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69
(Enter ERGASILUS.)
ERGASILUS
The young men have given me the name of
the mistress,
for this reason, because invocated
1
I am wont to attend at the banquet. I know that buffoons
2
say that this is absurdly said, but I affirm that it is rightly said. For at the banquet the lover, when he throws the dice, invokes his mistress
3
. Is she then invocated, or is she not? She is, most clearly.
70
But, i’ faith, we Parasites with better reason are so called, whom no person ever either invites or invokes, and who, like mice, are always eating the victuals of another person. When business is laid aside
4
, when people repair to the country, at that same moment is business laid aside for our teeth.
75
Just as, when it is hot weather, snails lie hidden in secret, and live upon their own juices, if the dew doesn’t fall; so, when business is laid aside, do Parasites lie hidden in retirement, and miserably live upon their own juices, while in the country the persons are rusticating whom they sponge upon.
80
When business is laid aside, we Parasites are greyhounds; when business recommences, like mastiffs
5
, we are annoying-like and very troublesome-like
6
. And here, indeed, unless, i’ faith, any Parasite is able to endure cuffs with the fist, and pots to be broken
7
about his head,
85
why he may e’en go with his wallet outside the Trigeminian Gate
8
. That this may prove my lot, there is some danger. For since my patron
9
has fallen into the hands of the enemy—(such warfare are the Aetolians now waging with the Eleans; for this is Aetolia; this Philopolemus has been made captive in Elis, the son of this old man Hegio
90
who lives here
(pointing to the house)—a house which to me is a house of woe, and which so oft as I look upon, I weep). Now, for the sake of his son, has he commenced this dishonorable traffic, very much against his own inclination.
95
He buys up men that have been made captives, if perchance he may be able to find some one for whom to gain his son in exchange. An object which I really do much desire that he may gain. For unless he finds him, there’s nowhere for me to find myself. I have no hopes in the young men; they are all too fond of themselves.
100
He, in fine, is a youth with the old-fashioned nanners, whose countenance I never rendered cheerful without a return. His father is worthily matched, as endowed with like manners. Now I’ll go to him;—but his door is opening, the door from which full oft I’ve sallied forth drunk with excess of cheer.
105
(He stands aside.)
The young men have given me the name of
the mistress,
for this reason, because invocated
1
I am wont to attend at the banquet. I know that buffoons
2
say that this is absurdly said, but I affirm that it is rightly said. For at the banquet the lover, when he throws the dice, invokes his mistress
3
. Is she then invocated, or is she not? She is, most clearly.
70
But, i’ faith, we Parasites with better reason are so called, whom no person ever either invites or invokes, and who, like mice, are always eating the victuals of another person. When business is laid aside
4
, when people repair to the country, at that same moment is business laid aside for our teeth.
75
Just as, when it is hot weather, snails lie hidden in secret, and live upon their own juices, if the dew doesn’t fall; so, when business is laid aside, do Parasites lie hidden in retirement, and miserably live upon their own juices, while in the country the persons are rusticating whom they sponge upon.
80
When business is laid aside, we Parasites are greyhounds; when business recommences, like mastiffs
5
, we are annoying-like and very troublesome-like
6
. And here, indeed, unless, i’ faith, any Parasite is able to endure cuffs with the fist, and pots to be broken
7
about his head,
85
why he may e’en go with his wallet outside the Trigeminian Gate
8
. That this may prove my lot, there is some danger. For since my patron
9
has fallen into the hands of the enemy—(such warfare are the Aetolians now waging with the Eleans; for this is Aetolia; this Philopolemus has been made captive in Elis, the son of this old man Hegio
90
who lives here
(pointing to the house)—a house which to me is a house of woe, and which so oft as I look upon, I weep). Now, for the sake of his son, has he commenced this dishonorable traffic, very much against his own inclination.
95
He buys up men that have been made captives, if perchance he may be able to find some one for whom to gain his son in exchange. An object which I really do much desire that he may gain. For unless he finds him, there’s nowhere for me to find myself. I have no hopes in the young men; they are all too fond of themselves.
100
He, in fine, is a youth with the old-fashioned nanners, whose countenance I never rendered cheerful without a return. His father is worthily matched, as endowed with like manners. Now I’ll go to him;—but his door is opening, the door from which full oft I’ve sallied forth drunk with excess of cheer.
105
Captivi. Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley (Translator). London. 1912.
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