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CHRYSALUS, alone.
CHRYSALUS
A tremendously great business am I undertaking, and I have my fears how in this one day I may accomplish it. But now I have occasion for the old blade to be fierce and savage at me. For it suits not this plan of mine that the old fellow should be calm when he has beheld me in his presence. I'll turn him about1 this day, finely, if I live. I'll have him parched as well as ever pea was parched2. I'll walk before the door, that when he comes out, at once as he comes up, I may put the letters3 in his hand. Stands near the door of BACCHIS.
1 Turn him about: It is not improbable that this figure is borrowed from frying fish in the kitchen--"When he is done on one side, I'll turn him on the Other."
2 Pea was parched: "Frictum cicer," "parched vetches." Horace mentions these dainties. They were mostly purchased by the lower orders, and by slaves.
3 Put the letter: His object is to entrap old Nicobulus in such a way that he must of necessity see his son in the company of the damsels, on which he will be inclined the more readily to believe the story that he has formed an intrigue with the wife of the Captain.
The Comedies of Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley. London. G. Bell and Sons. 1912.
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