T. Maccius Plautus, Pseudolus, ed. Friedrich Leo, 1.4

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Psevdolvs

postquam illic hinc abiit, tu astas solus, Pseudole.

quid nunc acturu ’ s es, postquam erili filio
395

largitu ’ s es dictis dapsilis? ubi sunt ea?

quoi neque paratast gutta certi consili,

neque adeo argenti—neque nunc quid faciam scio.

neque exordiri primum unde occipias habes,

neque ad détexundam telam certos terminos.
400

sed quasi poeta, tabulas cum cepit sibi,

quaerit quod nusquamst gentium, reperit tamen,

facit illud veri simile, quod mendacium est,

nunc ego poeta fiam: viginti minas,

quae nusquam nunc sunt gentium, inveniam tamen.
405

atque ego me iam pridem huic daturum dixeram

et volui inicere tragulam in nostrum senem;

verum is nescio quo pacto praesensit prius.

sed comprimundast vox mihi atque oratio:

erum eccum video húc Simonem una simul
410

cum suo vicino Calliphone incedere.

ex hoc sepulcro vetere viginti minas

effodiam ego hodie, quas dem erili filio.

nunc huc concedam, unde horum sermonem legam.

Pseudolus. T. Maccius Plautus. ed. Friedrich Leo. Berlin. 1895.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

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

Translations (1)

Pseudolus, or The Cheat Perseus (Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 1. Riley, Henry Thomas, translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1912.) — 1.4 focus

394 (PSEUDOLUS, alone.)

PSEUDOLUS

Since he has gone hence, you are now standing alone, Pseudolus.

What are you to do now, after you have so largely promised costly delights to your master’s son by your speeches? You, for whom not even one drop of sure counsel is ready, nor yet of silver * * * * nor have you where first you must begin your undertaking,
395

nor yet fixed limits for finishing off your web. But just as the poet, when he has taken up his tablets, seeks what nowhere in the world exists, and still finds it, and makes that like truth which really is a fiction; now I’ll become a poet; twenty minae,
400

which no-where in the world are now existing, still will I find. And some time since had I said that I would find them for him, and I had attempted to throw a net over our old gentleman; however, by what means I know not, he perceived it beforehand. But my voice and my talking must be stopped;
405

for, see! I perceive my master, Simo, coming this way, together with his neighbour, Callipho. Out of this old sepulchre will I dig twenty minae this day, to give them to my master’s son. Now I’ll step aside here, that I may pick up their conversation.
410
(He stands apart.)

T. Maccius Plautus Pseudolus 1.4

ed. Friedrich Leo

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