Perde 1
[Textpart 1]
Do leave me alone, that I may give myself no respite from my labor.
90
CHREMES
I will not allow it, I tell you.
MENEDEMUS
Ah! that’s not fair.
CHREMES
Whew! such a heavy one as this, pray!
MENEDEMUS
Such are my deserts.
MENEDEMUS
I have an only son,—a young man,—alas! why did I say—I have?—rather I should say, I had one, Chremes:—
whether I have him now, or not, is uncertain.
95
MENEDEMUS
You shall know:—There is a poor old woman here, a stranger from Corinth:—her daughter, a young woman, he fell in love with, insomuch that he almost regarded her as his wife; all this took place unknown to me. When I discovered the matter, I began to reprove him, not with gentleness,
95
nor in the way suited to the love-sick mind of a youth, but with violence, and after the usual method of fathers. I was daily reproaching him,—Look you, do you expect to be allowed any longer to act thus, myself, your father, being alive; to be keeping a mistress pretty much as though your wife?
100
You are mistaken, Clinia, and you don’t know me, if you fancy that. I am willing that you should be called my son, just as long as you do what becomes you; but if you do not do so, I shall find out how it becomes me to act toward you. This arises from nothing, in fact, but too much idleness.
105
At your time of life, I did not devote my time to dalliance, but, in consequence of my poverty, departed hence for Asia, and there acquired in arms both riches and military glory. At length the matter came to this,—the youth, from hearing the same things so often, and with such severity, was overcome.
110
He supposed that I, through age and affection, had more judgment and foresight for him than him-self. He went off to Asia, Chremes, to serve under the king.
115
CHREMES
What is it you say?
MENEDEMUS
He departed without my knowledge—and has been gone these three months.
CHREMES
Both are to be blamed—although I still think this step shows an ingenuous and enterprising disposition.
MENEDEMUS
When I learned this from those who were in the secret, I returned home sad, and with feelings almost over-whelmed and distracted through grief. I sit down; my servants run to me; they take off my shoes:Take off my shoes: As to the socci, or low shoes of the ancients, see the Notes to the Trinummus of Plautus, 1. 720, in Bohn’s Translation. It was the especial duty of certain slaves to take off the shoes of their masters. then some make all haste to spread the couches,To spread the couches: The lecti or couches upon which the ancients reclined at meals, have been enlarged upon in the Notes to Plautus, where full reference is also made to the coena, or dinner, and other meals of the Romans.
and to prepare a repast; each according to his ability did zealously what he could, in order to alleviate my sorrow. When I observed this, I began to reflect thus:—What! are so many persons anxious for my sake alone, to pleasure myself only?
125
Are so many female servants to provide me with dress?Provide me with dress: It was the custom for the mistress and female servants in each family to make the clothes of the master. Thus in the Fasti of Ovid, B. ii., 1. 746, Lucretia is found amidst her female servants, making a cloak, or lacerna, for her husband. Suetonius says that Augustus refused to wear any garments not woven by his female relations. Cooke seems to think that vestiant alludes to the very act of putting the clothes upon a person. He says, The better sort of people had eating-dresses, which are here alluded to. These dresses were light garments, to put on as soon as they had bathed. They commonly bathed before eating, and the chief meal was in the evening. This, however, does not seem to be the meaning of the passage, although Colman has adopted it. We may here remark that the censure here described is not unlike that mentioned in the Prologue to the Mercator of Plautus, as administered by Demaenetus to his son Charinus. Shall I alone keep up such an expensive establishment, while my only son, who ought equally, or even more so, to enjoy these things—inasmuch as his age is better suited for the enjoyment of them—him, poor youth, have I driven away from home by my severity!
130
