Perde 3
[Textpart 5]
Really, I should very much have liked to see that impudent face of yours just then, and what figure a great donkey like you made, holding a fan!
CHAEREA
Hardly had she said this, when all, in a moment, betook themselves off: away they went to bathe, and chattered aloud;Chattered aloud: This line bears a strong resemblance to two lines found in Anstey’s new Bath Guide: And how the young ladies all set up their clacks, All the while an old woman was rubbing their backs. just as the way is when masters are absent.
Meanwhile, sleep overtook the damsel; I slily looked askanceI slily looked askance: This way of looking aside, limis, is mentioned in the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus, where Milphidippa tells Acroteleutium to look at the Captain sideways, Aspicito limis, l. 1217; also in the Bacchides, l. 1131. Those familiar with the works of Hogarth will readily call to mind the picture of Bedlam in the Rake’s Progress, where the young woman is looking askance through her fan at the madman in his cell. through the fan;Through the fan: This shows that the fan was probably one made of thin boards, and not of feathers. this way (showing how): at the same time I looked round in all directions, to see whether all was quite safe. I saw that it was. I bolted the door.
600
CHAEREA
Eh? What then, you simpleton?
CHAEREA
Was I to let slip the opportunity offered me, so excellent, so short-lived,So short-lived: Colman has the following Note here: Short indeed, considering the number of incidents, which, according to Chaerea’s relation, are crowded into it. All the time allowed for this adventure is the short space between the departure of Thais and Thraso and the entrance of Chaerea; so that all this variety of business of sleeping, bathing, ravishing, etc., is dispatched during the two soliloquies of Antipho and Chaerea, and the short Scene between Chremes and Pythias. The truth is, that a very close adherence to the unities often drives the Poet into as great absurdities as the perfect violation of them. so longed for, so unexpected.
In that case, i’faith, I really should have been the person I was pretending to be.
605
ANTIPHO
Troth, you certainly are in the right; but, meantime, what has been arranged about the club-entertainment?
ANTIPHO
You are a clever hand; but where? At your house?
CHAEREA
No, at Discus’s, our freedman.
ANTIPHO
That’s a long way off.
CHAEREA
Then let’s make so much the greater haste.Part of line 608 in the Latin.
ANTIPHO
Change your dress.Part of line 608 in the Latin.
CHAEREA
Where am I to change it? I’m at a loss; for at present I’m an exile from home; I’m afraid of my brother,
lest he should be in-doors: and then again of my father, lest he should have returned from the country by this.
610
ANTIPHO
Let’s go to my house; there is the nearest place for you to change.
CHAEREA
You say right. Let’s be off; besides, I want to take counsel with you about this girl, by what means I may be able to secure the future possession of her.
