Miles Gloriosus

Plautus, Titus Maccius

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

  1. What’s this? Whence comes it?
PALAESTRIO
  1. From a charming and a handsome lady, one who loves you, and dotes upon your extreme beauty. Her maid just now gave me the ring that I might then give it to you.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. What? Is she free born or a freed woman, made free from a slave by the Praetor’s rod[*](By the Praetor’s rod: Festucais the same with vindicta, the rod, or wand, which the Praetor used to lay on the head of the slave when he was made free.)?
PALAESTRIO
  1. Pshaw! Should I presume to be the bearer of a message to you from a person once a slave, who cannot sufficiently answer the demands of the free women who are longing for you?
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. Is she wife, or is she widow?
PALAESTRIO
  1. She is both wife and widow.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. In what way is it possible for the same woman to be a wife and a widow?
PALAESTRIO
  1. Because she is a young woman married to an old man.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. That’s good.
PALAESTRIO
  1. She is of genteel and charming person.