Perde 2
[Textpart 1]
I’Il go straightway to the place.
GETA
To Pamphila, you mean.
310
DEMIPHO
I’ll just step home to salute the house-hold Gods.Salute the household Gods. It was the custom for those returning from a voyage or journey, to give thanks to their household Gods for having protected them in their absence. Thus, in the Amphitryon of Plautus, Jupiter, while personating Amphitryon, pretends, in 1. 983, that he is going to offer sacrifice for his safe return. From there, I’ll go to the Forum, and summon some of my friends to give me their assistance in this affair; so that I may not be unprepared, when Phormio comes.
[Textpart 2]
And so you sayAnd so you say. Donatus tells the following story with reference to this passage: This Play being once rehearsed before Terence and some of his most intimate acquaintances, Ambivius, who acted the part of Phormio, came in drunk, which threw the author into a violent passion; but Ambivius had scarcely repeated a few lines, stammering and scratching his head, before Terence became pacified, declaring that when he was writing these very lines, he had exactly such a Parasite as Ambivius then represented, in his thoughts. that, dreading his father’s presence, he has taken himself off?
315
PHORMIO
That Phanium is left alone?
PHORMIO
And that the old man is in a rage?
PHORMIO
The whole business, Phormio, rests on yourself alone; you yourself have hashed it up;Have hashed it up. He is thought to allude here, figuratively, to the composition of a dish called moretum, (in praise of which Virgil wrote a poem,) which was composed of garlic, onions, cheese, eggs, and other ingredients, beaten up in a mortar. The allusion to eating is appropriately used in an address to a Parasite. it must all be swallowed by yourself, so set about it.
GETA
In you is all our hope.
PHORMIO
Look at this, now:—
What if he sends her back?
320
GETA
It was you that urged us.
320
PHORMIO
I think that will do.
320
PHORMIO
Let the old gentleman come; all my plans are now ready prepared in my mind.
