Perde 3
[Textpart 2]
I, too, want to know whether my property will be safe in my house.
LYCONIDES
I only wish to carry the things away safe that I brought here! I don’t care for yours; should I be coveting your things?
EUCLIO
I understand; don’t teach me; I know.
LYCONIDES
What is it, on account of which you now hinder us from cooking the dinner here? What have we done? What have we said to you otherwise than you could wish?
435
EUCLIO
Do you even ask me, you rascally fellow? You who’ve been making a thoroughfare of every corner of my house, and the places under lock and key? If you had stopped by the fireside, where it was your business,
you wouldn’t have had your head broken. It has been done for you deservedly! Therefore that you may now know my determination; if you come nearer to the door here, unless I order you, I’ll make you to be the most wretched of creatures. Do you now know my determination?
440
LYCONIDES
Where are you going? Come you back again!
So may LavernaSo may Laverna: Laverna was a Goddess worshipped by the thievish fraternity at Rome, as their tutelar Divinity. Horace makes mention of her in his Epistles, B. 1, Ep. 16. love me well, I’ll expose you at once with loud abuse here before the house, if you don’t order my utensils to be restored to me! What shall I do now? Verily, by my faith, I came here with unlucky auspices; I was hired for a didrachm For a didrachm: Nummo. It has been remarked, in the Notes to the Pseudolus, that a nummus, or didrachm, of nearly twenty-pence of our money, was the wages of a good cook for a day’s employment. See the Pseudolus, ll. 800—810.; I stand in more need now of a surgeon than of wages.
445
[Textpart 3]
This, by my faith, wherever I shall go, really shall be with me, and with myself will I carry it,
EUCLIO
nor will I ever again entrust it to that place, for it to be in such great peril. (Speaking to CONGRIO and his SCULLIONS.) Now, then, go you all of you in the house, cooks and music-girls; introduce even, if you like, a whole company of hirelings Company of hirelings: Venalium may mean either slaves or hirelings; it does not much signify which, as the cooks, in this instance at least, were both. Having secured his money, Euclio does not care if a whole gang of thieves is admitted into his house, as there is nothing for them to steal.; cook, bustle, and hurry now at once just as much as you please.
450
LYCONIDES
O dear, I’m a ruined man.
EUCLIO
Be off! your labour was hired here, not your talk.
455
LYCONIDES
Harkye, old gentleman, for the beating, by my faith, I shall demand of you a recompense. I was hired a while ago to cook, and not to be basted.
EUCLIO
Proceed against me at law! Don’t be troublesome! Either cook the dinner, or away with you from the house to downright perdition!
LYCONIDES
Go there yourself then. (CONGRIO and the COOKS and MUSIC-GIRL go back into the house.)
[Textpart 4]
He’s gone. Immortal Gods! A poor man, who begins to have dealings or business with an opulent one, commences upon a rash undertaking! Thus, for instance, Megadorus who has pretended that, for the sake of honoring me, he sends these cooks hither, is plaguing unfortunate me in every way; for this reason has he sent them, that they might purloin this (putting his hand on the pot) from unfortunate me.
460
EUCLIO
Just as I might expect, even my dunghill-cock in-doors, that was bought with the old woman’s savingsWith the old woman’s savings: Ani peculiaris. Bought out of the peculium, or savings, of the old woman., had well nigh been the ruin of me; where this was buried, he began to scratch there all round about with his claws. What need of more words? So exasperated were my feelings, I took a stick, and knocked off the head of the cock—a thief caught in the act.
465
I’ faith, I do believe that the cooks had promised a reward to the cock, if he should discover it; I took the opportunityTook the opportunity: Eximere ex manu manubrium, literally means, to take the handle out of the hand, and its figurative application is derived from the act of taking a sword out of the hand of a person who is about to use it. out of their hands, however. What need of many words? I had a regular battleA regular battle: Hildyard suggests that, in these words, there is probably a reference to some current saying or proverb. If such is the case, the saying so referred to has not come down to us. with the dunghill- cock. But see, my neighbour Megadorus is coming from the Forum. I can’t, then, venture to pass by him, but I must stop and speak to him.
470
[Textpart 5]
I’ve communicated to many friends my design about this proposal; they speak in high terms of the daughter of Euclio. They say that it was discreetly done, and with great prudence. But, in my opinion, indeed, if the other richer men were to do the same, so as to take home as their wives, without dower, the daughters of the poorer persons,
475
MEGADORUS
both the state would become much more united, and we should meet with less ill feeling than we now meet with; both, they, the wives, would stand in fear of punishment more than they do stand in fear of it, and we husbands should be at less expense than we now are.
