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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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TYNDARUS
715c
Why, then, are you angry with me?
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HEGIO
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Because you have proved more faithful to him than to myself.
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TYNDARUS
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How now? Did you expect, in a single night and day, for yourself to teach me—a person just made captive, a recent slave, and in his noviciate—that I should rather consult your interest than his,
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with whom from childhood I have passed my life?
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HEGIO
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Seek, then, thanks from him for that. (To the SLAVES.) Take him where he may receive weighty and thick fetters, thence, after that, you shall go to the quarries for cutting stone. There, while the others are digging out eight stones, unless
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you daily do half as much work again, you shall have the name of the six-hundred-stripe manSix-hundred- stripe man: Sexcentoplago. This is a compound word, coined by the author..
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ARISTOPHONTES
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By Gods and men, I do entreat you, Hegio, not to destroy this man.
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HEGIO
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He shall be taken all care ofHe shall be taken all care of: Struck with admiration at his fidelity, Aristophontes begs Hegio not to destroy Tyndarus. As the verb perduis might also mean lose him, Hegio ironically takes it in the latter sense, and says that there is no fear of that, for he shall be well taken care of; or, in other words, strictly watched. For at night, fastened with chains, he shall be watched;
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in the daytime, beneath the ground, he shall be getting out stone. For many a day will I torture him; I’ll not respite him for a single day.
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ARISTOPHONTES
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Is that settled by you?
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HEGIO
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Not more settled that I shall die. (To the SLAVES.) Take him away this instant to Hippolytus, the blacksmith; bid thick fetters to be rivetted on him.
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From there let him be led outside the gate to my freedman, Cordalus, at the stone-quarries. And tell him that I desire this man so to be treated, that he mayn’t be in any respect worse off than he who is the most severely treated.
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TYNDARUS
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Why, since you are unwilling, do I desire myself to survive?
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At your own hazard is the risk of my life. After death, no evil have I to apprehend in death. Though I should live even to extreme age, still, short is the space for enduring what you threaten me with. Farewell and prosper although you are deserving for me to say otherwise.
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You, Aristophontes, as you have deserved of me, so fare you; for on your account has this befallen me.
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HEGIO
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Carry him off.
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TYNDARUS
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But this one thing I beg, that, if Philocrates should come back here, you will give me an opportunity of meeting him.
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HEGIO
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At your peril, if you don’t this instant remove him from my sight.
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TYNDARUS
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I’ troth, this really is violenceThis really is violence: According to Suetonius, Julius Caesar used an exactly similar expression when first attacked by his murderers in the senate-house. On Tullius Cimber seizing hold of his garments he exclaimed, Ita quidem vis est! Why, really, this is violence!, to be both dragged and pushed at the same time. (He is borne off by the SLAVES.)
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HEGIO
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He has been led off straight to prisonTo prison: Phylacam. This is a Greek word Latinized, meaning prison or confinement. as he deserves. Let no one presume to attempt such an enterprise. Had it not been for you who discovered this to me,
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still would they have been leading me by the bridle with their tricks. Now am I resolved henceforth never to trust any person in anything. This once I have been deceived enough; I did hope, to my sorrow, that I had rescued my son from slavery. That hope has forsaken me. I lost one son,
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whom, a child in his fourth year, a slave stole from me; and, indeed, never since have I found either slave or son; the elder one has fallen in the hands of the enemy. What guilt is this of mine? As though I had become the father of children for the purpose of being childless. (To AISTOPHONTES.) Follow this way. I’ll conduct you back where you were.
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I’m determined to have pity upon no one, since no one has pity upon me.
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ARISTOPHONTES
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Forth from my chains with evil omen did I come; now I perceive that with like ill omen to my bonds I must return.
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ERGASILUS
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Supreme Jove! thou dost preserve me, and dost augment my means. Plenty, extreme and sumptuous, dost thou present to me;
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celebrity, profit, enjoyment, mirth, festivity, holidays, sights, provisions, carousings, abundance, joyousness. And to no man have I now determined with myself to go a-begging; for I’m able either to profit my friend or to destroy my enemy, to such extent has this delightful day heaped delights upon me in its delightfulness.
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I have lighted upon a most rich inheritance without incumbrances.An inheritance without incumbrances: Sine sacris hereditas. The meaning of this expression has been explained in the Notes to the Trinummus, 484. Now will I wend my way to this old gentleman Hegio, to whom I am carrying blessings as great as he himself prays for from the Gods, and even greater. Now, this is my determination, in the same fashion that the slaves of ComedySlaves of Comedy: — This was done that, when expedition was required, the cloak might not prove an obstruction to the wearer as he walked. The slaves in Comedies usually wore the pallium, and as they were mostly active, bustling fellows, would have it tucked tightly around them. The pallium was usually worn passed over the left shoulder, then drawn behind the back, and under the left arm leaving it bare, and then thrown again over the left shoulder, are wont, so will I throw my cloak around my neck, that from me, the first of all, he may learn this matter.
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And I trust that I, by reason of this news, shall find provision up to the end.
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HEGIO
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The more that I revolve this matter in my breast, the more is my uneasiness of mind increased. That I should have been duped in this fashion to-day! and that I wasn’t able to see through it!
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When this shall be known, then I shall be laughed at all over the city. The very moment that I shall have reached the Forum, all will be saying, This is that clever old gentleman, who had the trick played him. But is this Ergasilus, that I see coming at a distance? Surely he has got his cloak gathered up; what, I wonder, is he going to do?
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ERGASILUS
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Throw aside from you all tardiness, Ergasilus, and speed on this business. I threaten, and I strictly charge no person to stand in my way, unless any one shall be of opinion that he has lived long enough. For whoever does come in my way, shall stop me upon his face.
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HEGIO
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This fellow’s beginning to box.
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ERGASILUS
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I’m determined to do it; so that every one may pursue his own path,
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let no one be bringing any of his business in this street; for my fist is a balista, my arm is my catapulta, my shoulder a battering-ram; then against whomsoever I dart my knee, I shall bring him to the ground. I’ll make all persons to be picking up their teethTo be picking up their teeth: Dentilegos. He says that he will knock their teeth out, and so make them pick them up from the ground. We must suppose that while he is thus hurrying on, he is walking up one of the long streets which were represented as emerging on the Roman stage, opposite to the audience., whomsoever I shall meet with.
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HEGIO
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What threatening is this? For I cannot wonder enough.
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ERGASILUS
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I’ll make him always to remember this day and place, and myself as well. Whoever stops me upon my road, I’ll make him put a stop to his own existence.
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HEGIO
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What great thing is this fellow preparing to do, with such mighty threats?
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ERGASILUS
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I first give notice, that no one, by reason of his own fault, may be caught—keep yourselves in-doors at home, and guard yourselves from my attack.
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HEGIO
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By my faith, ‘tis strange if he hasn’t got this boldness by means of his stomach. Woe to that wretched man, through whose cheer this fellow has become quite swaggering.
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ERGASILUS
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Then the bakers, that feed swine, that fatten their pigs upon refuse bran, through the stench of which no one can pass by a baker’s shop; if I see the pig of any one of them in the public way,
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I’ll beat the bran out of the masters’ themselves with my fists.
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HEGIO
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Royal and imperial edicts does he give out. The fellow is full; he certainly has his boldness from his stomach.
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ERGASILUS
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Then the fishmongers, who supply stinking fish to the public—who are carried about on a gelding, with his galloping galling paceGalling pace: Crucianti may mean either tormenting the spectator by reason of the slowness of its pace, or galling to the rider. Quadrupedanti crucianti canterio is a phrase, both in sound and meaning, much resembling what our song-books call the galloping dreary dun.—
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the stench of whom drives all the loungers in the BasilicaIn the Basilica: The Basilica was a building which served as a court of law, and a place of meeting for merchants and men of business. The name was perhaps derived from the Greek word βασιλεὺς, as the title of the second Athenian Archon, who had his tribunal or court of justice. The building was probably, in its original form, an insulated portico. The first edifice of this kind at Rome was erected B.C. 184; probably about the period when this Play was composed. It was situate in the Forum, and was built by Porcius Cato, from whom it was called the Porcian Basilica. Twenty others were afterwards erected at different periods in the city. The loungers here mentioned, in the present instance, were probably sauntering about under the porticos of the Basilica, when their olfactory nerves were offended by the unsavoury smell of the fishermen’s baskets. into the Forum, I’ll bang their heads with their bulrush fish-baskets, that they may understand what annoyance they cause to the noses of other people. And then the butchers, as well, who render the sheep destitute of their young—who agree with you about killing lambAbout klling lamb: In these lines he seems to accuse the butchers of three faults—cruelty, knavery, and extortion. The general reading is duplam, but Rost suggests duplâ, at double the price. If duplam is retained, might it not possibly mean that the butchers agree to kill lamb for you, and bring to you duplam agninam, double lamb, or, in other words, lamb twice as old as it ought to be? No doubt there was some particular age at which lamb, in the estimation of Ergasilus and his brother-epicures, was considered to be in its greatest perfection., and then offer you lamb at double the price—
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who give the name of wether mutton to a ram—if I should only see that ram in the public way, I’ll make both ram and owner most miserable beings.
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HEGIO
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Well done! He really does give out edicts fit for an Aedile, and ‘tis indeed a surprising thing if the Aetolians haven’t made him inspector of marketsInspector of markets: Agoranomum. The Aediles were the inspectors of markets at Rome, while the ‘Agoranomi’ had a similar office in the Grecian cities.
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ERGASILUS
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No Parasite now am I, but a right royal king of kings; so large a stock of provision for my stomach is there at hand in the harbour. But why delay to overwhelm this old gentleman Hegio with gladness? With him, not a person among mankind exists equally fortunate.
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HEGIO
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What joy is this, that he, thus joyous, is going to impart to me?
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ERGASILUS
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Hallo, hallo!—where are you? Is any one coming to open this door?
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HEGIO
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This fellow’s betaking himself to my house to dine.
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ERGASILUS
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Open you both these doorsBoth these doors: The street-doors of the ancients were generally bivalve, or folding-doors., before I shall with knocking cause the destruction, piecemeal, of the doors.
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HEGIO
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I’d like much to address the fellow. (Aloud.) Ergasilus!
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ERGASILUS
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Who’s calling Ergasilus?
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HEGIO
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Turn round, and look at me.
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ERGASILUS
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A thing that Fortune does not do for you, nor ever will do, you bid me to do.
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But who is it.
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HEGIO
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Look round at me. ’Tis Hegio.
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ERGASILUS
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O me! Best of the very best of men, as many as exist, you have arrived opportunely.
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HEGIO
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You’ve met with some one at the harbour to dine with; through that you are elevated.
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ERGASILUS
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Give me your hand.
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HEGIO
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My hand?
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ERGASILUS
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Give me your hand, I say, this instant.
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HEGIO
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Take it.
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ERGASILUS
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Rejoice.
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HEGIO
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Why should I rejoice?
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ERGASILUS
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Because I bid you; come now, rejoice.
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HEGIO
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I’ faith, my sorrows exceed my rejoicings.
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ERGASILUS
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’Tis not so, as you shall find; I’ll at once drive away every spot of sorrowEvery spot of sorrow: He alludes, figuratively, to the art of the fuller or scourer, in taking the spots out of soiled garments. from your body. Rejoice without restraint.
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HEGIO
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I do rejoice, although I don’t at all know why I should rejoice.
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ERGASILUS
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You do rightly; now order—
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HEGIO
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Order what?
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ERGASILUS
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A large fire to be made.
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HEGIO
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A large fire?
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ERGASILUS
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So I say, that a huge one it must be.
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HEGIO
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What, you vulture, do you suppose that for your sake I’m going to set my house on fire?
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ERGASILUS
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Don’t be angry. Will you order, or will you not order, the pots to be put on, and the saucepans to be washed out, the bacon and the dainties to be made warm in the heated cooking-stoves, another one, too, to go purchase the fish?
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HEGIO
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This fellow’s dreaming while awake.
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ERGASILUS
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Another to buy pork, and lamb, and pullets.
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HEGIO
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You understand how to feed well, if you had the means.
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ERGASILUS
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Gammons of bacon, too, and lampreys, spring pickled tunny-fish, mackerel, and sting-ray; large fish, too, and soft cheese.
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HEGIO
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You will have more opportunity, Ergasilus, here at my house, of talking about these things than of eating them.
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ERGASILUS
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Do you suppose that I’m saying this on my own account?
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HEGIO
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You will neither be eating nothing here to-day, nor yet much more than usual, so don’t you be mistaken.
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Do you then bring an appetite to my house for your every-day fare.
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ERGASILUS
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Why, I’ll so manage it, that you yourself shall wish to be profuse, though I myself should desire you not.
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HEGIO
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What, I?
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ERGASILUS
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Yes, you.
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HEGIO
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Then you are my master.
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ERGASILUS
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Yes, and a kindly disposed one. Do you wish me to make you happy?
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HEGIO
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Certainly I would, rather than miserable.
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ERGASILUS
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Give me your hand.
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HEGIO
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Here is my hand.
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ERGASILUS
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All the Gods are blessing you.
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HEGIO
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I don’t feel it so.
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ERGASILUS
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Why, you are not in a quickset hedgeIn a quickset hedge: Here is a most wretched attempt at wit, which cannot be expressed in a literal translation. Hegio says, Nihil sentio, I don’t feel it. Ergasilus plays upon the resemblance of the verb sentio to sentis and senticetum, a bramble-bush or quickset hedge; and says You don’t feel it so non senis. because you are not in a quickset hedge, in senticeto., therefore you don’t feel it; but order the vessels, in a clean state, to be got for you forthwith in readiness for the sacrifice, and one lamb to be brought here with all haste, a fat one.
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HEGIO
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Why?
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ERGASILUS
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That you may offer sacrifice
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HEGIO
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To which one of the Gods?
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ERGASILUS
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To myself, i’ faith, for now am I your supreme Jupiter. I likewise am your salvation, your fortune, your life, your delight, your joy.
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Do you at once, then, make this Divinity propitious to you by cramming him.