Perde 4
[Textpart 4]
What answer shall I make them, or in what manner keep this secret?
LACHES
Tell your daughter that Sostrata is going into the country,
that the may not now be afraid of returning home.
630
PHIDIPPUS
Alas! your wife has been guilty of no fault in this affair; all this mischief has originated in my wife Myrrhina.
630
PAMPHILUS
They are changing sides.
PHIDIPPUS
’Tis she that causes our disturbances, Laches.Part of line 633 in the Latin.
PAMPHILUS
So long as I don’t take her back, let her cause as much disturbance as she pleases.
PHIDIPPUS
I, Pamphilus, could really wish, if it were possible, this alliance between us to be lasting; but if you are otherwise inclined, still take the child.Still take the child: In cases of separation it was customary for the father to have the care of the male children.
635
PAMPHILUS
He has discovered that she has been brought to bed. I’m undone!
LACHES
The child! What child?
PHIDIPPUS
We have had a grandson born to us;
for my daughter was removed from you in a state of pregnancy, and yet never before this day did I know that she was pregnant.
640
LACHES
So may the Gods prosper me, you bring good tidings, and I am glad a child has been born, and that she is safe: but what kind of woman have you for a wife, or of what sort of a temper,
that we should have been kept in ignorance of this so long? I can not sufficiently express how disgraceful this conduct appears to me.
645
PHIDIPPUS
This conduct does not vex me less than yourself, Laches.
PAMPHILUS
Even if it had just now been a matter of doubt to me, it is so no longer, since the child of another man is to accompany her.
LACHES
Pamphilus, there is no room now for deliberation for you in this matter.
650
LACHES
We were often longing to see the day on which there should be one to call you father; it has come to pass. I return thanks to the Gods.
