Perde 2
[Textpart 4]
That when he sleeps, he may lose no breath.
ANTHRAX
And does he stop up the lower part of his windpipePart of his windpipe: An indelicate remark is here made, which has been obviated in the translation. as well,
lest, perchance, he should lose any breath as he sleeps?
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STROBILUS
In that ’tis as fair that you should credit me, as it is for me to credit you.
ANTHRAX
Why really, I do believe you.
STROBILUS
But, further, do you know how it is?
I’ faith, he grieves to throw away the water when he washes.
ANTHRAX
Do you think a great talentA great talent: As the ancients weighed silver on paying a talent, the word talentum denoted both a sum of money and a weight. The great talent here mentioned, was the Attic talent of sixty minae, or six thousand drachmae.
might be begged of this old fellow for him to give us, through which we might become free?
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STROBILUS
By my troth, if you were to ask it, he would never let you have the loan of hunger. Why, the other day, the barber had cut his nailsHad cut his nails: From this passage we learn that barbers were in the habit of paring the nails of their customers; in the Epistles of Horace, B. 1, Ep. 7, l. 50, we are informed that idlers pared their nails in the shops to Rome.; he collected all the parings, and carried them off.
ANTHRAX
I’ faith, you do describe a miserably stingy wretch.
LYCONIDES
But do you think that he does live so very stingily and wretchedly?
315
STROBILUS
A kite, the other day, carried off his morsel of food; the fellow went crying to the PraetorTo the Prœtor: The Praetor was a magistrate at Rome, who administered justice, and ranked next to the Consuls. There were eight Praetors in the time of Cicero. Two of them were employed in adjudicating in causis privatis, disputes concerning private property. One of these was called Praetor urbanus, or the city Praetor, who administered justice when the parties were cives, or possessed the rights of Roman citizenship. The other was called Praetor peregrinus, or the foreigners’ Praetor, who administered justice when both the litigating parties, or only one of them, were peregrini, or foreigners, and had not the right of Roman citizenship. The other six Praetors had jurisdiction in criminal cases, such as murder, adultery, and violence. The Praetors committed the examination of causes to subordinate judges, who were called judices selecti, and they published the sentences of the judges so appointed by them. The Praetors wore the toga praetexta, or magisterial robe, sat on the sella curulis, and were preceded by six lictors. Their duties lasted for a year, after which they went as governors to such provinces as had no army, which were assigned to them by lot. There they administered justice in the same way as they had done as Praetors at Rome, and were called by the name of Propraetores; though, as such governors, they were also sometimes called Praetores. The office of Praetor was first instituted at Rome A.U.C. 388, partly because the Consuls, on account of the many wars in which the Romans were engaged, could no longer administer justice; partly that the Patricians might thereby have a compensation for admitting the Plebeians to a share in the Consulate. At first there was only one Praetor; Sylla made their number six; Julius Caesar eight; and Augustus increased them to sixteen. It will not escape observation, that Plautus, as usual, mentions a Roman officer in a Play, the scene of which is supposed to be Athens.; there, weeping and lamenting, he began to request that he might be allowed to compel the kite to give bail.
There are innumerable other things that I could mention, if I had the leisure. But which of you two is the sharper? Tell me.
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LYCONIDES
I—as being much the better one.
STROBILUS
A cook I ask for, not a thief Not a thief: Because celer, sharp or nimble, would especially apply to the requisite qualifications for an expert thief..
LYCONIDES
As a cook, I mean.
STROBILUS
What do you say?
ANTHRAX
I’m just as you see me.
LYCONIDES
He’s a nine-day cookA nine-day cook: Congrio probably means to say that Anthrax is a cook who only gets employment on the Nundinae, when the influx of country-people into the city called the services of even the worst cooks into requisition, and the eaters were not of the most fastidious description. The Nundinae (so called from nonae, ninth, and dies, day) returned every eighth day, according to our mode of reckoning; but according to the Romans, who, in counting, reckoned both extreme, every ninth day, whence the name. On this day the country-people came into the city to sell their wares, make their purchases, hear the new laws read, and learn the news. By the Hortensian law, the Nundinae, which before were only feriae, or holidays, were made fasti, or court-days, that the country-people then in town might have their lawsuits determined. Lipsius thinks that reference is here made to the feast called novendiale, which was sometimes given to the poorer classes on the ninth day after the funeral of a person of affluence. Probably, the cooking of these banquets was not of the highest order; but the former seems the more probable explanation of the passage.; every ninth day
