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MNESILOCUHS, alone.
MNESILOCHUS
Which of the two now I should think to be my greater enemy, my companion or Bacchis, is extremely doubtful. Has she chosen him in preference? Let her keep him, that's the best. Surely, by my troth, she has done this to her own loss. For never let1 any one entrust to me aught that is sacred, if I don't by an abundant example2, and----as-suredly love her. I'll make her not to say that she has got hold of a person to make a fool of. But I'll go home now and pilfer something from my father. Even to such straits will I force her, that beggary shall be the lot of3----my father. But do I really now possess my wits with a mind unimpaired, who am in this fashion prating here of these things that are to come to pass? I' faith, I'm of opinion that I'm in love, inasmuch as I know for sure I am. But still, than that she, from my abundance, should, by the scraping of a single feather, grow the richer, I'd rather outvie a beggar in begging. Never, by Heaven, while I live, shall she make a laughing-stock of me. For I have made up my mind to pay down all the gold at once to my father. Upon me, therefore, needy and penniless, shall she fawn, at the time, when it shall be for her advantage not a whit the more than if she were saying her pretty things to a dead man at his tomb. Beyond a doubt, 'tis my fixed determination to give the gold up to my father. Likewise, I'll entreat that, for my sake, my father won't hurt Chrysalus, nor censure him at all on my account with respect to the gold which he has deceived him about. For 'tis right that I should have a care for him, who, for my sake, has told this falsehood. (To some ATTENDANTS) Do you follow me, Goes into his father's house.
1 For never let: This passage is a circumlocution for "May I be prepared to commit a sacrilege, if, &c."
2 Example: This is an instance of Aposiopesis. He stops short in his indignation, and owns that, despite of her supposed inconstancy, he loves her still.
3 Shall be the lot of: This is another instance of Aposiopesis. He threatens his vengeance on her, even to making his father a beggar for her sake.
The Comedies of Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley. London. G. Bell and Sons. 1912.
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