Perde 5
[Textpart 2]
I’m ruined irrevocably!—Of what mischief have I, wretch that I am, unthinkingly been the cause?
970
CLITIPHO
Would I were dead!
CHREMES
Prithee, first learn what it is to live. When you know that, if life displeases you, then try the other.
SYRUS
Master, may I be allowed—?
SYRUS
What injustice or what madness is this, that that in which I have offended, should be to his detriment?
CHREMES
It’s all over.It’s all over: Ilicet, literally, you may go away. This was the formal word with which funeral ceremonies and trials at law were concluded.
Don’t you mix yourself up in it; no one accuses you, Syrus, nor need you look out for an altar,Look out for an altar: He alludes to the practice of slaves taking refuge at altars when they had committed any fault, and then suing for pardon through a precator or mediator. See the Mostellaria of Plautus, 1. 1074, where Tranio takes refuge at the altar from the vengeance of his master, Theuropides. or for an intercessor for yourself.
975
SYRUS
What is your design?
CHREMES
I am not at all angry either with you, (to SYRUS), or with you (to CLITIPHO); nor is it fair that you should be so with me for what I am doing.
SYRUS
He’s gone. I wish I had asked him—
SYRUS
Where I am to get my subsistence; he has so utterly cast us adrift. You are to have it, for the present, at your sister’s, I find.
CLITIPHO
Has it then come to this pass, Syrus—that I am to be in danger even of starving?
980
SYRUS
So we only live, there’s hope—
SYRUS
That we shall be hungry enough.
CLITIPHO
Do you jest in a matter so serious, and not give me any assistance with your advice?
