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Enter SATURIO and his DAUGHTER1, in the habit of a PERSIAN.
SATURIO
May this same matter turn out well for me, and for yourself, and for my stomach, and for everlasting victuals for it as well for all time to come; that I may have more than enough, a superfluity, and that it may outlast me. Follow me this way, my daughter, with the Gods' good leave. The matter to which we are to give our attention, you know, you remember, you understand; to you I have communicated all my designs. For that reason have I dressed you out after this fashion; young woman, to-day you are to be sold. DAU.
Prithee, my dear father, although you do eagerly long for victuals at another's cost, are you for the sake of your appetite going to sell your own daughter? SATURIO
It is a wonder, indeed, if I don't sell you, who are my own, for the sake of King Philip or Attalus2, rather than my own. DAU.
Whether do you regard me as your slave or as your daughter? SATURIO
I' faith, that of the two which shall appear most for the interest of my stomach; it's my authority over you, I suppose, not yours over me. DAU.
This power is yours, father; but still, although our circumstances are but very limited, it's better to pass our lives with frugality and moderation; for if disgrace is added to poverty, poverty will be more unendurable, our character more frail. SATURIO
Why really you are impertinent. DAU.
I am not, nor do I think that I am, when, though of youthful age, I give good advice to my father. For enemies carry about slander not in the form in which it took its rise. SATURIO
Let them carry it about, and let them go to utter and extreme perdition. I don't value all their enmities any more than if an empty table were now set before me. DAU.
Father, the scandal of men is everlasting; even then does it survive, when you would suppose it to be dead. SATURIO
What? Are you afraid lest I should sell you? DAU.
I am not afraid of that, father; but I wish you not to pretend to do so. SATURIO
Then it's in vain you wish me not; this shall be done rather after my own fashion than yours. DAU.
Shall be done! SATURIO
What is the matter, now? DAU.
Father, reflect upon these words: if a master has threatened punishment to a slave, although it is not intended to be, still, when the whip is taken up, while he is taking off his tunics, with what an amount of misery is he afflicted. Now, that which is not to be, I'm still in fear of. SATURIO
Damsel or woman none will there ever be, but what she must be good for nothing, who is too wise to be giving satisfaction to her parents. DAU.
Damsel and woman none can there be, but what she must be good for nothing, who holds her peace if she sees anything going on wrong. SATURIO
'Twere better for you to beware of a mischief. DAU.
But if I cannot beware, what am I to do? For it's as to yourself I wish to beware. SATURIO
What, am I a mischief? DAU.
You are not, nor is it becoming for me to say so; but for this purpose am I using my endeavours, that others may not say so who have that liberty. SATURIO
Let each one say what he pleases; from this purpose I shall not be moved. DAU.
But, could it be after my own way, you would be acting prudently, rather than foolishly. SATURIO
It is my pleasure. DAU.
I know that I must let it be your pleasure so far as I'm concerned; but it should not please you to be your pleasure, if I had my way. SATURIO
Are you going to be obedient to your father's orders, or not? DAU.
To be obedient. SATURIO
Do you know then what I instructed you? DAU.
Everything. SATURIO
Both this, how you were stolen? DAU.
I understand it perfectly well. SATURIO
And who your parents were? DAU.
I keep it in my memory. You cause me of necessity to be artful; but take you care, when you wish to give me in marriage, that this story doesn't cause the match to be given up. SATURIO
Hold your tongue, simpleton. Do you not see the customs of people now-a-days, that marriage is easily effected here with a reputation of any kind? So long as there's a marriage-portion, no fault is reckoned as a fault. DAU.
Then take you care, and let this occur to your thoughts, that I am without a fortune. SATURIO
Take you care, please, how you say that. By my faith, through the merits of the Gods and of my ancestors I'll say it, you must not say that you are without a fortune, who have a marriage-portion at home. Why look, I've got a whole carriage-full3 of books at home. If you carefully give your attention to this matter in which we are exerting ourselves, six hundred bon-mots shall be given you out of them as a fortune, all Attic ones4, too; you shall not receive a single Sicilian one. With this for a fortune, you might safely marry a beggar even5. DAU.
Why, then, don't you take me, father, if you are going to take me anywhere? Either do you sell me, or do with me what you please. SATURIO
You ask what's fair and right. Follow me this way. DAU.
I'm obedient to your command. They go into the house, to TOXILUS.
Enter DORDALUS, from his house.
DORDALUS
to himself . I wonder what I'm to say my neighbour is going to do, who swore to me that he would pay the money to-day? But if he should not pay it, and this day go by, I shall have forfeited the money, he his oath. But the door there makes a noise. I wonder who's coming out of doors?
Enter TOXILUS, from his MASTER'S house, with a purse in his hand.
TOXILUS
speaking at the door to the PERSONS within . Take you care of that in-doors; I shall betake myself home just now. DORDALUS
Toxilus, how are you? TOXILUS
How now!--pimping filth mixed up with mud! How now!--public dung-heap! dirty, dishonest, lawless, enticer, disgrace to the public; you hawk after money, greedy and envious; you impudent, rapacious, craving fellow (in three hundred lines no person could run through your villanies), will you take the money? Holding out the purse. Take the money, will you, shameless fellow. Take hold of the money, will you. Are you going to take the money, then? Can I make you take the money, filth? Keeps moving it away. You didn't suppose that I should have had so much money--you, who didn't venture to trust me at all except upon oath? DORDALUS
Do let me recover breath, so as to give you an answer. Fellow, dregs of the populace, you stable for she-slaves, you liberator of harlots, you surface for the lash, you wearer-out of the fetters, you citizen of the treadmill, you slave everlastingly, you gormandizer, glutton, pilferer, runaway, give me the money, will you. Give me the money, impudence. Can I get the money out of you? Give me the money, I say. Why don't you give me the money? Are you ashamed of nothing? You impersonation of slavery, a Procurer is asking money of you for the liberation of your mistress, so that all may hear it. TOXILUS
Troth now, prithee, do hold your tongue. For sure your voice is in first-rate strength. DORDALUS
I've got a tongue made for returning a compliment. Salt is provided for me at the same price as for yourself; Unless this tongue protects me, it shall never lick a bit of salt. TOXILUS
I'll cease to be angry now. It was for this I blamed you, because you refused to trust me for the money. DORDALUS
'Twas a wonder, indeed, that I didn't trust you, that you might do the same to me that some of the bankers do6. When you've entrusted them with anything, they immediately run more quickly away from the Forum than a hare, when, at the games7, he's let out of the entrance of his cage. TOXILUS
holding out the money . Take this, will you. DORDALUS
Why don't you give it then? TOXILUS
giving it . There will be here six hundred didrachms, full weight and counted; cause the damsel to be set at liberty, and bring her out here forthwith. DORDALUS
I'll have her here this moment. I' faith, I don't know to whom now to give this money to be tested8. TOXILUS
Perhaps you are afraid to entrust it to any one's hands? DORDALUS
Strange if I wasn't. More quickly, now-a-days, do bankers abscond from the Forum, than a wheel spins round in a race. TOXILUS
pointing . Do you go that way, through the alleys, the back way to the Forum9; let this damsel pass through the same way to our house, through the garden. DORDALUS
I'll have her here this moment. TOXILUS
But not in public view. DORDALUS
Very discreet. TOXILUS
To-morrow she must go to return thanks10. DORDALUS
I' faith, just so indeed. TOXILUS
While you've been loitering, you might have got back. Exit DORDALUS; TOXILUS goes into the house.
1 Daughter: Her name is not given in the Play though she pretends, when asked by Dordalus, that it is Lucris.
2 Philip or Attalus: Attalus was the name of three wealthy kings of Pergamus. Philip was the name of several of the Macedoman monarchs.
3 Whole carriage-full: "Soracum." This, which was also called "sarracum," was, according to Festus, a vehicle especially used for the purpose of carrying dresses, scenery, and theatrical properties.
4 All Attic ones: In this remark he refers to the pure language of Attica, in contrast with the patois, or mixture of Greek and Latin, spoken by the Sicilians. It is not improbable that the Parasite alludes to the example of Homer, who, Ælian informs us, was said to have given his "Cyprian poems" as a portion to his daughter.
5 Marry a beggar even: As being sure of always being above want
6 Some of the bankers ao: As to the character of the "argentarii," or "bankers," at Rome at this period, see the Curculio, l. 373, and the Pseudolus, l. 296, and the Notes to those passages.
7 When, at the games: he probably alludes to the games in the Circus, at the Floralia, or Festival of Flora, when hares and deer were hunted. See the Fasti of Ovid, B. 5, l. 372. These animals were sometimes brought in nets, and sometimes in cages, the "porta," or "door," of which is here mentioned. Probably, one reason for hunting the hare was the fact that it is destructive to flowers (especially pinks and carnations), which were under the tutelage of Flora.
8 To be tested: The "argentarn" were licensed to be "probatores," "triers" or "assayers" of the goodness of the coin in circulation.
9 Back way to the Forum: Dordalus is to go through his house (which adjoins that of the master of Toxilus) to the Forum, for the purpose of procuring the manumission of Lemniselene from the Prætor, who sits in court there. The reason for his being advised by Toxilus to go the back way probably is, that he does not wish, by their walking in the main street, to attract attention to the fact that he has purchased her freedom. The Procurer, too, having to carry the money to the assayers, probably would not like to attract too much attention to his precious burden. As they are to come back the same way, Lemniselene is to enter the house where Toxilus lives at the back entrance, which accounts for her coming thence, in the Fifth Act, without having appeared on the stage since she went back, after speaking with Sophoclidisca, into the house of Dordalus.
10 Go to return thanks: It was the custom solemnly to return thanks to the Deities on liberation from servitude.
The Comedies of Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley. London. G. Bell and Sons. 1912.
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