{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/perseus_phi0119_phi007_phi0119.phi007.perseus-eng2/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/perseus_phi0119_phi007_phi0119.phi007.perseus-eng2","id":"perseus_phi0119_phi007_phi0119.phi007.perseus-eng2","license":"CC-BY-SA-4.0","rights_basis":"perseus_github_repo_license_cc_by_sa_4.0","source":"perseus","source_url":"https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-latinLit/blob/master/data/phi0119/phi007/phi0119.phi007.perseus-eng2.xml","summary":null,"tags":["Plautus"],"text":"Dramatis Personae THE GOD OF HELP, who speaks the Prologue in the Second Act. DEMIPHO, a merchant of . ALCESIMARCHUS, a young man of . LAMPADISCUS, servant of Demipho. PHANOSTRATA, wife of Demipho. SILENIUM, their daughter, beloved by Alcesimarchus. MELAENIS, a Procuress. HALISCA, her servant. A PROCURESS, the mother of Gymnasium. GYMNASIUM, a Courtesan. (Scene.-Sicyon, in Peloponnesus. Before the houses of DEMIPHO, SILENIUM, and the father of ALCESIMARCHUS.) THE SUBJECT. DEMIPHO, a merchant of Lemnos, having ravished Phanostrata, a young woman of Sicyon, she is brought to bed of a female child. This she gives to her servant Lampadiscus, to be exposed. On this being done, in the sight of Lampadiscus, a Procuress picks up the infant, and afterwards makes a present of it to her friend Melaenis, by whom it is brought up, under the name of Silenium. Alcesimarchus, a young man of Sicyon, falls violently in love with her, and takes her under his protection. In the meantime, Demipho, who has married another wife, after her death marries Phanostrata, and comes to live at Sicyon. He and his wife are then anxious, if possible, to regain their lost child. The daughter of Demipho by his first wife is destined by her father to become the wife of Alcesimarchus; on hearing which, Melaenis removes her foster-child from his protection. At this conjuncture Lampadiscus finds out the Procuress that had taken up the infant when exposed, and from her discovers that the child of his mistress is with Melaenis. He informs his mistress of this, while Melaenis is, unknown to them, standing by; upon which she determines to confess the truth, and to restore Silenium to her parents. While she is thinking upon this plan, Alcesimarchus lays hands on Silenium, and carries her off to his father\u2019s house. In the confusion attendant on this, Halisca, the servant of Melaenis, drops a casket in the street, containing some trinkets which had been worn by Silenium at the time when she was exposed. Phanostrata and Lampadiscus find the casket, and on Halisca coming to search for it, they discover where Silenium is. They go into the house, and Phanostrata discovers her long-lost child. THE ACROSTIC ARGUMENT. [Supposed to have been written by Priscian the Grammarian.] A young man of Lemnos ravishes (Comprimit) a woman of Sicyon. He (Is) returns to his country, and becomes father of a daughter by his marriage there. The woman of Sicyon (Sicyonia) also bears a daughter. A servant takes (Tollit) and exposes her, and keeps watch in secret; her (Eam), taken up, a Courtesan presents to another. Coming back afterwards from Lemnos (Lemno), he marries her whom he had ravished; and his daughter born at Lemnos (Lemni) he promises in marriage to a young man captivated by passion (A more) for the one that had been exposed. On making enquiry (Requirens), the servant finds her whom he had exposed; and so (Itaque) legaliy and properly does Alcesimarchus (Alcesimarchus) gain her recognized as a free woman, whom before he had had as a concubine. (Enter SILENIUM, GYMNASIUM, and PROCURESS, from the house of SILENIUM. Title Cistellaria : A word formed by Plautus from the diminutive of cistella, a casket. SILENIUM Inasmuch as hitherto I have loved you, and have deemed you to be my friend, my dear Gymnasium, and your mother as well; so have you shown it to me this day, both you and she. If you had been my own sister, how more you two could possibly have held me in esteem I know not; but, according as is my way of thinking, I conceive it could not possibly be, such ready assistance, all other things laid aside, have you given me. For this reason do I love you, and for it a vast obligation have you both conferred upon me. GYMNASIUM I\u2019 faith, at such a price as this, indeed, it\u2019s easy for us to give you our attendance and to do you good offices; so handsomely and so elegantly have you entertained us at breakfast at your house, as we shall ever remember. SILENIUM It has been done with hearty good will by me, and will be done, to get those things which I shall think you are desirous of. A PROCURESS As the man said, who was borne by a prospering breeze on a calm sea: I rejoice that we came That we came: Ventum. There is probably a poor pun intended on the other meaning of this word, as the accusative case of ventus, wind. to you; in such a delightful manner have we been here this day received; nor except in the management, was there anything there at your house but what pleased me. SILENIUM How so, prithee? A PROCURESS Too seldom did the servant give me something to drink, and, as it was, it clouded the colour of the wine. GYMNASIUM Pray, is that becoming to be mentioned here? A PROCURESS It\u2019s both right and proper; there\u2019s no other person here. SILENIUM With reason do I love you both, who esteem and honor me. A PROCURESS I\u2019 faith, my dear Silenium, it befits this class to be kindly disposed among themselves, and carefully to keep up friendships, when you see these matrons of elevated rank, born of the noblest families, how they value friendship, and how carefully they keep it united between themselves. If we do that same thing, if we imitate the same example, still as it is, with difficulty do we exist with their extreme dislike. Of their own enjoyments they would have us to be in want, in resources of our own they would have us not to possess any power, and to stand in need of them in all matters, that we may be their humble servantsMay be their humble servants: Ut simus sibi supplices. Literally, that we may be suppliants to themselves.. If you wait upon them, you\u2019d rather be giving your room than your company. So very kind are they before the world to our class; in private, if ever there\u2019s the opportunity, underhandedly they pour cold water Pour cold water: Meaning, in other words, They try to do us all the mischief they can. upon us. They declare that we are in the habit of having commerce with their husbands; they say that we are their supplanters; they attempt to crush us. Because we are the free daughters of slaves Free daughters of slaves: The professae, or courtesans, at Rome, were mostly of the class of libertinae\u2014children of slaves who had been made free, or else freed-women themselves, who had been the mistresses of their former owners. From this circumstance, to lead a libertine life came to mean the same as to pass a loose or unchaste life., both I and your mother, we became Courtesans; she brought up yourself, and I this girl (pointing to GYMNASIUM), by chance-fathers. Nor yet for the sake of vanity have I driven her to the calling of a Courtesan, but that I mightn\u2019t starve. SILENIUM But it had been better to give her in marriage to a husband in preference. A PROCURESS Heyday, now! Surely, faith, she\u2019s married to a husband every day; she has both been married to one to-day, she\u2019ll be marrying again to-night. I\u2019ve never allowed her to go to bed a widow. For if she weren\u2019t to be marrying, the household would perish with doleful famine. GYMNASIUM It behoves me, mother, to be just as you wish I should be. A PROCURESS I\u2019 troth, I don\u2019t regret it, if you will prove such as you say you\u2019ll be; for if, indeed, you shall be such as I intend, you\u2019ll never be a Hecale A Hecale: Hecala seems a preferable reading here to Hecata. Hecale was a very poor old woman, whom Plutarch mentions as having entertained Theseus on one of his expeditions. As poor as Hecale, became a proverb. Her poverty is mentioned by Ovid, in the Remedy of Love, in conjunction with that of the beggar Irus. in your old age, and you\u2019ll ever keep that same tender age which you now have, and you\u2019ll prove a loss to many and a profit to myself full oft, without any outlay of my own. GYMNASIUM May the Gods grant it. A PROCURESS Without your own energiesWithout your own energies: This is very similar to our provert, that Providence helps those who help themselves., the Gods cannot possibly do anything in this. GYMNASIUM I\u2019 faith, for my own part, I\u2019ll zealously devote my energies to it. But what mean you amid this conversation, apple of my eye, my own Silenium? (never did I see you more sad); prithee, do tell me, why does mirth so shun you? And you are not so neat as you usually are. (SILENIUM sighs.) Do look at that, please, how deep a sigh she heaved. You are pale too. Tell us both what\u2019s the matter with you, and in what you want our aid; so that we may know. Prithee, don\u2019t by your tears be causing me anxiety. SILENIUM My dear Gymnasium, I\u2019m sadly affected; I feel ill, I am shockingly distrest; I am pained in spirits, I feel pain in my eyes, I am in pain from faintness. What shall I say, but that my own folly drives me to sadness? GYMNASIUM Take you care, then, that you have your folly entombed in that very same place from which it takes its rise. SILENIUM What shall I do? GYMNASIUM Hide it in darkness, in the very deepest recesses of your breast. Take you care and have it so, that you yourself are alone sensible of your own folly, without any other witnesses. SILENIUM But I\u2019ve got the heart-ache. GYMNASIUM Why so? For what reason have you the heartache, prithee, tell me, a thing that I neither have, nor any other woman whatever, according as the men say? SILENIUM If there\u2019s any heart to feel pain, it does feel pain; but if there isn\u2019t, still this pains me here. (Pointing to her left-side.) A PROCURESS This woman\u2019s in love. GYMNASIUM Come now, to begin to be in love, is it bitter, prithee? A PROCURESS Why, troth, love is most fruitful both in honey and in gall; inasmuch as it produces sweetness in a mere taste, but causes bitterness even to repletion. SILENIUM Of that character is the malady that afflicts me, my dear Gymnasium. GYMNASIUM Love is full of treachery. SILENIUM He\u2019s taking his spoils of me, then. GYMNASIUM Be of good courage, you\u2019ll get the better of this malady. SILENIUM I trust it will be so, if the physician comes that can administer the medicine to this malady. GYMNASIUM He will come. SILENIUM A hard expression is that to one in love, He will come, unless he does come. But by my own fault and foolishness, am I, wretched creature, more afflicted, because for him alone have I longed for myself, with whom to pass my life. A PROCURESS That is more suitable to a married woman, my dear Silenium, to love but one, and with him to pass her life, to whom she has once been married; but, indeed, a Courtesan is most like a flourishing city; she cannot alone increase her fortunes without a multitude of men. SILENIUM I want you to give heed to this matter; the thing on account of which you have been sent for to me, I\u2019ll disclose. Now, my mother, because I don\u2019t wish myself to be called a Courtesan, complied with my desire; in that matter she indulged myself who have been obedient to her; to allow me to live with him alone whom I so ardently loved. A PROCURESS I\u2019 faith, she acted foolishly. But look, have you ever kept company with any man? SILENIUM With no one, indeed, except Alcesimarchus; nor has any other person whatever committed an infringement on my chastity. A PROCURESS Prithee, by what means did this man gain your good graces? SILENIUM At the festival of Bacchus my mother took me to see the procession. While I was returning home, from a secret look-out he secretly traced me even to the door; after that, he insinuated himself into the friendship of my mother and myself as well, by endearments, presents, and gifts. A PROCURESS I should like a man of that sort to be offered me. How I\u2019d work him. SILENIUM What need is there of words? Through intercourse, I on the other hand began to love him, and he myself. A PROCURESS O my dear Silenium\u2014! SILENIUM What\u2019s the matter? A PROCURESS You ought to pretend to be in love; for if you fall in love at once, you\u2019ll be much better consulting the interests of him whom you love than your own. SILENIUM But in solemn form he took an oath before my mother that he would take me as his wife. Now, another woman is about to be taken home by him, a Lemnian lady, his relation, who is living here hard by (pointing to DEMIPHO\u2019S house); for his father has compelled him. Now my mother is enraged with me, because I didn\u2019t return home to her, when I came to know of this matter, that he was about to take another as his wife. A PROCURESS Nothing\u2019s unfair in love. SILENIUM Now, I entreat you that you\u2019ll let her (pointing to GYMNASIUM) be here only for the next three days, and keep house for me; for I\u2019ve been sent for to my mother\u2019s house. A PROCURESS Although this will be a troublesome three days for me, and you\u2019ll be causing me a loss, I\u2019ll do so. SILENIUM You act kindly and like a friend. But you, my dear Gymnasium, if in my absence Alcesimarchus shall come, don\u2019t you chide him roughly; however he has deserved of myself, still he has my affections; but, prithee, act gently, so that you mayn\u2019t say anything that may cause him pain. Take the keys (giving them to her); if you have need to take out anything for use, take it out. I wish to go\u2014 GYMNASIUM (weeping.) How you have drawn tears from me. SILENIUM My dear Gymnasium, kindly, farewell. GYMNASIUM Take care of yourself, there\u2019s a dear. Prithee, will you go in this dishabille? (Pointing to her dress.) SILENIUM It\u2019s right that such neglect should attend upon my prospects thus disarranged. GYMNASIUM At least do lift up that outer garment Outer garment: Amiculum was a general name for the outer garment, such as the pallium, toga, or chlamys, in contradistinction to the tunica, or under-clothing.. SILENIUM Let it be dragged, while I myself am being dragged down. GYMNASIUM Since so it pleases you, fare you well and prosper. SILENIUM If I could, I would. (Exit.) GYMNASIUM Mother, do you wish anything of me, before I go indoors? Upon my faith, to me she does seem to be in love. A PROCURESS For this reason, then, it is, that I\u2019m repeatedly dinning it into your ears, not to be in love with any man. Go in-doors. GYMNASIUM Do you wish anything of me? A PROCURESS That you may fare well. GYMNASIUM Fare you well. (GYMNASIUM goes into the house of SILENTIUM.) (The PROCURESS, alone.) A PROCURESS (to the AUDIENCE.) It\u2019s the same fault with myself as with a great part of us women who are following this calling; who, as soon as ever we have got our load of food, are forthwith full of talk; more than is enough do we say. Why, myself now, inasmuch as I\u2019m filled to my heart\u2019s content, and because I\u2019ve charged myself quite full of the choicest of wine, it pleases me to use my tongue more at freedom; to my misfortune I can\u2019t keep silent on that which it were necessary to be silent upon. But once upon a time, that girl, who has gone hence in tears, from a lane I carried off a little child exposed. There is here a certain youth, of the highest rank; his father, of a very high family, is living at Sicyon Living at Sicyon : This was a very ancient city in the north of the Peloponnesus, not far from Corinth. According to Pliny the Elder, it was famous for its shops, stored with all kinds of metals.; he is dying desperately in love for this young woman, who has just. now gone hence in tears; on the other hand, she is smitten with love. I made a present of her to my friend, this Courtesan: who had often made mention of it to me that somewhere I must find for her a boy or a girl, just born, that she herself might pass it off as her own. As soon as ever the opportunity befell me, I immediately granted her request in that which she had asked of me. After she had received this female child from me, at once she was brought to bed of the same female child which she had received from me, without the aid of a midwife and without pain, just as other women bring forth, who seek a trouble to themselves; but she said that her lover was a foreigner, and that by reason of that circumstance she was palming it off. This, we two alone are aware of, I who gave the child to her, and she who received it from me; (to the AUDIENCE) except yourselves, indeed. Thus was this affair managed; if any occasion should arise, I wish you to remember this circumstance. I\u2019m off home. (Exit.) (Enter the GOD OF HELP God of Help: For the purposes of the Prologue, which is here introduced, help, or assistance, is personified as a Divinity, under the name of Auxilium, who is to assist Silenium in the discovery of her parents., who speaks the PROLOGUE.) THE GOD OF HELP (To the AUDIENCE.) This old woman is both a much-talker and a much-tippler. Isn\u2019t it the fact that she has hardly left room to a Divinity for him to speak, so much has she forestalled him in talking about the substitution of this girl? But if she had held her tongue, still I was about to mention it\u2014a God, who could do it better; for my name is Help. Now (to the AUDIENCE) lend your attention, that I may clearly explain this plot to you. Some time since, at Sicyon, there was the Festival of Bacchus; a merchant of Lemnos Merchant of Lemnos: Demipho. came hither to the games, and he, an ungovernable young man, ravished a maiden A maiden: Phanostrata. in the dark, in the street, at the dead of night. He, as he knew that he was deserving of a heavy punishment, at once found shelter with his heels, and made off for Lemnos, where he then lived. She whom he had ravished, the ninth ensuing month completed, brought forth a daughter here A daughter here: Silenium.. Since she did not know the person guilty of this deed, who he was, she made the servant The servant: Lampadiscus. of her father partaker of her counsels, and gave to that servant the child to be exposed to death. He exposed it; this woman took up the child; that servant, who had exposed it, secretly took note whither or to what house she carried away the child. As you have heard her own self confess, she gave this child to the Courtesan Melaenis; and she brought her up as being her own daughter, honestly and virtuously. But then, this Lemnian married a neighbour there, his relation, for his wife. She departed this life; there she was compliant to her husband. After he had performed the due obsequies to his wife, at once he removed hither; here he married for his wife that same woman That same woman: An exactly similar circumstance forms the groundwork of the plot in the Hecyra of Terence. whom formerly, when a maid, he ravished. When he understood that it was she whom he had ravished, she told him that, in consequence of the violation, she had brought forth a daughter, and had at once given her to a servant to be exposed. He forthwith ordered this same servant to make enquiries, if anyhow he could discover who had taken it up. Now to that task is the servant always assiduously devoting his attention, if he can find out that Courtesan, whom formerly, when he himself exposed her, he from his hidingplace had seen take her up. Now, what remains unpaid, I wish to discharge, that my name may be struck out, so that I mayn\u2019t remain a debtor. A young man A young man: Alcesimarchus. is here at Sicyon, his father is alive; with affection he distractedly dotes upon this exposed girl, who just now went hence in tears unto her mother; and she loves him in return, which is the most delightful love of all. As human matters go, nothing is granted for everlasting: the father is wishful to give the young man a wife. When the mother When the mother: Melaenis. came to know of this, she ordered her to be sent for home. Thus have these matters come to pass. Kindly fare you well, and conquer by inborn valour, as you have done before; defend your allies, both ancient ones and new; increase resources by your righteous laws; destroy your foes; laud and laurels gather; that, conquered by you, the P\u0153ni The P\u0153ni: This Play was probably written towards the end of the second Punic war may suffer the penalty. (Exit.) (Enter ALCESIMARCHUS and MELAENIS.) ALCESIMARCHUS I do believe that Love was the first to invent torture among mankind. This conjecture do I form from myself at home, not to go seek it out of doors; I, who surpass all men, exceed them in the pangs of my feelings. I\u2019m tossed, tormented, agitated, goaded, whirled on the wheel of love in my misery, I\u2019m deprived of sensation, carried one way, carried another way, I\u2019m torn and rent asunder; such clouded faculties of mind have I, where I am, there I am not; where I am not, there my thoughts are; to such a degree have I now all kinds of feelings in me; what I like, then all at once I like not the same; so much does love trifle with me changing my mind, drive me, pursue, desire, and seize for itself, retain, trepan, and promise; what it gives, it gives not; it deludes me; what this moment it has persuaded me, it now dissuades me from; what it has dissuaded me from, it now points out to me that same. After the manner of the sea is it experienced by me; so much does it distract my enamoured feelings; and only in that, in my misery, I do not sink utterly, is there any evil removed from me thus ruined; in such a way has my father detained me these six days running in the country, at his house there; nor has it been allowed me in the meantime to visit my mistress. Isn\u2019t this dreadful to relate?At this point editors of the Latin text generally insert several fragments quoted from other sources; this translation does not, but picks up again at line 492. MELAENIS Are you joking for this reason, because you\u2019ve got another wife engaged, a rich lady of Lemnos? Have her then! We are neither of a family so great as you are, nor is our wealth so substantial as yours; but still I have no fears that any one will impeach our oath; you then, if you shall feel any pain, will know for what reason you do feel pain. ALCESIMARCHUS May the Gods confound me\u2014 MELAENIS Whatever you wish for, I desire it may befall you. ALCESIMARCHUS If ever I\u2019ll marry that wife which my father has engaged for me. MELAENIS And me, if ever I give you my daughter for a wife. ALCESIMARCHUS Will you allow me to be forsworn? MELAENIS Yes, and a little more easily than myself and my affairs to go to ruin, and my daughter to be trifled with. Begone! go seek where there is confidence enough in your oaths; here now, with us, Alcesimarchus, you\u2019ve renounced your title Renounced your title: Confregisti tesseram. Literally, you have broken your tally, or ticket. These were pieces of wood cut in half, and fitting each other. They were exchanged by friends, and denoted their readiness, on the presenting thereof, to entertain each other with hospitality. She means that Alcesimarchus has broken his word, and has lost his right to be considered as a friend. See the P\u0153nulus, l. 1047. to our friendship. ALCESIMARCHUS Make trial of me but once. MELAENIS I have made that trial full oft; which I lament has been so made. ALCESIMARCHUS Give her back to me. MELAENIS Under new circumstances I\u2019ll use an old proverb: What I have given, I wish I had not given; what\u2019s left, that I shall not give. ALCESIMARCHUS Won\u2019t you restore her again to me? MELAENIS Answer yourself for me. ALCESIMARCHUS You won\u2019t restore her then? MELAENIS You know the whole of my resolution already. ALCESIMARCHUS Is that quite resolved upon by you in your heart? MELAENIS Why, in fact, I\u2019m thinking about something else; i\u2019 faith, I don\u2019t at present catch these words of yours with my ears. ALCESIMARCHUS Not hear? Why, what are you doing? MELAENIS Part of line 511 in Latin attributed to the prior speaker.Then do you give heed at once, that you may know what you are doing. ALCESIMARCHUS Then, so may the Gods and Goddesses of above and below, and of middle rank Of middle rank: Medioxumi. By these are meant the Demigods., and so may Juno the queen and the daughter And the daughter: In his confusion he calls Juno, the sister and wife of Jupiter, his daughter. of supreme Jove, and so may Saturn his uncle\u2014 MELAENIS I\u2019 troth, his father\u2014 ALCESIMARCHUS And so may Ops the opulent, his grandam\u2014 MELAENIS Indeed, his mother, rather. ALCESIMARCHUS Juno his daughter, and Saturn his uncle, supreme Jove\u2014You are maddening me; it\u2019s through you I make these mistakes. MELAENIS Go on saying so. ALCESIMARCHUS Is it that I\u2019m to know That I\u2019m to know: According to the suggestion of Rost, the reading sciam, I may know, has been preferred to scias, you may know, in the present passage. what conclusion you are going to come to? MELAENIS Go on talking; I shall not send her back, that\u2019s resolved upon. ALCESIMARCHUS Why then, so may Jupiter, and so may Juno and Saturn, to me, so may\u2014I don\u2019t know what to say\u2014Now I know\u2014Yes, madam, listen, that you may know my mind; may all the Deities, great and small, and those honored with the platter Honored with the platter: Patellarii. These were the Lares and Penates, the household Gods, to whom offerings were made of victuals in small plates or platters. Ovid, in the Fasti, B. 2, l. 634, says: Offer, too a share of the viands, that the presented platter, testimony of the pleasing honor, may feed the well-girt Lares. cause me not surviving to give a kiss this day to Silenium, if I don\u2019t this very day murder you and your daughter and myself, and after that, with the break of day, if I don\u2019t to-morrow kill you both, and indeed, by all the powers, if at the third onset I don\u2019t demolish you all, if you don\u2019t send her back to me. I\u2019ve said what I intended. Farewell. (Goes into his FATHER\u2019S house.) MELAENIS (to herself.) He\u2019s gone in-doors in a rage. What shall I do now? If she comes back to him, matters will be just in the same position. When satiety begins to take possession; he\u2019ll be turning her out of doors, when he shall be bringing home this Lemnian wife. But still I\u2019ll go and follow him; there\u2019s necessity for caution, lest he, in love, should be doing some mischief. In fine, since with strict justice a poor person\u2019s not allowed to contend with a rich one, I\u2019ll lose my labour rather than lose my daughter. But who\u2019s this that straight along the street is directing his course this way? Both the other matter do I fear, and this do I dread; so utterly in trepidation am wretched I. (She stands aside.) (Enter LAMPADISCUS.) LAMPADISCUS (to himself.) I\u2019ve followed the old woman with my clamour through the streets; I\u2019ve kept her most dreadfully plagued. In what a multitude of ways has she, this day, kept guard upon herself, and been able to remember nothing. How many alluring things, what advantages I\u2019ve promised her. How many inventions I\u2019ve applied to her, how many stratagems in questioning her. With difficulty have I extorted it from her that she should tell me, because I promised to give her a cask of wine. (Enter PHANOSTRATA, from her house.) PHANOSTRATA (to herself.) I seemed just now to be hearing the voice of my servant Lampadiscus before the house. LAMPADISCUS (stepping forward.) You are not deaf, mistress, you heard aright. PHANOSTRATA What are you doing here? LAMPADISCUS A thing for you to rejoice at. PHANOSTRATA What\u2019s that? LAMPADISCUS (pointing to the house of SILENIUM.) A little while ago, I saw a woman coming out of that house there. PHANOSTRATA Her that took up my daughter? LAMPADISCUS You have the matter rgiht. PHANOSTRATA What after that? LAMPADISCUS I told her in what way I had seen her take up the daughter of my mistress from the Hippodrome. Then she was in a fright. MELAENIS (apart.) Now my body\u2019s in a shudder, my heart is throbbing; for I recollect that from the Hippodrome the little female infant was brought to me, and that I brought it up as my own. PHANOSTRATA Come, prithee, do go on; my soul\u2019s longing to hear how the matter proceeded. MELAENIS (apart.) I only wish you couldn\u2019t hear. LAMPADISCUS I proceed sayingSaying: We are to suppose that on following the Procuress to her own house, he says this to Gymnasium, taking her for the young woman whom he is in search of. Probably a large portion of the Play is lost here., This old woman calls you her daughter wrongfully. For this woman here is your foster-mother, so don\u2019t think she is your mother. I\u2019m to take you back and invite you to opulence, where you may be settled in a noble family, where your father may present you with twenty great talents for a portion. For this is not a place where after the Etrurian mode The Etrurian mode: The Tuscans or Etrurians, who were said to have been originally a colony from Lydia, are by some writers stated to have forced their young women to gain their marriage-portions by prostitution. Herodotus alludes to this custom of the Lydians. you are disgracefully to earn a dowry for yourself by prostitution of your person. PHANOSTRATA Is she, pray, a Courtesan, who took it up? LAMPADISCUS Yes, she was a Courtesan. But how it happened, I\u2019ll tell you about that matter. I was now winning her over to me by my persuasion. The old woman embraced her knees, weeping and entreating that she would not forsake her; saying that she was her own daughter; and she took a solemn oath to me that she herself had borne her. Her, said she, whom you are in search of, I gave to a friend of mine to bring her up as her own daughter; and she is alive, said she. Where is she? immediately said I. PHANOSTRATA Preserve me, ye Gods, I do entreat you. MELAENIS (apart.) But me you are undoing! PHANOSTRATA You ought to have enquired to whom she gave it. LAMPADISCUS I did enquire, and she said to the Courtesan Melaenis. MELAENIS (apart.) He has mentioned my name? I\u2019m utterly undone! LAMPADISCUS When she mentioned her, I straightway asked, Where does she live? said I; take and show me. She has been carried off hence, says she, to live abroad. MELAENIS He\u2019s sprinkling He\u2019s sprinkling: This metaphor, which is also used in the Trinummus, is taken from the custom of throwing cold water on persons when in a fainting state a little cold water now. LAMPADISCUS Wherever she has been carried off, thither we will follow. Do you trifle in this fashion? You are undone, if, i\u2019 faith, you don\u2019t disclose this.I insisted to such a degree, that the old woman swore that she would soon inform me. PHANOSTRATA But you oughtn\u2019t to have let her go. LAMPADISCUS She\u2019s all safe; but she said that she wished first to meet a certain woman, a friend of hers, with whom this was a matter of interest in common, and I\u2019m sure she\u2019ll come. MELAENIS (apart.) She\u2019ll be discovering me, and adding her own distress to mine. PHANOSTRATA Make me acquainted what you now wish me to do. LAMPADISCUS Go in-doors, and be of good heart. If your husband shall come, bid him wait at home, lest he should be required by me, if I want him for anything. I\u2019m going to run back to the old woman. PHANOSTRATA Lampadio, prithee, do take care. LAMPADISCUS I\u2019ll have this matter well managed. PHANOSTRATA I trust in the Gods and in yourself. LAMPADISCUS And I in the same.\u2014that you\u2019ll now go home. (PHANOSTRATA goes into her house.) MELAENIS (coming forward.) Young man, stay and listen. LAMPADISCUS What, are you calling to me, woman? MELAENIS To you. LAMPADISCUS What\u2019s the matter? For I\u2019m fully engaged. MELAENIS (Pointing to the house of DEMIPHO.) Who lives there? LAMPADISCUS Demipho, my master. MELAENIS It is he, I suppose, that has betrothed his daughter with such great wealth to Alcesimarchus? LAMPADISCUS It is he himself. MELAENIS How now, you? What other daughter, then, are you people now in search of? LAMPADISCUS I\u2019ll tell you; not his daughter by his wife, but his wife\u2019s daughter. MELAENIS What\u2019s the meaning of that speech? LAMPADISCUS By a former woman, I say, my master had a daughter born. MELAENIS Surely, just now you said you were in search of the daughter of her who has been talking here. LAMPADISCUS Her daughter I am in search of. MELAENIS In what way then, pray, is she a former woman, who is now his wife? LAMPADISCUS Woman, whoever you are, you weary me with your prating. The middle woman The middle woman: Medioxumam. The middle woman, although his first wife, and the mother of the daughter whom he had betrothed to Alcesimarchus; he having had Phanostrata the first, as a woman (when he ravished her), but not as a wife until after the death of his first wife. whom he had for a wife, of her this maiden was born that\u2019s being given to Alcesimarchus. That wife is dead. Do you understand now? MELAENIS I understand that quite well; but it\u2019s this knotty point I\u2019m enquiring about, how the first can be the last, the last be the first. LAMPADISCUS The fact is this; this woman he ravished before he took her home as his wife; before that she was pregnant, and before that she gave birth to a daughter: after she gave birth to her, she ordered the infant to be exposed; I myself exposed her; another woman took her away; I was on the look-out; after that, my master married her. That girl, her daughter, we are now in search of. (MELAENIS turns aside her head.) Why now, with face upturned, are you looking up towards the heavens? MELAENIS Now, then, be off at once whither you were hastening; I won\u2019t detain you; I understand it now. LAMPADISCUS I\u2019 troth, to the Deities I do give thanks; for if you hadn\u2019t understood me, I do think you would never have let me go. (Exit.) MELAENIS (to herself.) Now it\u2019s necessary for me to be honest, whether I will or no, although I had rather not; I find the thing is discovered. Now will I myself lay them under an obligation to me, rather than she shall peach upon me. I\u2019ll go home, and I\u2019ll bring Silenium to her parents. (Exit.) (Enter MELAenis, SILENIUM, and HALISCA.) MELAENIS I\u2019ve disclosed the whole matter to you; follow, my Silenium, that you may rather belong to those to whom you ought to belong, than be mine. Although against my will I shall part with you, still I\u2019ll reconcile my mind to consult that which in especial conduces to your benefit. (Giving her a casket.) For here in this are the trinkets Are the trinkets: The discovery in the Rudens depends on a similar circumstance. This custom of attaching trinkets to the persons of children when exposed, will be more fully remarked upon in the Notes to the Translation of Terence., together with which she who gave you to me formerly brought you to me; that your parents may recognize you the more easily. Take this casket, Halisca, and then go and knock at that door (pointing to the house of DEMIPHO): say that I request that some one will come from within. Make haste, quickly. ALCESIMARCHUS (Enter ALCESIMARCHUS, from his FATHER\u2019S house, with his sword drawn.) (calling aloud.) Death, receive me unto thyself, a friend and well-wisher to me! SILENIUM My mother, to our sorrow, we are undone! ALCESIMARCHUS (aloud, to himself.) Whether shall I pierce my side here (striking his right side) or on the left. MELAENIS (to SILENIUM.) What\u2019s the matter with you? SILENIUM (pointing.) Don\u2019t you see Alcesimarchus? He\u2019s grasping a sword. ALCESIMARCHUS (aloud, in a frantic manner.) What art about? Thou art delaying. Quit the light of day. SILENIUM Do run and aid him, pray, that he mayn\u2019t kill himself. (They run to assist him, on which HALISCA drops the casket.) ALCESIMARCHUS O Safety more healthful than my own safety, you now, whether I wish or don\u2019t wish, alone do cause me to live. MELAENIS Fie on it! Were you ready to commit such violence? ALCESIMARCHUS I\u2019ve nought to do with you\u2014to you I\u2019m dead. (Clasping SILENIUM in his arms.) Her, as I hold her, I\u2019m determined not to lose. For, by heaven, I am resolved henceforth to have her entirely rivetted fast unto me. (Goes to the door of the house, and calls.) Where are you, servants? Shut the door with bolts, with bars, when I shall have carried her within the threshold! (He carries SILENIUM into the house, followed by HALISCA.) MELAENIS (exclaiming, while wringing her hands.) He\u2019s gone off: he has carried the damsel away. I\u2019ll go\u2014I\u2019ll at once follow him in-doors, that he may know of me these same things, if from being angered with me I can render him pleased. (Goes into the house.) (Enter LAMPADISCUS.) LAMPADISCUS I do believe I never saw a more tormenting old nag than this is. What she just now confessed to me, is she to be denying it? But look, I see my mistress. Why (seeing the casket on the ground), how\u2019s this, that this casket is lying here with these trinkets, and that I see no other person in the street? I must act the child\u2019s part Act the child\u2019s part: He alludes to his taking up the toys or trinkets, which were made for children to play with. Conquiniscam, very unnecessarily it would seem, has an indelicate meaning given to it by Lambinus.; I\u2019ll stoop to pick up the casket. (Picks it up.) PHANOSTRATA (from her house.) What are you about, Lampadio? LAMPADISCUS (giving the casket to PHANOSTRATA.) Is this casket from out of our house here, I wonder. For I picked it up, lying here near the door. PHANOSTRATA What news do you bring about the old woman? LAMPADISCUS That there\u2019s not one other on earth more wicked. She denies all those things which she just now confessed to me. But, i\u2019 faith, for me to allow that old jade to be laughing at me, it\u2019s preferable for me to die by any kind of death. PHANOSTRATA Ye Gods, I do adjure you by our trust in you! (Opening the casket.) LAMPADISCUS Why do you call upon the Gods? PHANOSTRATA Save us! LAMPADISCUS What\u2019s the matter? PHANOSTRATA These are the trinkets with which you exposed my little daughter to death. LAMPADISCUS Are you in your senses? PHANOSTRATA These certainly are. LAMPADISCUS Do you persist? PHANOSTRATA These are they. LAMPADISCUS If any other woman were to speak to me after that fashion, I should say she was drunk. PHANOSTRATA By heaven! I\u2019m talking no nonsense. But prithee, whence in the world did these come, or what Deity placed this before our door? As though for a given purpose, at the very instant sacred Hope comes to my aid? (Enter HALISCA, at a distance, from the house of the FATHER of ALCESIMARCHUS.) HALISCA (to herself.) Unless the Gods give me some aid, I\u2019m utterly undone; nor do I know whence I am to seek for aid. To such a degree does carelessness possess wretched me in mind, which I sadly fear may be lighting upon my own back, if my mistress knows that I\u2019m so negligent as I really am. The casket which I took and held in my hands here before the door, where it is I know not; except, as I fancy, it was dropt by me about this spot. (Looks about on the ground.) My good sirs (to the AUDIENCE), my kind Spectators, do give me information if any one has seen it, if any one has taken it away, or any one picked it up; and whether in this direction or that he has taken his departure? (She pauses for a reply.) I\u2019m none the wiser for asking these persons, or for worrying them, who are always delighted at a woman\u2019s mishaps. Now I\u2019ll mark if there are any footsteps here; for if no one had passed this way since I went in-doors, the casket would be lying here. Why say here? It\u2019s lost, I guess; it\u2019s done for. It\u2019s all over with unhappy and unlucky me! It\u2019s nowhere, and nowhere am I. This, by its loss, has proved my loss. But still, as I\u2019ve begun, I\u2019ll e\u2019en go on; I\u2019ll make search; for both within do I fear, and without I am afraid; so much, on either side, does fear agitate me now. In this are mortals intensely wretched. He is now joyous, whoever he is, that has found it, which is of no use at all to any person else; to myself it may be. But I cause delay to myself, while I\u2019m doing this with remissness. Halisca, attend to what you are about: look down upon the ground, and look round about; search with your eyes; guess with shrewdness. LAMPADISCUS (apart, at a distance.) Mistress! PHANOSTRATA (apart.) Well, what\u2019s the matter? LAMPADISCUS (apart.) That\u2019s she. (Pointing at HALISCA.) PHANOSTRATA (apart.) Who? LAMPADISCUS (apart.) She who let fall the casket. Why surely she\u2019s tracing out that spot where it fell. PHANOSTRATA (apart.) It seems so.Part of line 696 in the Latin. HALISCA (to herself, looking on the ground.) But that person has gone this way; this way I perceive the imprint of his shoe Of his shoe: Socci. The soccus was a loose shoe worn especially by the Comic actors. Its use was probably derived from Greece.; this way I\u2019ll follow him. (She moves along, still looking on the ground.) In this spot now has he stopped, along with another person. Here now a circle Here now a circle: Turbo. Schmieder thinks that this means a whirlwind, and that she intends to say that she has lost the track, in consequence of the wind blowing round the dust, and so obliterating the footmarks. Perhaps, however, she means, that just there the track is lost by its being all in confusion, without beginning or end, so far as she can see. Some would read turba, a multitude, as meaning that the throng in the street hinders her from clearly seeing the imprints of the feet. presents itself to my sight, nor did he go straight forward this way; here he came to a pause. This way did he come out of that circle. Here was a conference with some one. It points to two persons now. Who are these? Heyday I see the footsteps of only one. But he has gone this way. I\u2019ll consider it: hither he went from thence; from hence he has never gone. I\u2019m troubling myself to no purpose. What\u2019s lost is lost; my hide My hide: She alludes to the flogging which she may expect for her carelessness, which will cause her to lose her skin, or literally, as Plautus says (quite in accordance with our vulgar parlance), her leather. along with the casket. I\u2019ll go in-doors again. (Going towards the house of the FATHER of ALCESIMARCHUS.) PHANOSTRATA (calling out.) Hallo, woman-stop; there are some persons who wish to meet with you. HALISCA Who\u2019s calling me back? LAMPADISCUS A good female and a bad male want you. HALISCA Away with you, bad male; I want a good one. (To herself.) After all, he who calls knows better what he wants than I who am called; I\u2019ll return. (Aloud.) Prithee, have you seen any person hereabouts pick up a casket with some trinkets, which I, to my misfortune, have lost here? For when, just now, we were running into the house of Alcesimarchus, that he mightn\u2019t put an end to his life, at that moment I think that, through terror, the casket fell down from me here. LAMPADISCUS (aside to PHANOSTRATA.) This woman\u2019s to our purpose; let\u2019s then give heed to her a little, mistress. HALISCA To my sorrow, I\u2019m utterly undone. What shall I say to my mistress, who bade me with such earnestness take care of it, through which Silenium might the more readily recognize her parents\u2014who, when little, was adopted by my mistress as her own, and whom a certain Courtesan gave to her? LAMPADISCUS (aside.) She\u2019s talking about this matter of ours. According as she gives these indications by her talk, she must surely know where your daughter is. HALISCA Now is she desirous of her own accord to restore her to her father and mother, whose daughter she is; prithee, my good sir, you are attending to something else; I commend my matter to you. LAMPADISCUS I\u2019m giving my attention to this, and this is as good as food to me, that you are talking of; but amid my attending to this matter, I was answering this mistress of mine what she was enquiring; now I return to you. If you have need of anything, say you, and give your orders. What were you looking, for? HALISCA My good sir and my good madam, I greet you. PHANOSTRATA And we you. But what are you looking for? HALISCA I\u2019m tracing footsteps here, the way that something has escaped me here, I don\u2019t know how. PHANOSTRATA What is it? LAMPADISCUS What is it, pray?Part of line 725b in theLatin. HALISCA Something to bring a loss to another, and a calamity on our family. LAMPADISCUS (aside to PHANOSTRATA.) A worthless baggage is this, mistress, and a crafty one. PHANOSTRATA (aside.) I\u2019 faith, and so she seems. LAMPADISCUS (aside.) She imitates a worthless animal and a mischievous. PHANOSTRATA (aside.) Which one, prithee? LAMPADISCUS (aside.) A caterpillar, which twisting about winds itself in the leaf of the vine; just in the same way does she begin a story that twists about. (To HALISCA.) What are you looking for? HALISCA A casket, my good young man, has flown away from me here. LAMPADISCUS You ought to have put it in a cage. HALISCA I\u2019 faith, the booty was no great one. LAMPADISCUS It\u2019s a wonder, if a whole troop of slaves Troop of slaves: This is said in allusion to the runaway propensities of slaves. isn\u2019t there in the casket. PHANOSTRATA Do let her speak. LAMPADISCUS If indeed she would speak. PHANOSTRATA (to HALISCA.) Come say you, what was in it? HALISCA Trinkets only. LAMPADISCUS There\u2019s a certain man, who declares that he knows where it is. HALISCA But, by my faith, he\u2019ll confer an obligation on a certain woman if he\u2019ll discover it. LAMPADISCUS But this certain man wishes a reward to be given to him. HALISCA But, by my faith, this certain woman, that has lost this casket, declares that she has nothing to give to this certain man. LAMPADISCUS But still this certain man looks for some money. HALISCA But still he looks for it in vain. LAMPADISCUS But, by my faith, good woman, in no matter does this certain man give his pains for nothing. PHANOSTRATA Lend me your conversation: it will now be for your own advantage. We confess that we have got the casket. HALISCA Then may Salvation preserve you; where is it now? PHANOSTRATA (producing the casket.) See, here it is, safe. But I wish to discourse with you upon a matter of importance to myself; I take you as a sharer with me in my own preservation. HALISCA What matter is this, or who are you? PHANOSTRATA I am the mother of her who had these things with her, when exposed. HALISCA Do you live here then? (Pointing to the house.) PHANOSTRATA You are a diviner. But, prithee, good woman, do lay aside all mystification, and to the point; tell me at once, whence did you get these trinkets? HALISCA This daughter of my mistress had them. LAMPADISCUS You tell a falsehood; for my own mistress\u2019s daughter had them, not yours. PHANOSTRATA Don\u2019t interrupt. LAMPADISCUS I\u2019ll be mum. PHANOSTRATA Good woman, go on speaking. Where is she who had them? HALISCA (pointing to the house of ALCESIMARCHUS.) Here, next door. PHANOSTRATA By the powers, surely the son-in-law of my husband is living there. LAMPADISCUS Surely\u2014 PHANOSTRATA (to LAMPADISCUS.) Interrupting again? (To HALISCA.) Go on relating it. How many years old is she said to be? HALISCA Seventeen. PHANOSTRATA She is my own daughter then! LAMPADISCUS \u2019Tis she, as the number of her years has proved. HALISCA What you are seeking, you have found; I now seek what\u2019s mine. LAMPADISCUS Why, faith, they\u2019ve found what\u2019s their own, I\u2019ll seek for number three For number three: Quaero tertiam. Literally, I seek a third. This he says by way of joke; as one has been looking for her daughter another for the casket, he must look for something as well, a mistress, to wit.. PHANOSTRATA My daughter, the object which I was seeking, I have discovered. HALISCA It\u2019s proper to keep in safety what has been entrusted in confidence, lest a kindness should turn out a detriment to the well-deserving. This fosterling of ours is assuredly your daughter, and my mistress is about to restore you your own, and for that purpose has she come from her house. But, prithee, enquire of her own self; I am but a servant. PHANOSTRATA You ask what\u2019s just. HALISCA To her rather do I choose this obligation to belong. But I beg that you\u2019ll restore me that casket. PHANOSTRATA What\u2019s to be done, Lampadio? LAMPADISCUS What\u2019s your own, keep as your own. PHANOSTRATA But I feel compassion for her. LAMPADISCUS This I think ought to be done; give her the casket, and go in-doors together with her. PHANOSTRATA I\u2019ll follow your advice. (Giving it to HALISCA.) Take you the casket. Let\u2019s go in-doors. But what\u2019s the name of your mistress? HALISCA Melaenis. PHANOSTRATA Go first; I\u2019ll follow you at once. (Exit LAMPADISCUS, and the others go into the house of the FATHER of ALCESIMARCHUS.) (Enter DEMIPHO.) DEMIPHO What affair is this, that all persons are talking about in the street\u2014that my daughter has been found? They say, too, that LampadioLampadio: Lampadiscus is called here, and in Act IV., Lampadio. This was probably intended as a familiar name, by which the family called him; though some Commentators are of opinion that Lampadio is the real name, and Lampadiscus a diminutive. has been seeking me in the Forum. (Enter LAMPADISCUS.) LAMPADISCUS Master, whence come you? DEMIPHO From the Senate. LAMPADISCUS I rejoice that through my means there is an addition to your children. DEMIPHO But it don\u2019t please me; I don\u2019t want that I should be having more children by means of another person. But what is the meaning of this? LAMPADISCUS (pointing to the house of the FATHER of ALCESIMARCHUS.) Make haste, and go in-doors here to the house of your neighbour; you\u2019ll at once recognize your daughter. Your wife\u2019s in-doors there as well. Go quickly. DEMIPHO I\u2019m resolved that this shall, before all other matters, be attended to. (They go into the house of the FATHER of ALCESIMARCHUS.) The Company of COMEDIANS Don\u2019t you wait, Spectators, till they come out to you; no one will come out; they\u2019ll all finish the business indoors; when that shall be done, they\u2019ll lay aside their dress; then, after that, he that has done amiss will get a beating Get a beating: It has been already remarked, that as the actors in early times were slaves, it was the custom after the Play was over for the Aediles to order those to be flogged who had not given satisfaction to the Audience.; he that has not done amiss will get some drink. Now as to what\u2019s left, Spectators, for you to do, after the manner of your ancestors, give your applause at the conclusion of the Play.","title":"Plautus, Cistellaria, or The Casket (tr. Henry Thomas Riley)","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":8924}