Miles Gloriosus
Plautus, Titus Maccius
Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 1. Riley, H. T., translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1912.
- So long as you shall do such as you have done hitherto, you shall always have something to eat: I will always make you a partaker at my table.
- Besides, in Cappadocia, you would have killed five hundred men altogether at one blow, had not your sabre been blunt.
- I let them live, because I was quite sick of fighting.
- Why should I tell you what all mortals know, that you, Pyrgopolinices, live alone upon the earth, with valour, beauty, and achievements most unsurpassed? All the women are in love with you, and that not without reason, since you are so handsome. Witness those girls that pulled me by my mantle yesterday.
- What was it they said to you?
- They questioned me about you. Is Achilles here?says one to me. No,says I, his brother is.Then says the other to me: By my troth, but he is a handsome and a noble man. See how his long hair becomes him Certainly the women are lucky who share his favours.
- And pray, did they really say so?
- They both entreated me to bring you past to-day by way of a sight[*](By way of a sight: Pompam.Strictly speaking, this word means the escort of a procession, whence it came to signify the procession itself.) to them.
- ’Tis really a very great plague to be too handsome a man.
- They are quite a nuisance to me; they are praying, entreating, beseeching me, to let them see you; bidding me be fetched to them; so that I can’t give my attention to your business.