Perde 3
[Textpart 6]
I suppose you wish the Captain, your master, to be gulled.
PALAESTRIO
You’ve said what’s true.
ACROTELEUTIUM
Cleverly and skilfully, adroitly and pleasantly, the whole thing is planned.
PALAESTRIO
In fact, I wish you to pretend to be his wife.
ACROTELEUTIUM
That shall be done.
PALAESTRIO
To pretend as though you had set your affection on the Captain.
ACROTELEUTIUM
And so it shall be.
PALAESTRIO
And as though this affair is managed through me, as the go-between, and your servant-maid.
910
ACROTELEUTIUM
You might have made a good prophet; for you tell what is to be.
PALAESTRIO
As though this maid of yours had conveyed from you this ring to me, which I was then to deliver to the Captain, in your name.
ACROTELEUTIUM
You say what’s true.
PERIPLECOMENUS
What need is there to mention these things now, which they remember so well?
ACROTELEUTIUM
Still, it is better.
For think of this, my patron; when the shipwright is skilful, if he has once laid down the keel exact to its lines, ’tis easy to build the ship, when Now this keel of ours has been skilfully laid and firmly placed; the workmen and the master-builders are not unskilled in this business.
915
If he who furnishes the timberWho furnishes the timber: Lambinus has thus explained this metaphorical expression. The ship is the contrivance for deceiving the Captain; the keel is the main-plot and foundation of it; Periplecomenus, Acroteleutium, and her servant, are the workmen; Palaestrio is the master-shipwright; while the Captain himself is the materiarius or person that supplies the timber. does not retard us in giving what is needed, I know the adroitness of our ingenuity—soon will the ship be got ready.
920
PALAESTRIO
You know the Captain, my master, then?
ACROTELEUTIUM
’Tis strange you should ask me. How could I not know that scorn of the public, that swaggering, frizzle-headed, perfumed debauchee?
PALAESTRIO
But does he know you?
ACROTELEUTIUM
He never saw me: how, then, should he know who I am?
PALAESTRIO
’Tis most excellent what you say. For that reason, i’ faith, the thing will be able to be managed all the more cleverly.
925
