Perde 3
[Textpart 5]
Do you say so?
CHAEREA
If you saw her, I am sure you would say she’s exquisite. What need of many words? I fell in love with her. By good luck there was at our house a certain Eunuch, whom my brother had purchased for Thais, and he had not as yet been sent to her. On this occasion, Parmeno,
our servant, made a suggestion to me, which I adopted.
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CHAEREA
Be quiet, and you shall hear the sooner; to change clothes with him, and order myself to be taken there in his stead.
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ANTIPHO
What, instead of the Eunuch?
ANTIPHO
To receive what advantage, pray, from this plan?
CHAEREA
Do you ask? That I might see, hear, and be in company with her whom I loved, Antipho. Is that a slight motive, or a poor reason? I was presented to the woman.
She, as soon as she received me, joyfully took me home to her house and intrusted the damsel—
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ANTIPHO
In perfect safety, at all events.
CHAEREA
She gave orders that no male was to come near her, and commanded me not to stir away from her; that I was to remain alone with her in the inner apartments.In the inner apartments: The Gynecaea, or women’s apartments, among the Greeks, always occupied the interior part of the house, which was most distant from the street, and there they were kept in great seclusion. Looking bashfully on the ground, I nodded assent.
CHAEREA
I am going out, said she, to dinner.
She took her maids with her; a few novices of girlsA few novices of girls: These noviciae were young slaves recently bought, and intended to be trained to the calling of a Courtesan. remained, to be about her. These immediately made preparations for her to bathe. I urged them to make haste. While preparations were being made, the damsel sat in a room looking up at a certain painting,At a certain painting: See the story of Jupiter and Danaë, the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos, in the Metamorphoses of Ovid, B. iv., l. 610. Pictures of Venus and Adonis, and of Jupiter and Ganymede, are mentioned in the Menaechmi of Plautus; l. 144, and paintings on the walls are also mentioned in the Mostellaria of Plautus, l. 821, where Tranio tries to impose upon Theuropides by pretending to point out a picture of a crow between two vultures. in which was represented how JoveHow Jove: Donatus remarks here that this was a very proper piece of furniture for the house of a Courtesan, giving an example of loose and mercenary Love, calculated to excite wanton thoughts, and at the same time hinting to the young lover that he must make his way to the bosom of his mistress, like Jupiter to Danaë, in a shower of gold. Oh the avarice of harlots! is said once to have sent a golden shower into the bosom of Danaë.
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I myself began to look at it as well, and as he had in former times played the like game, I felt extremely delighted that a God should change himself into money, and slily come through the tiles of another person’s house, to deceive the fair one by means of a shower. But what God was this? He who shakes the most lofty temples of heaven with his thunders.
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Was I, a poor creature of a mortal,A poor creature of a mortal: Homuncio. He uses this word the better to contrast his abject nature as a poor mortal with the majesty of Jupiter. St. Augustin refers to this passage. The preceding line is said by Donatus to be a parody on a passage by Ennius. not to do the same? Certainly, I was to do it, and without hesitation. While I was thinking over these matters with myself, the damsel meantime was fetched away to bathe; she went, bathed, and came back; after which they laid her on a couch. I stood waiting to see if they gave me any orders. One came up, Here, Dorus, said she, take this fan,Take this fan: As to the fans of the ancients, see the Trinummus of Plautus, l. 252, and the Note to the passage in Bohn’s Translation. See also the Amours of Ovid, B. iii., El. 2, l. 38. and let her have a little air in this fashion, while we are bathing;
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when we have bathed, if you like, you may bathe too. With a demure air I took it.
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