Miles Gloriosus

Plautus, Titus Maccius

Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 1. Riley, H. T., translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1912.

  1. But the left one I mean.
PLEUSICLES
  1. I’ll tell you. On account of the sea, I use this eye less; but if I kept away from the sea[*](From the sea: There is a pun here, which cannot be preserved in the translation. Si abstinuissem a mareIf I kept away from the sea, may also be read, Si abstinuissem amare, If I refrained from loving. The Captain understands him in the former sense, thinking that he means that he has got a disease in his eye, which may be increased by leading a seafaring life.), I should use the one like the other. But they are detaining me too long.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. See, here they are coming out.
Enter PALAESTRIO and PHILOCOMASIUM from the CAPTAIN’S house.
PALAESTRIO
  1. to PHILOCOMASIUM. Prithee, when will you this day make an end of your weeping?
PHILOCOMASIUM
  1. What can I do but weep? I am going away hence where I have spent my days most happily.
PALAESTRIO
  1. See, there’s the man that has come from your mother and sister pointing to PLEUSICLES.
PHILOCOMASIUM
  1. I see him.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. Palaestrio, do you hear?
PALAESTRIO
  1. What is your pleasure?
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. Aren’t you ordering those presents to be brought out which I gave her?
PLEUSICLES
  1. Health to you, Philocomasium.
PHILOCOMASIUM
  1. And health to you.
PLEUSICLES
  1. Your mother and sister bade me give their love to you.
PHILOCOMASIUM
  1. Heaven prosper them.
PLEUSICLES
  1. They beg you to set out, so that, while the wind is fair, they may set sail. But if your mother’s eyes had been well, she would have come[*](She would have come: Thornton justly observes that this excuse for the pretended mother not making her appearance is fair enough, but there is no reason alleged why the sister should not come, except that we may suppose that she stays to nurse and comfort her sick parent.) together with me.
PHILOCOMASIUM
  1. I’ll go; although I do it with regret-duty compels me.
PLEUSICLES
  1. You act wisely.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. If she had not been passing her life with myself, this day she would have been a blockhead.
PHILOCOMASIUM
  1. I am distracted at this, that I am estranged from such a man. For you are able to make any woman what-ever abound in wit; and because I was living with you, for that reason I was of a very lofty spirit. I see that I must lose that loftiness of mind. Pretends to cry.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. Don’t weep.