What am I to do? Wretch that I am! where am I now in this emergency to raise the money for him, I, who am worse than nothing? If it had been possible for these three days to be obtained of him, it was promised me by then.
Geta, shall we suffer him to continue thus wretched, when he so lately assisted me in the kind way you were mentioning? On the contrary, why not, as there's need of it try to do him a kindness in return?
For my part, I'm sure it is but fair.
Come then, you are the only man able to serve him.
What can I do?
Procure the money.
I wish I could; but where it is to come from—tell me that.
My father has come home.
I know; but what of that?
Oh, a word to the wiseA word to the wise
: "Dictum sapienti sat est." The same proverb is found in the Persa of Plautus, 1. 736.
Is that it, then?
Just so.
Upon my faith, you really do give me fine advice; out upon you! Ought I not to be heartily glad, if I meet with no mishap through your marriage, but what, in addition to that, you must now bid me, for his sake, to be seeking risk upon risk?
'Tis true what he says.
What! am I a stranger to you, Geta?
I don't consider you so. But is it so trifling a matter that the old gentleman is now vexed with us all, that we must provoke him still more, and leave no room for entreaty?
Is another man to take her away from before my eyes to some unknown spot? Alas! speak to me then, Antipho, and look upon me while you have the opportunity, and while I'm present.
Why so, or what are you going to do? Pray, tell me.
To whatever part of the world she is borne away, I'm determined to follow her or to perish.
May the Gods prosper your design! Cautiously's the word, however.
Any at all—how?
Pray, do try, that he mayn't be doing something that we may afterward be more or less sorry for, Geta.
I'm considering,
Don't be afraid: together with you, we'll share good and bad.
Only thirty mince.
Thirty? Heyday! she's monstrous dear, Phaedria.
Indeed, she's very cheap.
Well, well, I'll get them for you.
Oh the dear man!
Take yourselves off.
There's need for them directly.
You shall have them directly; but I must have Phormio for my assistant in this business.
He's quite ready; right boldly lay on him any load you like, he'll bear it: he, in especial, is a friend to his friend.
Let's go to him at once then.
Will you have any occasion for my assistance?
None; but be off home, and comfort that poor thing, who I am sure is now in-doors almost dead with fear. Do you linger?
There's nothing I could do with so much pleasure.
What way will you manage this?
I'll tell you on the road; first thing, betake yourself off.
Well, have you brought your daughter with you, Chremes, for whom you went to
No.
Why not?
When her mother found that I staid here longer than usual, and at the same time the age of the girl did not suit with my delays, they told me that she, with all her family, set out in search of me.
Pray, then, why did you stay there so long, when you had heard of this?
Why, faith, a malady detained me.
From what cause? Or what was it?
Do you ask me? Old age itself is a malady. However, I heard that they had arrived safe, from the caps tain who brought them.
Have you heard, Chremes, what has happened to my son in my absence?
'Tis that, in fact, that has embarrassed me in my plans. For if I offer my daughter in marriage to any person that's a stranger, it must all be told how and by whom I had her. You I knew to be fully as faithful to me as I am to myself; if a stranger shall think fit to be connected with me by marriage, he will hold his tongue, just as long as good terms exist between us: but if he takes a dislike to me, he'll be knowing more than it's proper he should know. I am afraid, too, lest my wife should, by some means, come to know of it; if that is the case, it only remains for me to shake myselfTo shake myself
: "Me excutiam." In reference to the custom of the Greeks, and the Eastern nations, of shaking their clothes at the door of any house which they were going to leave.Rely on at home
: "Nam ego meorum solus sum meus." He means that he is the only person in his house friendly to himself, inasmuch as his wife, from her wealth, has supreme power over the domestics, in whom he himself can place no trust.
I know it is so, and that circumstance is a cause of anxiety to me; and I shall never cease trying, until I've made good what I promised you.
Save you, Geta.
I'm delighted to see you safe returned.
I believe you.
How go matters?
Many changes here upon my arrival, as usually the case.
True; have you heard what has happened to Antipho?
All.
It was about that I was talking to him just now.
But really, on carefully reflecting upon this matter I think I have found a remedy.
What is the remedy?
When I left you, by accident Phormio met me.
Who is Phormio?
He who patronized her.
I understand.
It seemed to me that I might first sound him; I took the fellow aside: "Phormio," said I, "why don't we try to settle these matters between us rather with a good grace than with a bad one? My master's a generous man, and one who hates litigation; but really, upon my faith, all his friends were just now advising him with one voice to turn her instantly out of doors."
Good terms with him
: Meaning, "Is he in his senses or not?"
Who ordered you to say so?
Nay, he could not have more happily contrived to bring about what we want.
Go on with your story.
At first the fellow raved.
Say, what did he ask?
What? A great deal too much.
How much? Tell me.
Suppose he were to give a great talent.
Aye, faith, perdition to him rather; has he no shame?
Just what I said to him: "Pray," said I, "suppose he was portioning an only daughter of his own. It has been of little benefit that he hasn't one of his own, when another has been found to be demanding a fortune." To be brief, and to pass over his impertinences, this at last was his final answer: "I," said he," from the very first, have been desirous to marry the daughter of my friend, as was fit I should; for I was aware of the ill results of this, a poor wife being married into a rich family, and becoming a slave. But, as I am now conversing with you unreservedly, I was in want of a wife to bring me a little money with which to pay off my debts; and even yet, if Demipho is willing to give as much as I am to receive with her to whom I am engaged, there is no one whom I should better like for a wife."
What if he's in debt to the amount of his life?Amount of his life
: "Quid si animam debet?" Erasmus tells us that this was a proverb among the Greeks applied to those who ran so deeply in debt, that their persons, and consequently, in one sense, their very existence, came into the power of their creditors.
His land is mortgaged,—for ten minae he said.
Well, well, let him take her then; I'll give it.
He has a house besides, mortgaged for another ten.
Huy, huy! that's too much.
Don't be crying out; you may have those ten of me.
A lady's maid must be brought for his wife; and then too, a little more is wanted for some furniture, and some is wanted for the wedding expenses. " Well then," said he, "for these items, put down ten more."
Then let him at once bring six hundred actionsSix hundred actions
: "Sescentos;" literally, "six hundred." The Romans used this term as we do the words "ten thousand," to signify a large, but indefinite number.
Pray do be quiet; I'll give it: do you only bring your son to marry the woman we want him to have.
'Tis on my account she's turned off; it's right that I should bear the loss.
" Take care and let me know," said he, "as soon as possible, if they are going to let me have her, that I may get rid of the other, so that I mayn't be in doubt; for the others have agreed to.pay me down the portion directly."
Let him have her at once; let him give notice to them that he breaks off the match with the other, and let him marry this woman.
Yes, and little joy to him of the bargain!
Luckily, too, I've now brought home some money with me, the rents which my wife's farms at
Well.
What have you been doing?
Diddling the old fellows out of their money.
Is that quite the thing?
I' faith, I don't know: it's just what I was told to do.
How now, whip-scoundrel, do you give me an answer to what I don't ask you?
What was it then that you did ask?
What was it I did ask? Through your agency, matters have most undoubtedly come to the pass that I may go hang myself. May then all the Gods, Goddesses, Deities above and below, with every evil confound you! Look now, if you wish any thing to succeed, intrust it to him who may bring you from smooth water on to a rock. What was there less advantageous than to touch upon this sore, or to name my wife? Hopes have been excited in my father that she may possibly be got rid of. Pray now, tell me, suppose Phormio receives the portion, she must be taken home by him as his wife: what's to become of me?
But he's not going to marry her.
I know that. But
There is nothing, Antipho, but what it may be made worse by being badly told: you leave out what is good, and you mention the bad. Now then, hear the other side: if he receives the money, she must be taken as his wife, you say; I grant you; still, some time at least will be allowed for preparing for the nuptials, for inviting, and for sacrificing. In the mean time, Phoedria's friends will advance what they have promised; out of that he will repay it.
On what grounds? Or what will he say?
Do you ask the question? "How many circumstances, since then, have befallen me as prodigies? A strange black dogA strange black dog
: This omen, Plautus calls, in the Casina, 1. 937, "canina scaeva."Through the sky-light
: So in the Amphitryon of Plautus, l. 1108, two great snakes come down through the "impluvium," or "sky-light." On the subject of the "impluvium," see the Notes to the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus, 1. 159.A hen crowed
: Donatus tells us that it was a saying, that in the house where a hen crowed, the wife had the upper hand.The soothsayer—the diviner
: According to some accounts there was this difference between the "hariolus" and the " arus-pex," that the former foretold human events, the latter those relating to the Deities. Donatus has remarked on these passages, that Terence seems to sneer at the superstitions referred to.
I only wish it may be the case.
It shall be the case; trust me for that. Your father's coming out; go tell Phaedria that the money is found.
Do be quiet, I tell you; I'll take care he shall not be playing any tricks upon us. I'll not rashly part with this without having my witnesses; I'll have it stated to whom I pay it, and for what purpose I pay it.
Why yes, you had need do so, and with all haste, while the fit is upon him; for if this other woman shall prove more pressing, perhaps he may throw us over.
You've hit upon the very thing.
Lead me to him then.
I won't delay.
What the plague does that matter to you?
A great deal, Demipho. It is not enough for you to do your duty, if common report does not approve of it; I wish all this to be done with her own sanction as well, that she mayn't be saying that she has been turned out of doors.
I can do all that myself.
It will come better from one woman to another.
I'll ask her.
Can find them now
: His Lemnian wife and daughter. Colman remarks: " This is intended as a transition to the next Scene; but I think it would have been better if it had followed without this kind of introduction. The Scene itself is admirable, and is, in many places, both affecting and comic, and the discovery of the real character of Phanium is made at a very proper time."
My daughter's nurse
: Among the ancients, it was the custom for nurses who had brought up children to remain with them in after-life.
Mentioning my name, too?
Look round at me.
No.
Do you deny it?
Why? Pray, are you not the person you always used to say you were?
Hush!
Why are you afraid about that door?
I' faith, that's the very reason why we, wretched creatures, have never been able to find you out here.
Well, but tell me, what business have you with that family from whose house you were coming out? Where are the ladies?Where are the ladies?
: "Ubi illae?" literally, "Where are these women?"
Ah, wretched me!
Hah! What's the matter? Are they still alive?
Your daughter is alive. Her poor mother died of grief.
An unfortunate thing!
As for me, being a lone old woman, in want, and unknown, I contrived, as well as I could, to get the young woman married to the young man who is master of this house
What! to Antipho?
The very same, I say.
What? Has he got two wives?
Dear no, prithee, he has only got this one.
What about the other one that's called his relative?
Why, this is she.
What is it you say?
It was done on purpose, in order that her lover might be enabled to marry her without a portion.
Ye Gods, by our trust in you! How often do those things come about through accident, which you couldn't dare to hope for? On my return, I have found my daughter matched with the very person I wished, and just as I wanted; a thing that we were both using our endeavors, with the greatest earnestness, to bring about. Without any very great management on our part, by her own management, she has by herself brought this about.
Now consider what's to be done. The young man's father has returned, and they say that he bears this with feelings highly offended.
There's no danger of that. But, by Gods and men, do take care that no one comes to know that she's my daughter.
No one shall know it from me.
Follow me; in-doors we'll hear the rest.
'Tis caused by our own fault, that it is advantageous to be dishonest; while we wish ourselves to be styled very honest and generous. "So run away as not to run beyond the house,"Run beyond the house
: "Fugias ne printer casam." This passage, has given much trouble to the Commentators; but it is pretty clear that the explanation of Donatus is the correct one: "Don't abandon your own home," that being the safest place. Stallbaum agrees with Gronovius in thinking that it was first applied as a piece of advice to runaway slaves, as being likely to become worse off by the change; probably much in the same spirit as we say, "Out of the frying-pan into the fire."
Most clearly so.
They now get rewarded for it, who confound right with wrong.
Most undoubtedly.
How very foolishly, in fact, we have managed the affair with him!
If by these means we can only manage for him to marry her.
Is that, then, a matter of doubt?
I' faith, judging from what the fellow is, I don't know whether he mightn't change his mind.
How! change it indeed?
I don't know: but "if perhaps," I say.
I'll do as my brother advised me, bring hither his wife, to talk with her. Do you, Geta, go before; tell her that Nausistrata is about to visit her.
The money's been got for Phaedria; it's all hushed about the lawsuit; due care has been taken that she's not to leave for the present. What next, then? What's to be done? You are still sticking in the mud. You are paying by borrowing;Paying by borrowing
: "Versura solvere," was "to pay a debt by borrowing money," and consequently to be no better off than before. Geta having, by the money he has procured, freed Phaedria from all danger of losing his mistress, but at the same time having brought Antipho into still greater danger of losing his wife.Or his talking
: "Ejus" here alludes, not to Nausistrata but to Phormio. Madame Dacier suggests that it should be "hujus."