Perde 1
[Textpart 2]
How the greatest geniuses do frequently lie concealed! How great a general now is this private individual!
165
HEGIO
Only have good courage; for I trust that in a few days I shall bring him back home. For see now; there’s a captive here, a young man of Elis,
born of a very high family, and of very great wealth; I trust that it will come to pass that I shall get my son in exchange for him.
170
ERGASILUS
May the Gods and Goddesses grant it so!
HEGIO
But are you invited out anywhere to dinner?Part of line 172 in the Latin.
ERGASILUS
Nowhere that I know of. But, pray, why do you ask me?
HEGIO
Because this is my birthday;
for that reason I’d like you to be invited to dinner at my house.
175
ERGASILUS
’Tis kindly said.
HEGIO
But if you can be content to eat a very little—Part of line 176 in the Latin.
ERGASILUS
Aye, even ever so little; for on such fare as that do I enjoy myself every day at home.
HEGIO
Come, then, please, set yourself up for sale.Part of line 179 in the Latin.
ERGASILUS
I’ll put myself up for purchase, just like a landed estate, unless any one shall privately make a better offer that pleases myself and my friends more, and to my own conditions will I bind myself.
HEGIO
You are surely selling me a bottomless pitA bottomless pit: He plays upon the resemblance in sound of the word fundum, landed property, to profundum, a deep cavity, to which he compares the Parasite’s stomach. You sell me landed property, indeed; say rather a bottomless pit., and not a landed estate. But if you are coming, do so in time.
ERGASILUS
Why, for that matter, I’m at leisure even now.
HEGIO
Go then, and hunt for a hare; at present, in me you have but a ferretHave but aferret: This passage has much puzzled the Commentators; but allowing for some very far-fetched wit, which is not uncommon with Plautus, it may admit of some explanation. He tells the Parasite that he had better look for a nicer dinner, a hare, in fact; for that in dining with him, he will only get the ferret (with which the hare was hunted) for his dinner. Then, inasmuch as the ferret was used for following the hare or rabbit into scruposae viae, impervious or rocky places where they had burrowed, he adds: For my dinner, ferret-like, frequents rugged places; by which he probably means that it is nothing but a meagre repast of vegetables, of which possibly capers formed a part, which grow plentifully in Italy, in old ruins and craggy spots. Some suggest that it was a custom with the huntsmen, if they failed to catch the hare, to kill and eat the ferret.,
for my fare is in the way of frequenting a rugged road.
185
ERGASILUS
You’ll never repulse me by that, Hegio, so don’t attempt it. I’ll come, in spite of it, with teeth well shod.
HEGIO
Really, my viands are but of a rough sortAre but of a rough sort: The word asper means either uncavoury or prickly, according to the context. Hegio means to use it in the former sense, but the Parasite, for the sake of repartee, chooses to take it in the latter..
ERGASILUS
Are you in the habit of eating brambles?
