Perde 5
[Textpart 2]
Just stop there.
ARTEMONA
What’s the matter?
A PARASITE
If perchance you were to see your husband reclining, if you beheld him with a garland on, caressing a mistress, could you recognize him?
ARTEMONA
I’ troth, I could.
880
A PARASITE
Then there’s your man.
880
A PARASITE
Stay a little. Let’s observe in private, from ambush, what business they are about.
880
ARGYRIPPUS
What end will you put to your caresses, father?
DEMAENETUS
I confess, my son—
ARGYRIPPUS
What do you confess?
DEMAENETUS
That I’m utterly undone with love for her.
A PARASITE
Do you hear what he says?
DEMAENETUS
Ought I not to filch the mantle from my wife at home,
which she is so fond of, and bring it to you? Though my wife’s life should last a whole year in consequence, by my troth I could not be dissuaded from doing so.
885
A PARASITE
Do you suppose that he has been accustomed to frequent a brothel to-day for the first time?
ARTEMONA
Upon my faith, it was he that was pilfering me; whereas I was suspecting my maid-servants, and was tormenting the wretched creatures who were innocent all the while.
bid him pour out some wine; ’tis a long time since I drank firstSince I drank first: They probably took the first draught each in his turn. Argyrippus tells his father that he is dry, and that it is a long time since he had the first draught..
890
DEMAENETUS
Begin, boy, from the topFrom the top: We are to suppose that the three are reclining or one triclinium, or couch. Argyrippus lies at the top, his father below him, and Philenium the lowest, with her head reclining on the old man’s breast.. (To PHILENIUM.) Come, do you meanwhile from below give me a kiss.
