Perde 3
[Textpart 2]
It rumbled aloud.
610
ADVOCATI
May the Deities confound you! Get you behind us.
610
ADVOCATI
We’ll walk first.
COLLYBISCUS
They do what town-fellows are in the habit of doing: they put worthy men behind themselves.
ADVOCATI
That man that’s coming out is the Procurer.
COLLYBISCUS
He’s a real good one; for he’s like a bad man Like a bad man: He means that the worse the man, the better the Procurer.. Even now, as he comes forth, I’ll suck out his blood at this distance.
[Textpart 3]
I’ll return here this moment, Captain. I wish to find us some fitting guests, to join us. Meanwhile, they’ll bring the entrails; and at the same time, the women, I suppose, will soon be making their appearance at home after the sacrifice. But why are such a number of people coming this way? I wonder what they are bringing?
615
LYCUS
He, too, in the scarf, that’s following at a distance, who is he, I wonder? He is not an Aetolian.
620
ADVOCATI
We greet you, Lycus. Although against our will, we give you this salutation, and although in a very moderate degree do we entertain good wishes for procurers.
LYCUS
May you all be fortunate—a thing that I know for certain you neither will be, nor will Fortune permit it so to be.
ADVOCATI
That is a treasure hoarded in the tongues of fools, to deem it gainful to speak amiss to their superiors.
625
LYCUS
He who knows not the road by which to arrive at the sea, him it befits to seek a river as his own companion. I know not the way of speaking abusively to you.
Now you are the rivers to me; you I’m resolved to follow. If you speak blessings, along your banks I’ll follow you; if you utter curses, along your track I’ll go.
630
ADVOCATI
To do good to the bad is a danger just as great as to do bad to the good.
ADVOCATI
You shall learn.
If you do any good to the bad, the benefit is lost: if you do any bad to the good, it lasts for a length of time.
635
LYCUS
Cleverly said! But what does that matter to me?
ADVOCATI
Because for the sake of your own well-doing we came hither, although in a very moderate degree do we entertain good wishes for procurers.
