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Enter LYCONIDES and EUNOMIA, from the house of MEGADORUS.
LYCONIDES
I've told you all, mother; as well as I do myself, you understand all about the daughter of Euclio. Now, I do entreat you, my mother, make mention of it to my uncle, and I now unask of you, mother, that which before I entreated of you, to conceal this from Megadorus. EUNOMIA
You know, yourself, that what you desire to be done, I desire, and I trust that I shall obtain this of my brother; and the reason is good, if 'tis so as you say, that in a drunken fit you debauched this damsel. LYCONIDES
Could I, my mother, tell a falsehood in your presence? PHÆDRA cries out in labour, in EUCLIO'S house. I die, my nurse; my pangs are coming on! I entreat thee for thy protection, Juno Lucina1! LYCONIDES
Ah! my mother, I see a more convincing proof for you; she's crying aloud--she's in the pangs of labour. EUNOMIA
Come in-doors here, with me, my son, to my brother, that I may obtain a grant from him of that which you beg of me. LYCONIDES
Go; I'll follow you this instant, mother. EUNOMIA goes into the house. But my servant, Strobilus, I wonder where he is, whom I ordered to wait here for me. Now I reflect with myself, if he's lending me his assistance, it isn't fair that I should be angry with him. I'll go in-doors, where they are sitting in judgment2 upon my life. Goes into the house of MEGADORUS.
1 Juno Lucina: Juno Lucina was the Goddess who presided over childbirth. Some suppose that the Goddess Diana was called by that name; but (although Diana was also addressed by parturient females) it is more likely that Juno was addressed under the title. A similar circumstance to this takes place in the Andria and the Adelphi of Terence.
2 They are sitting in judgnment: "Ubi de capite meo sunt Comitia." Literally, "where, then, are the Comitia about my life." Trials were held before the "Comitia centuriata," or assemblies of the people, at Rome, to which reference is here made. He alludes to the discussion between Eunomia and Megadorus, on the marriage of the latter with Phædra.
The Comedies of Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley. London. G. Bell and Sons. 1912.
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