Perde 3
[Textpart 1]
Did Thais really return me many thanks?
390
THRASO
Was she delighted, say you?
GNATHO
Not so much, indeed, at the present itself, as because it was given by you; really, in right earnest, she does exult at that.
PARMENO
I’ve come here to be on the look-out, that when there is an opportunity I may take the presents. But see, here’s the Captain.
THRASO
Undoubtedly it is the case with me
, that every thing I do is a cause for thankfulness.
395
GNATHO
Upon my faith, I’ve observed it.
THRASO
The most mighty King,The most mighty King: It has been suggested that Darius III. is here alluded to, who was a contemporary of Menander. As however Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, is mentioned in this Play, there is no necessity to go out of the way to make Terence guilty of an anachronism. Madame Dacier suggests that Seleucus, king of part of Asia Minor, is meant; and as Thraso is called a stranger or foreigner toward the end of the Play, he probably was intended to be represented as a native of Asia and a subject of Seleucus. One of the Seleuci was also favored with the services of Pyrgopolinices, the Braggart Captain of Plautus, in the Miles Gloriosus. See 1. 75 in that Play: For King Seleucus entreated me with most earnest suit that I would raise and enlist recruits for him. even, always used to give me especial thanks for whatever I did; but not so to others.
GNATHO
He who has the wit that you have, often by his words appropriates to himself the glory that has been achieved by the labor of others.
THRASO
You’ve just hit it.You’ve just hit it. Colman here remarks, quoting the following passage from Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor Lost, That that Poet was familiarly acquainted with this Comedy is evident from the passage, olofernes says, Novi hominem tanquam te. His humor is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behavior vain, ridiculous, and Thrasonical. We may remark that the previous words of Gnatho, though spoken with reference to the King, contain a reproach against the Captain’s boastfulness, though his vanity will not let him perceive it.
400
GNATHO
The king, then, kept you in his eye.In his eye. In oculis is generally supposed to mean as dearly in his eyes. As, however, the Satraps of the East were called the king’s eyes, those who suppose that Darius is alluded to, might with some ground consider the passage as meaning that the king ranked him in the number of his nobles. See the Paenulus of Plautus, 1. 693, and the Note in Bohn’s Translation.
400
GNATHO
To enjoy your society.
THRASO
True; he intrusted to me all his army, all his state secrets.
THRASO
Then if, on any occasion, a surfeit of society, or a dislike of business, came upon him, when he was desirous to take some recreation; just as though—you understand?You understand: He says this at the very moment when lie is at a loss what to say next; the Parasite obligingly steps in to help him out with the difficulty.
just as though on occasion he would rid his mind of those anxieties.
405
THRASO
You have it. Then he used to take me aside as his only boon companion.
405
