Plautus, Aulularia, Henry Thomas Riley (Translator), 2.5

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327

STROBILUS

Now do you hold your tongue for the present, and, that lamb, whichever is the fatter of the two—

LYCONIDES

Very well¹.

STROBILUS

Do you, Congrio,

take that, and go in-doors there (pointing to EUCLIO’S house ; and (to a MUSIC-GIRL and some of the PEOPLE with provisions) do you follow him;

the rest of you this way, to our house.
330

LYCONIDES

By my troth, you’ve made an unfair

division; they’ve got the fattest lamb.

STROBILUS

But the fattest music-girl shall be given you then. Do you, therefore, go along with him, Phrygia ². And do you, Eleusium, step in-doors here, to our house.

LYCONIDES

O you crafty Strobilus,

have you pushed me off here upon this most miserly old fellow, where if I ask for anything, I may ask even to hoarseness before anything’s found me?
335

STROBILUS

’Tis very foolish, and ’tis thanklessly done, to do a service to you, when what you do goes for nothing.

LYCONIDES

But how so?

STROBILUS

Do you ask? In the first place then, there will be no confusion for you there in the house; if you want anything to use,

bring it from your own home, don’t lose your trouble in asking for it. But here, at our house, there’s great confusion, and a large establishment— furniture, gold, garments, silver vessels. If anything’s lost here (as I know

that you can easily³ keep hands off—if nothing’s in your way), they may say, The cooks have stolen it; seize them, bind them, beat them, thrust them in the dungeon⁴. Nothing of that sort will happen to you, inasmuch as there will be nothing for you to steal. Follow me this way.
345

LYCONIDES

I follow.

STROBILUS

(knocking at the door of EUCLIO’S house.)

Ho, there Staphyla, come out and open the door.
350

STAPHYLA

(from within.)

Who calls there?

STROBILUS

Strobilus.

Aulularia. Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley (Translator). London. 1912.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by NSF, NEH: Digital Libraries Initiative, Phase 2.

Current edition Perseus

Aulularia, or The Concealed Treasure (English) (Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 1. Riley, Henry Thomas, translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1912.)

Editions (1)

Aulularia Perseus (Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 1. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1895.) — 2.5 focus

327

Pythodicvs

Tace nunciam tu, atque agnum hinc uter est pinguior

cape atque abi intro ad nos.

Anthrax

Licet.—

Pythodicvs

Tu, Congrio,

quem illic reliquit agnum, eum sume atque abi

intro illuc, et vos illum sequimini.

vos ceteri ite huc ad nos.
330

Congrio

Hercle iniuria

dispertivisti: pinguiorem agnum isti habent.

Pythodicvs

At nunc tibi dabitur pinguior tibicina.

i sane cum illo, Phrugia. tu autem, Eleusium,

huc intro abi ad nos.

Congrio

O Pythodice subdole,

hucine detrusti me ad senem parcissimum?
335

ubi si quid poscam, usque ad ravim poscam prius

quam quicquam detur.

Pythodicvs

Stultus et sine gratia es.

† tibi recte facere, quando quod facias perit.

Congrio

Qui vero?

Pythodicvs

Rogitas? iam principio in aedibus

turba istic nulla tibi erit: siquid uti voles,
340

domo abs te adferto, ne operam perdas poscere.

hic autem apud nos magna turba ac familia est,

supellex, aurum, vestis, vasa argentea:

ibi si perierit quippiam (quod te scio

facile abstinere posse, si nihil obviam est),
345

dicant: coqui abstulerunt, comprehendite,

vincite, verberate, in puteum condite.

horum tibi istic nihil eveniet: quippe qui

ubi quid subripias nihil est. sequere hac me.

Congrio

Sequor.

Notes on the current edition

Aulularia, or The Concealed Treasure

1. Very well: Congrio answers licet, by way of assent to Strobilus, thinking that he is asking him to take the fattest lamb, on which Strobilus gives him the leanest one. Hildyard suggests that Congrio fancies that Strobilus is asking which is the fattest cook, and not the fattest lamb, and accordingly says, Very well, thereby admitting that he is the fattest of the two. If there is any such wit intended in the passage, it is very recondite.

2. Phrygia : Phrygia was an appropriate girl for a tibicina, music-girl, or female player on the flute, as that instrument was originally introduced from Phrygia , or Lydia , which adjoined it. Eleusium would probably derive her name from Eleusis in Attica , where the mysteries of Ceres were celebrated. Players on the tibiae were much in request on festive occasions, especially at weddings, as in the present instance. The tibicina were probably hired in the market-place, the same way as the cooks.

3. You can easily: Facile, easily, seems a preferable reading to facere. If the latter reading is adopted, there are three consecutive verbs in the infinitive mood, which, even in the (occasionally) uncouth language of Plautus, sounds very uneuphoniously, Facere abstinere posse.

4. In the dungeon: Puteus here signifies the black hole or dungeon underground (called also ergastulum), where the refractory slaves were put in confinement.

Plautus Aulularia 2.5

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

STROBILUS

Now do you hold your tongue for the present, and, that lamb, whichever is the fatter of the two—

LYCONIDES

Very well¹.

STROBILUS

Do you, Congrio,

take that, and go in-doors there (pointing to EUCLIO’S house ; and (to a MUSIC-GIRL and some of the PEOPLE with provisions) do you follow him;

the rest of you this way, to our house.
330

LYCONIDES

By my troth, you’ve made an unfair

division; they’ve got the fattest lamb.

STROBILUS

But the fattest music-girl shall be given you then. Do you, therefore, go along with him, Phrygia ². And do you, Eleusium, step in-doors here, to our house.

LYCONIDES

O you crafty Strobilus,

have you pushed me off here upon this most miserly old fellow, where if I ask for anything, I may ask even to hoarseness before anything’s found me?
335

STROBILUS

’Tis very foolish, and ’tis thanklessly done, to do a service to you, when what you do goes for nothing.

LYCONIDES

But how so?

LYCONIDES

I follow.

STROBILUS

(knocking at the door of EUCLIO’S house.)

Ho, there Staphyla, come out and open the door.
350

STAPHYLA

(from within.)

Who calls there?

STROBILUS

Strobilus.

Current edition Perseus

Pythodicvs

Tace nunciam tu, atque agnum hinc uter est pinguior

cape atque abi intro ad nos.

Anthrax

Licet.—

Pythodicvs

Tu, Congrio,

quem illic reliquit agnum, eum sume atque abi

intro illuc, et vos illum sequimini.

vos ceteri ite huc ad nos.
330

Congrio

Hercle iniuria

dispertivisti: pinguiorem agnum isti habent.

Pythodicvs

At nunc tibi dabitur pinguior tibicina.

i sane cum illo, Phrugia. tu autem, Eleusium,

huc intro abi ad nos.

Congrio

O Pythodice subdole,

hucine detrusti me ad senem parcissimum?
335

ubi si quid poscam, usque ad ravim poscam prius

quam quicquam detur.

Pythodicvs

Stultus et sine gratia es.

† tibi recte facere, quando quod facias perit.

Congrio

Qui vero?

Congrio

Sequor.

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

STROBILUS Now do you hold your tongue for the present, and, that lamb, whichever is the fatter of the two—

LYCONIDES Very well 1 .

STROBILUS Do you, Congrio, take that, and go in-doors there (pointing to EUCLIO’S house ; and (to a MUSIC-GIRL and some of the PEOPLE with provisions) do you follow him; the rest of you this way, to our house. 330

LYCONIDES By my troth, you’ve made an unfair division; they’ve got the fattest lamb.

STROBILUS But the fattest music-girl shall be given you then. Do you, therefore, go along with him, Phrygia 2 . And do you, Eleusium, step in-doors here, to our house.

LYCONIDES O you crafty Strobilus, have you pushed me off here upon this most miserly old fellow, where if I ask for anything, I may ask even to hoarseness before anything’s found me? 335

STROBILUS ’Tis very foolish, and ’tis thanklessly done, to do a service to you, when what you do goes for nothing.

LYCONIDES But how so?

LYCONIDES I follow.

STROBILUS (knocking at the door of EUCLIO’S house.) Ho, there Staphyla, come out and open the door. 350

STAPHYLA (from within.) Who calls there?

STROBILUS Strobilus.

Current edition Perseus

Pythodicvs Tace nunciam tu, atque agnum hinc uter est pinguior cape atque abi intro ad nos.

Anthrax Licet.—

Pythodicvs Tu, Congrio, quem illic reliquit agnum, eum sume atque abi intro illuc, et vos illum sequimini. vos ceteri ite huc ad nos. 330

Congrio Hercle iniuria dispertivisti: pinguiorem agnum isti habent.

Pythodicvs At nunc tibi dabitur pinguior tibicina. i sane cum illo, Phrugia. tu autem, Eleusium, huc intro abi ad nos.

Congrio O Pythodice subdole, hucine detrusti me ad senem parcissimum? 335 ubi si quid poscam, usque ad ravim poscam prius quam quicquam detur.

Pythodicvs Stultus et sine gratia es. † tibi recte facere, quando quod facias perit.

Congrio Qui vero?

Congrio Sequor.

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers

STROBILUS

Now do you hold your tongue for the present, and, that lamb, whichever is the fatter of the two—

LYCONIDES

Very well¹.

STROBILUS

Do you, Congrio,

take that, and go in-doors there (pointing to EUCLIO’S house ; and (to a MUSIC-GIRL and some of the PEOPLE with provisions) do you follow him;

the rest of you this way, to our house.
330

LYCONIDES

By my troth, you’ve made an unfair

division; they’ve got the fattest lamb.

STROBILUS

But the fattest music-girl shall be given you then. Do you, therefore, go along with him, Phrygia ². And do you, Eleusium, step in-doors here, to our house.

LYCONIDES

O you crafty Strobilus,

have you pushed me off here upon this most miserly old fellow, where if I ask for anything, I may ask even to hoarseness before anything’s found me?
335

STROBILUS

’Tis very foolish, and ’tis thanklessly done, to do a service to you, when what you do goes for nothing.

LYCONIDES

But how so?

LYCONIDES

I follow.

STROBILUS

(knocking at the door of EUCLIO’S house.)

Ho, there Staphyla, come out and open the door.
350

STAPHYLA

(from within.)

Who calls there?

STROBILUS

Strobilus.

Pythodicvs

Tace nunciam tu, atque agnum hinc uter est pinguior

cape atque abi intro ad nos.

Anthrax

Licet.—

Pythodicvs

Tu, Congrio,

quem illic reliquit agnum, eum sume atque abi

intro illuc, et vos illum sequimini.

vos ceteri ite huc ad nos.
330

Congrio

Hercle iniuria

dispertivisti: pinguiorem agnum isti habent.

Pythodicvs

At nunc tibi dabitur pinguior tibicina.

i sane cum illo, Phrugia. tu autem, Eleusium,

huc intro abi ad nos.

Congrio

O Pythodice subdole,

hucine detrusti me ad senem parcissimum?
335

ubi si quid poscam, usque ad ravim poscam prius

quam quicquam detur.

Pythodicvs

Stultus et sine gratia es.

† tibi recte facere, quando quod facias perit.

Congrio

Qui vero?

Congrio

Sequor.