Perde 4
[Textpart 1]
Come now, show me this agreement that you’ve written out between myself and the procuress. Read over the conditions; for you are a quite unique composerA quite unique composer: Poeta is here used in the primary sense of the word, from the Greek ποιητὴς, a maker, artist, or contriver. in such matters.
A PARASITE
I’ll make the procuress be terrified when she hears the conditions.
DIABOLUS
Troth now, prithee, proceed and read them over to me.
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A PARASITE
Are you attending?
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DIABOLUS
I’m all attention.
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A PARASITE
Diabolus, the son of Glaucus, has made a present to Cleaereta, the procuress, of twenty silver minae, that Philenium may be with him night and day for this whole year.
DIABOLUS
Yes, and not with any other person.
A PARASITE
Am I to add that?
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DIABOLUS
Add it, and take care and write it plainly and distinctly.
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A PARASITE
And not admit any other man whatever, because either her friend or her patron, she may choose to call him—
A PARASITE
Or because she may say that he is the lover of a female friend of hers. The door must be closed to all men except to yourself.
On the door she must write that she is engaged. Or, because she may affirm that the letter has been brought from abroad, there is not to be even any letter in the house, nor so much as a waxed tablet; and if there is any useless pictureAny useless picture: Some of the Commentators have supposed that indecent or immodest pictures are here meant. Such is not the fact. Portraits were taken among the Romans in profile, in wax, which was laid on a plane surface; and probably other pictures were similarly constructed. In his jealousy, Diabolus will not allow Philenium to keep any useless or valueless picture, for fear lest she may melt it, to use the wax for tablets, as a medium of correspondence with a paramour. To a portrait of this kind, Laodamia probably refers in her Epistle to Protesilaüs, in the Heroides of Ovid, l. 133: But while as a warrior thou shalt be wielding arms in a distant region, I have a waxen figure which represents thy features., let her sell it; if she does not part with it, within four days
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from the time when she has received the money of you, let it be considered as your own; you to burn it if you like; so that she may have no wax, with which she may be able to make a letter. She is to invite no guest; you are to invite them. On no one of them is she to cast her eyes:
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if she looks upon any other person, she must be blind forthwithMust be blind forthwith: This is probably a polite way of saying, Let her leave the room forthwith.. Then she is to drink cup by cup equally with yourself. She is to receive it from you; she is to hand it to you for you to drink. She is not to have a relish for less or for more than yourself.
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DIABOLUS
That’s quite to my taste.
A PARASITE
She is to remove all causes of suspicion from her,
nor is she to tread on any man’s footTread on any man’s foot: From passages in Ovid’s Amours and Art of Love, we learn that this was a favourite method of communication by intriguing parties. with her foot; when she rises she is neither to step upon the next couch, nor when she gets down from the couch is she thence to extend her hand to any one; she is not to give to nor ask of any one a ring for her to look at; she is not to present dice to any man whatever except to yourself;
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when she throwsWhen she throws: When throwing the dice, it was the custom to invoke some favourite object, which was thought to bring good luck to the thrower. See the Notes to the Captivi, Act I., Sc. 1. She is not to say, You I invoke, lest, by the ambiguity, it should be intended to apply to another man and not to her protector them, she is not to say, ’You I call upon,’ she is to mention your name. She may call on any Goddess that she pleases as propitious to her, but on no God: if she should chance to be very full of devotion, she is to tell you, and you are to pray to him that he may be propitious. She is neither to nod at any man, wink, or make a sign.
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In fine, if the lamp goes out, she is not to move a single joint of herself in the dark.
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