Perde 2
[Textpart 2]
You really are a kind father. This is the house here he dwells. (He points to the house of CHARMIDES.) Lesbonicus is his name. Mind and attend to the business; I will await you at home.
390
[Textpart 3]
These things are not for the best, nor as I think they ought to be; but still, they are better than that which is downright bad. But this one circumstance consoles myself and my thoughts-namely,
PHILTO
that he who counsels in respect to a son nothing else but that which pleases himself alone, only plays the fool; he becomes wretched in mind, and yet he is no nearer bringing it about. He is preparing a very inclement winter for his own old age when he arouses that unseasonable storm.
395
(The door of the house of CHARMIDES opens.) But the house is opened to which I was going; most conveniently, Lesbonicus himself is coming out of doors with his servant.
400
[Textpart 4]
’Tis less than fifteen days since you received from Callicles forty minae for this house; is it not as I say, Stasimus?
STASIMUS
When I consider,
I think I remember that it was so.
405
LESBONICUS
What has been done with it?
405
STASIMUS
It has been eaten and drunk up—spent away in unguents, washed away in baths Washed away in baths: This will probably refer, not to the money paid for mere bathing at the public baths, which was a quadrans, the smallest Roman coin, but to the expense of erecting private baths, which generally formed a portion of the luxuries of a Roman house. The public baths, however, may have possibly been the scene of much profligacy, and have afforded to the reckless and dissipated ample opportunities for squandering their money. That this may have been the fact, is rendered the more likely when we consider the equivocal signification of the word bagnio.. The fishmonger and the baker have carried it off: butchers, too, and cooks, green-grocers, perfumers, and poulterers; ’twas quickly consumed. I’ faith! that money was made away with not less speedily
than if you were to throw a poppy among the ants.
410
LESBONICUS
By my troth, less has been spent on those items than six minae?
STASIMUS
Besides, what have you given to your mistresses?
LESBONICUS
That I am including as well in it.
STASIMUS
Besides, what have I pilfered of it?
LESBONICUS
Aye, that item is a very heavy one.
STASIMUS
That cannot so appear to you, if you make all due deductions Make all due deductions: Si sumas. Literally, if you subtract.,
unless you think that your money is everlasting.
415
(Aside.) Too late and unwisely,—a caution that should have been used before,—after he has devoured his substance, he reckons up the account too late.
LESBONICUS
The account, however, of this money is by no means clear.
STASIMUS
I’ faith, the account is very clear: the money’s gone The money’s gone: Instead of a Latin word, the Greek οἴχεται is introduced, which means is gone, or has vanished. Greek terms were current at Rome, just as French words and sentences are imported into our language; indeed, the fashions of Rome were very generally set by the Greeks..
