Plautus, Mercator, Henry Thomas Riley (Translator), 5.1

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830 (Enter CHARINUS, from the house of DEMIPHO, in a travelling habit.)

CHARINUS

(looking towards the door.)

O higher and lower¹ portions of the threshold, now both of you farewell. This day for the last time do I raise this foot within my father’s house. The ease, the enjoyment, the in-dwelling, the habitation of this house is henceforth for me cut off, destroyed, and alienated. I am undone! The household Gods of my parents, the Lar the father of the family²,
830

to you do I recommend, that you will kindly protect the possessions of my parents. I shall now seek other household Gods for myself, another Lar, another city, another state. The people of Attica I do detest; for where worse manners are on the increase every day, where, those who are friends, those who are faithless, you are not able, to distinguish,
835

and where that is torn away from you, which especially pleases your taste, there, in fact, if a kingdom were given one, that country is not desirable.
840
(Stands aside in deep thought.)

Mercator. Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley (Translator). London. 1913.

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Current edition Perseus

Mercator, or The Merchant (English) (Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 2. Riley, Henry Thomas, translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1913.)

Editions (1)

Mercator Perseus (Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 1. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1895.) — 5.1 focus

830

Charinvs

Límen superum ínferumque, salve, simul autem vale:
830

hunc hodie postremum extollo mea domo patria pedem.

usus, fructus, victus, cultus iam mihi harunc aedium

interemptust, interfectust, alienatust. occidi.

di penates meum parentum, familiai Lar pater,

vobis mando, meum parentum rem bene ut tutemini.
835

ego mihi alios deos penatis persequar, alium Larem,

aliam urbem, aliam civitatem: ab Atticis abhorreo;

nám ubi mores deteriores increbrescunt in dies,

ubi qui amici, qui infideles sint nequeas pernoscere

ubique id eripiatur, animo tuo quod placeat maxume,
840

ibi quidem si regnum detur, non cupita est civitas.

Notes on the current edition

Mercator, or The Merchant

1. Higher and lower: According to some writers, the threshold was sacred to Vesta Tertullian mentions a Deity called Limentinus, or the God of the Threshold.

2. Father of the family: The Lares seem to have been divided into two classes—the private and the public Lares. The private, or familiares, were probably the same as the Penates, under another name. The public Lares were the urbani, presiding over the cities; rustici, over the country; compitales, over cross-roads; marini, over the sea.

Plautus Mercator 5.1

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator)

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