Miles Gloriosus

Plautus, Titus Maccius

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

  1. I can’t help it when I look upon you.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. Be of good courage.
PHILOCOMASIUM
  1. I know what pain it is to me.
PALAESTRIO
  1. I really don’t wonder now, Philocomasium, if you were here with happiness to yourself, when I, a servant—as I look at him, weep because we are parting pretends to cry, so much have his beauty, his manners, his valour, captivated your feelings.
PHILOCOMASIUM
  1. Prithee, do let me embrace you before I depart?
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. By all means
PHILOCOMASIUM
  1. embracing him. O my eyes! O my life!
PALAESTRIO
  1. Do hold up the woman, I entreat you, lest she should fall. He takes hold of her, and she pretends to faint.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. What means this?
PALAESTRIO
  1. Because, after she had quitted you, she suddenly became faint, poor thing.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. Run in and fetch some water.
PALAESTRIO
  1. I want no water; but I had rather you would keep at a distance. Prithee, don’t you interfere till she comes to.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. observing PLEUSICLES, who is holding PHILOCOMASIUM in his arm. They have their heads too closely in contact between them; I don’t like it; he is soldering his lips[*](He is soldering his lips: Ferruminatis a strong expression here; it literally means to weld iron with iron. hammering it in a red-hot state) to hers. What the plague are you about?
PLEUSICLES
  1. I was trying whether she was breathing or not.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. You ought to have applied your ear then.
PLEUSICLES
  1. If you had rather, I’ll let her go.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. No, I don’t care; do you support her.
PALAESTRIO
  1. To my misery, I’m quite distracted.
PYRGOPOLINICES
  1. Go and bring here from in-doors all the things that I have given her.
PALAESTRIO
  1. And even now, household God, do I salute thee before I depart; my fellow-servants, both male and female, all farewell, and happy may you live; prithee, though absent, among yourselves bestow your blessings upon me as well.