Miles Gloriosus
Plautus, Titus Maccius
Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 1. Riley, H. T., translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1912.
- That shall be done.
- To pretend as though you had set your affection on the Captain.
- And so it shall be.
- And as though this affair is managed through me, as the go-between, and your servant-maid.
- You might have made a good prophet; for you tell what is to be.
- As though this maid of yours had conveyed from you this ring to me, which I was then to deliver to the Captain, in your name.
- You say what’s true.
- What need is there to mention these things now, which they remember so well?
- Still, it is better. For think of this, my patron; when the shipwright is skilful, if he has once laid down the keel exact to its lines, ’tis easy to build the ship, when --- Now this keel of ours has been skilfully laid and firmly placed; the workmen and the master-builders are not unskilled in this business. If he who furnishes the timber[*](Who furnishes the timber: Lambinus has thus explained this metaphorical expression. The ship is the contrivance for deceiving the Captain; the keel is the main-plot and foundation of it; Periplecomenus, Acroteleutium, and her servant, are the workmen; Palaestrio is the master-shipwright; while the Captain himself is the materiariusor person that supplies the timber.) does not retard us in giving what is needed, I know the adroitness of our ingenuity—soon will the ship be got ready.
- You know the Captain, my master, then?