to believe.
BA. I go, although I know, by Pollux, that to them my appearance will be odious today.

nam nupta meretrici hostis est, a viro ubi segregatast.
LA. at haec amicae erunt, ubi quam ob rem adveneris resciscent. 790
PH. at easdem amicas fore tibi promitto rem ubi cognorint;
nam illas errore et te simul suspicione exsolves.
BA. perii, pudet Philumenae.

for a married woman is an enemy to a courtesan, when she has been separated from her husband.
LA. but these will be friends, when they learn for what reason you have arrived. 790
PH. but I promise that those same ones will be friendly to you when they have learned the matter;
for you will free them from error and yourself at the same time from suspicion.
BA. I am undone; I am ashamed before Philumena.

me sequimini huc intro ambae.--
LA. quid est quod mihi malim quam quod huic intellego evenire,
ut gratiam ineat sine suo dispendio et mihi prosit? 795
nam si est ut haec nunc Pamphilum vere ab se segregarit,
scit sibi nobilitatem ex eo et rem natam et gloriam esse:
referet gratiam ei unaque nos sibi opera amicos iunget.

follow me in here, both of you.--
LA. what is there that I would prefer for myself than what I understand is happening to her,
that she may enter into favor without her own dispendium and that it profit me? 795
for if it is that this woman has now truly segregated Pamphilus from herself,
she knows that for herself from this have arisen nobility and estate and glory:
she will return the favor to him, and at the same time by one and the same endeavor she will join us to herself as friends.

Parmeno Bacchis

V.iii
PA. Edepol ne meam erus esse operam deputat parvi preti,
qui ob rem nullam misit frustra ubi totum desedi diem, 800
Myconium hospitem dum exspecto in arce Callidemidem.
itaque ineptus hodie dum illi sedeo, ut quisque venerat,
accedebam: "adulescens, dicdum quaeso mi, es tu Myconius?"
"non sum." "at Callidemides?" "non." "hospitem ecquem Pamphilum
hic habes?" omnes negabant: neque eum quemquam esse arbitror. 805
denique hercle iam pudebat: abii. sed quid Bacchidem
ab nostro adfine exeuntem video?

5.3
PA. By Pollux, surely my master reckons my service to be of little value,
who sent me for no purpose, in vain, to where I sat out the whole day, 800
while I was awaiting in the citadel the Myconian guest, Callidemides.
and so, inept, while I was sitting there for him today, as each man came,
I would approach: "young man, please tell me, are you Myconius?"
"I am not." "But Callidemides?" "No." "Have you here as guest any Pamphilus
here?" Everyone was saying no; nor do I suppose there is any such man. 805
At last, by Hercules, I was already ashamed: I went away. But what do I see—Bacchis
coming out from our in-law’s place?

quid huic hic est rei?
BA. Parmeno, opportune te offers: propere curre ad Pamphilum.
PA. quid eo? BA. dic me orare ut veniat.

What affair has she here? BA. Parmeno, you present yourself opportunely: run speedily to Pamphilus. PA. Why to him? BA. Say that I entreat that he come.

PA. ad te? BA. immo ad Philumenam.
PA. quid rei est? BA. tua quod nil refert percontari desinas. 810
PA. nil aliud dicam?

PA. to you? BA. no, to Philumena.
PA. what’s the matter? BA. that you cease to inquire about what concerns you nothing. 810
PA. shall I say nothing else?

BA. etiam: cognosse anulum illum Myrrinam
gnatae s<uae> fuisse quem ipsus olim mi dederat. PA. scio.
tantumne est?

BA. Yes: that Myrrina recognized that ring to have been h<er> daughter’s,
which he himself once had given to me. PA. I know.
is that all?

BA. tantum: aderit continuo hoc ubi ex te audi<v>erit.
sed cessas? PA. minime equidem; nam hodie mihi potestas haud datast;
ita cursando atque ambulando totum hunc contrivi diem. 815

BA. only that: she will be here straightway when she has heard this from you.
but are you delaying? PA. not at all indeed; for today no opportunity has been given to me;
so by running about and walking I have worn out this whole day. 815

Bacchis

Quantam obtuli adventu meo laetitiam Pamphilo hodie!
quot commodas res attuli! quot autem ademi curas!

What great joy I have brought to Pamphilus today by my advent!
how many commodious things I have brought! how many cares moreover I have taken away!

gnatum <ei> restituo, qui paene harunc ipsi(u)sque opera periit;
uxorem, quam numquam est ratus posthac se habiturum, reddo;
qua re suspectu' s<uo> patri et Phidippo fuit, exsolvi: 820
hic adeo his rebus anulus fuit initium inveniundis.
nam memini abhinc mensis decem fere ad me nocte prima
confugere anhelantem domum sine comite, vini plenum,
cum hoc anulo: extimui ilico: "mi Pamphile," inquam "amabo,
quid exanimatu's obsecro? aut unde anulum istum nactu's? 825
dic mi." ille alias res agere se simulare.

I restore to him his son, who almost perished by the agency of these women and by his own doing;
I give back a wife, whom he never thought he would hereafter have;
from the suspicion in which he was to his own father and to Phidippus, I have absolved him: 820
here indeed in these matters the ring was the beginning for finding them out.
for I remember that nearly ten months ago he fled for refuge to my house in the first watch of the night,
panting, without a companion, full of wine,
with this ring: I took fright immediately: “my Pamphilus,” I say, “please,
why are you breathless, I beg? or whence did you get that ring? 825
tell me.” He pretended to be occupied with other matters.

postquam id video,
nescioquid suspicarier mage coepi, instare ut dicat.
homo se fatetur vi in via nescioquam compressisse,
dicitque sese illi anulum, dum luctat, detraxisse.
eum haec cognovit Myrrina in digito modo me habente[m], 830
rogat unde sit: narro omnia haec: inde est cognitio facta
Philumenam compressam esse ab eo et filium inde hunc natum.

after I see this,
I began the more to suspect something-or-other, and to press that he tell it.
the man confesses that he overpowered by force some woman on some street,
and says that he stripped from her the ring while she struggled.
this ring Myrrina recognized on the finger, as I just now had it, 830
she asks whence it is: I tell all this: from that the recognition was made
that Philumena had been violated by him, and that from that this son was born.

haec tot propter me gaudia illi contigisse laetor:
etsi hoc meretrices aliae nolunt; neque enim est in rem nostram
ut quisquam amator nuptiis laetetur. verum ecastor 835
numquam animum quaesti gratia ad malas adducam partis.
ego dum illo licitumst usa sum benigno et lepido et comi.

I rejoice that so many joys have befallen him on my account:
although other courtesans do not want this; for it is not to our interest
that any lover should rejoice at nuptials. But, by Castor, 835
never will I bring my mind, for the sake of gain, to wicked practices.
I, so long as it was permitted, have enjoyed that benign, charming, and affable man.

incommode mihi nuptiis evenit, factum fateor:
at pol me fecisse arbitror ne id merito mi eveniret.
multa ex quo fuerint commoda, ei(u)s incommoda aequomst ferre. 840

inconveniently it has turned out to me in marriage; I confess the deed:
but by Pollux I think that I acted so that it should not befall me deservedly.
since many conveniences have been from it, it is just to bear its inconveniences. 840

Pamphilvs Parmeno Bacchis

Pamphilus, Parmeno, Bacchis

V.iv
PAM. Vide, mi Parmeno, etiam sodes ut mi haec certa et clara attuleris,
ne me in breve conicias tempu' gaudio hoc falso frui.
PAR. visumst. PAM. certen?

5.4
PAM. Look, my Parmeno, please also see that you have brought me these things certain and clear,
lest you throw me, for a short time, into enjoying this false joy.
PAR. I’ve seen. PAM. For certain?

PAR. certe. PAM. deu' sum si hoc itast.
PAR. verum reperies.

PAR. certainly. PAM. I am a god if this is so.
PAR. you will find it true.

PAM. manedum sodes: timeo ne aliud credam atque aliud nunties.
PAR. maneo. PAM. sic te dix[iss]e opinor, invenisse Myrrinam 845
Bacchidem anulum suom habere.

PAM. stay a moment, please: I fear lest I believe one thing and you announce another.
PAR. I’ll wait. PAM. I think you said thus, that you had found Myrrina, 845
that Bacchis has her ring.

PAR. factum. PAM. <eu>m quem olim ei dedi:
eaque hoc te mihi nuntiare iussit. itanest factum?

PAR. done. PAM. the one which formerly I gave to her:
and she ordered you to announce this to me. is it so done?

PAR. ita, inquam.
PAM. quis me est fortunatior venustati'que adeo plenior?
egon pro hoc te nuntio qui donem?

PAR. yes, I say.
PAM. who is more fortunate than I and so full of charm?
am I, for this, to give you, the messenger, a donative?

qui? qui? nescio.

How? how? I don’t know.

PAR. at ego scio. PAM. quid? PAR. nihilo enim; 850
nam neque in nuntio neque in me ipso tibi boni quid sit scio.

PAR. but I know. PAM. what? PAR. for nothing; 850
for I know that neither in the messenger nor in my own self is there anything good for you.

PAM. egon qui ab Orco mortuom me reducem in lucem feceris
sinam sine munere a me abire? ah nimium me ignavom putas.
sed Bacchidem eccam video stare ante ostium:
me exspectat credo: adibo.

PAM. Shall I—I who by you have been brought back, dead, from Orcus into the light—
allow you to go away from me without a gift? ah, you think me too craven.
but look, I see Bacchis standing before the doorway:
she is expecting me, I believe: I will approach.

BA. salve, Pamphile. 855
PAM. o Bacchis, o mea Bacchi', servatrix mea!
BA. bene factum et volup est. PAM. factis ut credam facis;
antiquamque adeo t<ua>m venustatem obtines
ut voluptati obitu' sermo adventu' tuo', quoquomque adveneris,
semper siet.

BA. hail, Pamphilus. 855
PAM. O Bacchis, O my Bacchis, my savioress!
BA. Well done, and it is a pleasure. PAM. You make me believe by your deeds;
and indeed you keep your ancient charm,
so that your coming, your talk, your arrival—wherever you come—
may always be a delight.

BA. at tu ecastor morem antiquom atque ingenium obtines 860
ut unus hominum homo te vivat numquam quisquam blandior.
PAM. hahahae, tun mihi istuc? BA. recte amasti, Pamphile, uxorem tuam;
nam numquam ante hunc diem m<ei>s oculis <ea>m, quod nossem, videram:
perliberali' visast.

BA. but you, by Castor, maintain your ancient custom and disposition 860
so that, of all men, no man alive is more blandishing than you.
PAM. hahahae, you say that to me? BA. you have loved rightly, Pamphilus, your wife;
for never before this day had I seen her with my own eyes, so far as I knew:
she seemed exceedingly genteel.

PAM. dic verum. BA. ita me di ament, Pamphile.
PAM. dic mi, harunc rerum numquid dixti iam patri?

PAM. tell the truth. BA. as the gods love me, Pamphilus.
PAM. tell me, about these things have you said anything yet to father?

BA. nil. PAM. 865
neque opus est
adeo muttito. placet non fieri hoc itidem ut in comoediis
omnia omnes ubi resciscunt.

BA. nothing. PAM. 865
nor is there need;
do not so much as mutter. it pleases me that this not be done just the same as in comedies,
where everyone ascertains everything.

hic quos par fuerat resciscere
sciunt; quos non autem aequomst scire neque resciscent neque scient.
BA. immo etiam qui hoc occultari facilius credas dabo.
Myrrina ita Phidippo dixit iureiurando meo 870
se fidem habuisse et propterea te sibi purgatum.

here those whom it was proper to be informed know; those, however, for whom it is not equitable to know will neither find it out nor know it.
BA. nay rather, I will even produce someone by whom you may more readily believe that this can be concealed.
Myrrina told Phidippus thus, by my sworn oath, 870
that she had had faith, and therefore that you were cleared in her eyes.

PAM. optumest:
speroque hanc rem esse eventuram nobis ex sententia.--
PAR. ere, licetne scire ex te hodie, quid sit quod feci boni?
aut quid istuc est quod vos agiti'? PAM. non licet. PAR. tamen suspicor:
ego hunc ab Orco mortuom quo pacto . . ! PAM. nescis, Parmeno, 875
quantum hodie profueris mihi et ex quanta aerumna extraxeris.

PAM. it is optimal:
and I also hope this matter will eventuate for us according to our sentiment.--
PAR. master, is it permitted to learn from you today what good it is that I did?
or what is that which you are doing? PAM. it is not permitted. PAR. nevertheless I suspect:
that I—this fellow from Orcus, dead—by what contrivance . . ! PAM. you do not know, Parmeno, 875
how much today you have profited me and out of how great an affliction you have extracted me.

PAR. immo vero scio, neque [hoc] inprudens feci. PAM. ego istuc sati' scio.
PAR. an
temere quicquam Parmeno praetereat quod facto usu' sit?

PAR. nay indeed I know, nor did I do [this] imprudently. PAM. I know that well enough.
PAR. or
should anything rashly escape Parmeno that would be of use to be done?

PAM. sequere me intro, Parmeno. PAR. sequor. equidem plus hodie boni
feci inprudens quam sciens ante hunc diem umquam.

PAM. follow me inside, Parmeno. PAR. I follow. Indeed I have done more good today
unwittingly than knowingly ever before this day.

CANTOR. plaudite!

CANTOR. applaud!