Perde 3
MEGARONIDES
Let some person, now, be hired,
765
of an appearance as much unknown as possible, such as has not been often seen.
Let this person be dressed up to the life after a foreign fashion, just as though he were a foreigner.
CALLICLES
What is he to understand that he must do after that?
MEGARONIDES
It is necessary for him to be some lying,
deceiving, impudent fellow—a lounger from the Forum.
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CALLICLES
And what then, after that?
MEGARONIDES
Let him come to the young man as though from Seleucia, from his father; let him pronounce his salutation to him in the words of his father, say that he is prospering in business, and is alive and well, and that he will be shortly coming back again. Let him bring two letters;
let us seal these, as though they are from his father. Let him give the one to him, and let him say that he wishes to give the other to yourself.
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CALLICLES
Go on, and tell me still further.
MEGARONIDES
Let him say that he is bringing some gold as a marriage-portion from her father for the girl, and that his father has requested him to deliver it to you.
Do you understand me now?
780
CALLICLES
Pretty nearly; and I listen with great satisfaction.
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MEGARONIDES
Then, in consequence, you will finally give the gold to the young man when the girl shall be given in marriage.
CALLICLES
Troth, ’tis very cleverly contrived.
MEGARONIDES
By this means, when you have dug up the treasure, you will have removed all cause for suspicion from the young man.
He will think that the gold has been brought to you from his father; whereas, you will be taking it from the treasure.
785
CALLICLES
Very cleverly and fairly contrived; although I am ashamed, at this time of life, for me to be playing a double part. But when he shall bring the letters sealed, don’t you suppose that the young man will then
recollect the impression of his father’s signet His father’s signet: The custom of wearing rings among the Romans was said to have been derived from the Sabines. The stones set in them were generally engraved with some design, and they were universally used by both Greeks and Romans for the purpose of a seal. So common was the practice among the Greeks, that Solon made a very wholesome law which forbade engravers to keep the form of a seal which they had sold. In some rings the seal was cut in the metal itself. The designs engraved on rings were various; sometimes portraits of ancestors or friends, and sometimes subjects connected with the mythology or the worship of the Gods. The onyx was the stone most frequently used in rings. The genuineness of a letter was tested, not by the signature, but by the seal appended to it; hence the anxiety of Callicles on the present occasion.?
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