T. Maccius Plautus, Mostellaria, ed. Friedrich Leo, 4.1

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858

Phaniscvs

Serví qui, quom culpá carent, tamén malum metuont,

ei sólent esse eris utíbiles.

nam illí qui nil metuónt postquam sunt málum meriti,
860

stultá sibi expetunt consília:

exércent sese ad cúrsuram, fugiunt sed eí si reprehensí sunt,

fáciunt de maló peculiúm quod nequeunt dé bono.

augent ex pauxillo de parant.
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mihi in pectore consili malam rem prius

quam ut meum

ut adhúc fuit, mihi corium ésse oportet,

sincérum atque ut votem vérberari.

si huíc imperábo, probé tectum habébo,
870

malúm quom impluít ceteris, ne impluát mi.

nam ut sérvi volúnt esse erum, ita solet

boní sunt: bonúst; improbí sunt, malús fit.

nam núnc domi nostrae tot péssimi vivont,

pecúli suí prodigí, plagigéruli.
875

ubi adversum ut eant vocantur ero: “non eo, molestus ne sis.

scio quo properas: gestis aliquo; iam hercle ire vis, mula, foras pastum.”

béne merens hóc preti inde ábstuli. abií foras.

sólus nunc eo advórsum ero ex plúrimis servis.
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hóc die crástini quóm erus rescíverit,

máne castigábit eos búbulis exuviis.

póstremo minoris pendo tergum illorum, quam meum:

illi erunt bucaedae multo potius, quam ego sim restio.

Mostellaria. T. Maccius Plautus. ed. Friedrich Leo. Berlin. 1896.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Mostellaria (Latin) (Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 2. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1896.)

Translations (1)

Mostellaria, or The Haunted House Perseus (Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 2. Riley, Henry Thomas, translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1913.) — 4.1 focus

858 (Enter PHANISCUS.)

PHANISCUS

(to himself.)

Servants who, though they are free from fault, still stand in awe of punishment, those same are wont to be serviceable to their masters.

But those who fear nothing, after they have merited punishment, hit upon foolish plans for themselves: they exercise themselves in running; they take to flight. But, if they are caught, they acquire from punishment a hoard, which by good means they cannot.
860

They increase from a very little, and from that they lay by a treasure. The resolution that’s in my mind is to be determined to be on my guard against punishment, before my back comes to lose its state of soundness. As hitherto it has been, so does it become my hide still to be, without a bruise, and such that I should decline its being beaten.
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If I have any control over it, I shall keep it well covered up¹. When punishment is being showered down on others, don’t let it be showered down on me. But as servants wish their master to be, such is he wont to be. He is good to the good, bad to the bad. But now at our house at home there do live so many rogues,
870

lavish of their property², bearers of stripes. When they are called to go fetch their master, I shan’t go; don’t be plaguing me; I know where you are hurrying off to, is the reply. Now, faith, you mule, you’re longing to go to pasturage out of doors³. With better deserts, this advantage have I reaped from them, and, in consequence, I have come from home.
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I alone, out of so many servants, am going to fetch my master. When, to-morrow, my master comes to know this, in the morning he will chastise them with bull’s-hide spoils. In fine, I care less for their backs than for my own. Much rather shall they be bull’s-hide-scourged than I be rope-scourged⁴.

(Moves on.)

T. Maccius Plautus Mostellaria 4.1

ed. Friedrich Leo

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