Perde 2
[Textpart 1]
I commend him: but why do I hesitate at once to accost the old man? (Going forward to DEMIPHO.) Master, welcome to you! I’m glad to see you safe returned.
285
DEMIPHO
Ah, excellent guardian! save you, stay of my family, no doubt, to whom, at my departure, I intrusted my son.
GETA
For some minutes past I’ve heard you accusing all of us
undeservedly; and me the most undeservedly of them all; for what would you have had me do for you in this affair? The laws do not allow a person who is a slave to plead; nor is there any giving evidenceAny giving evidence. Slaves were neither allowed to plead for themselves, nor to give evidence. See the Curculio of Plautus, 1. 621, and the Notes to the Andria. on his part.
290
DEMIPHO
I grant all that: I admit this too—the young man, unused to courts, was bashful; I allow it:
you, too, are a slave: still, if she was ever so near a relative, it was not necessary for him to marry her, but as the law enjoins, you might have given her a portion;Given her a portion. By this remark, Donatus observes that Terence artfully prepares us for the imposition of Phormio, who extorts money from the old gentleman on this very ground. she could have looked out for another husband. Why, then, in preference, did he bring a pauper home?
295
GETA
No particular reason; but he hadn’t the money.
DEMIPHO
He might have borrowed it
from some person or other.
300
GETA
From some person or other? Nothing more easily said.
300
DEMIPHO
After all, if on no other terms, on interest.
GETA
Aye, aye, fine talking; as if any one would have trusted him, while you were living.While you were living. There was a law at Athens which enacted that persons who lent money to young men in the lifetime of their parents should have no power to recover it. In line 303 of the Pseudolus, Plautus alludes to the Quinavicenarian or Laetorian Law, at Rome, which forbade credit to be given to persons under the age of twenty-five years, and deprived the creditor of all right to recover his money or goods.
DEMIPHO
No, it shall not be so; it must not be. Ought I to allow her to remain with him as his wife a single day?
She merits no indulgence. I should like this fellow to be pointed out to me, or to be shown where he lives.
305
GETA
Phormio, do you mean?
DEMIPHO
That fellow, the woman’s next friend?The woman’s next friend. The patronus was the person who undertook to conduct a lawsuit for another.
GETA
I’ll have him here immediately.
DEMIPHO
Where is Antipho at present?
DEMIPHO
Go, Phedria, look for him, and bring him here.
