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Enter MICIO from his house.
MICIO
speaking to the people within. I'll go and tell them there's no delay on our part. DEMEA
But see here's the very man: O Micio, I have been seeking you this long time. MICIO
Why, what's the matter? DEMEA
I'm bringing you some new and great enormities of that hopeful youth. MICIO
Just look at that! DEMEA
Fresh ones, of blackest dye. MICIO
There now--at it again. DEMEA
Ah, Micio! you little know what sort of person he is. MICIO
I do. DEMEA
O simpleton! you are dreaming that I'm talking about the Music-girl; this crime is against a virgin and a citizen. MICIO
I know it. DEMEA
So then, you know it, and put up with it! MICIO
Why not put up with it? DEMEA
Tell me, pray, don't you exclaim about it? Don't you go distracted? MICIO
Not I: certainly I had rather 1---- DEMEA
There has been a child born. MICIO
May the Gods be propitious to it. DEMEA
The girl has no fortune. MICIO
So I have heard. DEMEA
And he--must he marry her without one? MICIO
Of course. DEMEA
What is to be done then? MICIO
Why, what the case itself points out: the young woman must be brought hither. DEMEA
O Jupiter! must that be the way then? MICIO
What can I do else? DEMEA
What can you do?: If in reality this causes you no concern, to pretend it were surely the duty of a man. MICIO
But I have already betrothed the young woman to him; the matter is settled: the marriage takes place to-day. I have removed all apprehensions. This is rather the duty of a man. DEMEA
But does the affair please you, Micio? MICIO
If I were able to alter it, no; now, as I can not, I bear it with patience. The life of man is just like playing with dice: 2 if that which you most want to throw does not turn up, what turns up by chance you must correct by art. DEMEA
O rare corrector! of course it is by your art that twenty minae have been thrown away for a Music-girl; who, as soon as possible, must be got rid of at any price; and if not for money, why then for nothing. MICIO
Not at all, and indeed I have no wish to sell her. DEMEA
What will you do with her then? MICIO
She shall be at my house. DEMEA
For heaven's sake, a courtesan and a matron in the same house! MICIO
Why not? DEMEA
Do you imagine you are in your senses MICIO
Really I do think so. DEMEA
So may the Gods prosper me, I now see your folly; I believe you are going to do so that you may have somebody to practice music with. MICIO
Why not? DEMEA
And the new-made bride to be learning too? MICIO
Of course. DEMEA
Having hold of the rope, 3 you will be dancing with them. MICIO
Like enough; and you too along with us, if there's need. DEMEA
Ah me! are you not ashamed of this? MICIO
Demea, do, for once, lay aside this anger of yours, and show yourself as you ought at your son's wedding, cheerful and good-humored. I'll just step over to them, and return immediately. Goes into SOSTRATA'S house. DEMEA
O Jupiter! here's a life! here are manners! here's madness! A wife to be coming without a fortune! A musicwench in the house! A house full of wastefulness! A young man ruined by extravagance! An:old man in his dotage!--Should Salvation herself 4 desire it, she certainly could not save this family. (Exit.)
1 Certainly I had rather: He pauses after "quidem," but he means to say that if he had his choice, he would rather it had not been so.
2 Playing with dice: The "tesserae" of the ancients were cubes, or what we call "dice;" while the "tali" were in imitation of the knuckle-bones of animals, and were marked on four sides only. For some account of the mode of playing with the "tali," see the last Scene of the Asinaria, and the Curculio of Plautus, l. 257-9. Madame Dacier suggests that Menander may possibly have borrowed this passage from the Republic of Plato, B. X., where he says, "'We should take counsel from accidents, and, as in a game at dice, act according to what has fallen, in the manner which reason tells us to be the best."
3 Hold of the rope: "Restim ductans saltabis." Donatus and Madame Dacier think that this is only a figurative expression for a dance in which all joined hands; according to some, however, a dance is alluded to where the person who led off drew a rope or cord after him, which the rest of the company took hold of as they danced; which was invented in resemblance of the manner in which the wooden horse was dragged by ropes into the city of Troy.
4 Salvation herself:: See an observation relative to the translation of the word "Salus," in the Notes to Plautus, vol. i. pages 193. 450.
The Comedies of Terence. Henry Thomas Riley. Ney York. Harper and Brothers. 1874.
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