Perde 4
SYRUS
Yours; immediately the tears fall from him as from a child, for very joy. (Starting.) Hah take care—
CTESIPHO
Why, what’s the matter?
SYRUS
The wolf in the fableThe wolf in the fable: This was a proverbial expression, tantamount to our saying, Talk of the devil, he’s sure to appear. Servius, in his Commentary on the Ninth Eclogue of Virgil, says that the saying arose from the common belief that the person whom a wolf sets his eyes, upon is deprived of his voice, and thence came to be applied to a person who, coming, upon others in the act of talking about him, necessarily put a stop to their conversation. Cooke says, in reference to this passage, This certainly alludes to a Fable of Aesop’s, of the Wolf, the Fox, and the Ape: which is translated by Phaedrus, and is the tenth of his First Book. It is much more certain that Cooke is mistaken here, and that the fable of the arbitration of the Ape between the Wolf and the Fox has nothing to do with this passage. If it alludes to any fable (which from the expression itself is riot at all unlikely), it is more likely to be that where the Nurse threatens that the wolf shall take the naughty Child, on which he makes his appearance, but is disappointed in his expectations, or else that of the Shepherd-boy and the Wolf. See the Stichus of Plautus, 1. 57, where the same. expression occurs.—
CTESIPHO
What! my father?
CTESIPHO
What shall we do, Syrus?
SYRUS
You only be off in-doors, I’ll see to that.
CTESIPHO
If he makes any inquiries, you have seen me no-where; do you hear?
SYRUS
Can you not be quiet?
[Textpart 2]
I certainly am an unfortunate man. In the first place, I can find my brother nowhere; and then, in the next place, while looking for him, I met a day-laborerMet a day-laborer: Donatus remarks that the Poet artfully contrives to detain Demea in town, his presence being necessary in the latter part of the Play. from the farm; he says that my son is not in the country, and what to do I know not—
540
CTESIPHO
Is he looking for me?
SYRUS
Nay, do be of good heart.
DEMEA
Plague on it! what ill luck is this? I can not really account for it,
unless I suppose myself only born for the purpose of enduring misery. I am the first to feel our misfortunes; the first to know of them all; then the first to carry the news; I am the only one, if any thing does go wrong, to take it to heart.
545
SYRUS
I’m amused at him; he says that he is the first to know of every thing, while he is the only one ignorant of every thing.
