Perde 3
[Textpart 5]
So then, you have brought home nothing moreBrought home nothing more: Colman remarks that this passage is taken notice of by Donatus as a particularly happy stroke of character; and indeed the idea of a covetous old man gaping for a fat legacy, and having his mouth stopped by a moral precept, is truly comic. than a single sentiment?
PAMPHILUS
Whatever he has left, we are the gainers by it.
LACHES
Why no, it has proved a loss; for I could have wished him alive and well.
PHIDIPPUS
You may wish that with impunity;
he’ll never come to life again; and after all I know which of the two you would prefer.
465
LACHES
Yesterday, he (pointing to PHIDIPPUS) desired Philumena to be fetched to his house. (Whispers to PHIDIPPUS, nudging him with his elbow.) Say that you desired it.
PHIDIPPUS
Don’t punch me so. (To PAMPHILUS.) I desired it.
LACHES
But he’ll now send her home again.
PAMPHILUS
I know the whole affair, and how it happened; I heard it just now, on my arrival.
LACHES
Then may the Gods confound those spiteful people who told this news with such readiness!
PAMPHILUS
I am sure that it has been my study, that with reason no slight might possibly be committed by your family; and if I were now truthful to mention of how faithful, loving, and tender a disposition I have proved toward her, I could do so truly, did I not rather wish that you should learn it of herself; for by that method you will be the more ready to place confidence in my disposition
470
when she, who is now acting unjustly toward me, speaks favorably of me. And that through no fault of mine this separation has taken place, I call the Gods to witness. But since she considers that it is not befitting her to give way to my mother, and with readiness to conform to her temper, and as on no other terms it is possible for good feeling to exist between them,
475
either my mother must be separated, Phidippus, from me, or else Philumena. Now affection urges me rather to consult my mother’s pleasure.
480
LACHES
Pamphilus, your words have reached my ears not otherwise than to my satisfaction, since I find that you post-pone all considerations for your parent. But take care, Pamphilus, lest impelled by resentment, you carry matters too far.
PAMPHILUS
How, impelled by resentment, could, I now be biased against her who never has been guilty of any thing toward me, father, that I could not wish, and who has often deserved as well as I could desire? I both love and praise and exceedingly regret her, for I have found by experience that she was of a wondrously engaging disposition with regard to myself;
485
and I sincerely wish that she may spend the remainder of her life with a husband who may prove more fortunate than me, since necessity thus tears her from me.
490
PHIDIPPUS
’Tis in your own power to prevent that.
LACHES
If you are in your senses, order her to come back.
PAMPHILUS
It is not my intention, father; I shall study my mother’s interests.
