Perde 4
[Textpart 7]
Why, what the case itself points out: the young woman must be brought hither.
DEMEA
O Jupiter! must that be the way then?
MICIO
What can I do else?
DEMEA
What can you do? If in reality this causes you no concern,
to pretend it were surely the duty of a man.
735
MICIO
But I have already betrothed the young woman to him; the matter is settled: the marriage takes place to-day. I have removed all apprehensions. This is rather the duty of a man.
735
DEMEA
But does the affair please you, Micio?
MICIO
If I were able to alter it, no; now, as I can not, I bear it with patience.
The life of man is just like playing with dice:Playing with dice: The tesserae of the ancients were cubes, or what we call dice; while the tali were in imitation of the knuckle-bones of animals, and were marked on four sides only. For some account of the mode of playing with the tali, see the last Scene of the Asinaria, and the Curculio of Plautus, l. 257-9. Madame Dacier suggests that Menander may possibly have borrowed this passage from the Republic of Plato, B. X., where he says, We should take counsel from accidents, and, as in a game at dice, act according to what has fallen, in the manner which reason tells us to be the best. if that which you most want to throw does not turn up, what turns up by chance you must correct by art.
740
DEMEA
O rare corrector! of course it is by your art that twenty minae have been thrown away for a Music-girl; who, as soon as possible,
must be got rid of at any price; and if not for money, why then for nothing.
745
MICIO
Not at all, and indeed I have no wish to sell her.
DEMEA
What will you do with her then?
MICIO
She shall be at my house.
DEMEA
For heaven’s sake, a courtesan and a matron in the same house!
DEMEA
Do you imagine you are in your senses
MICIO
Really I do think so.
DEMEA
So may the Gods prosper me, I now see your folly; I believe you are going to do so that you may have somebody to practice music with.
750
