Plautus Rudens 4.4

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator)

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

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Current edition Perseus

Rudens, or The Fisherman's Rope (English) (Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 2. Riley, Henry Thomas, translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1913.)

Editions (1)
Rudens Perseus (Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 2. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1896.) — 4.4 focus

Notes on the current edition

Rudens, or The Fisherman's Rope

1. Rather than I: Daemones here alludes to the disposition of his wife, and says that if the damsels do not quit his house, he shall be obliged to do so in self-defence.
2. Has he got the better: In the use of the word comprimere, an indecent double entendre is intended; and agreeing with Gripus’s remark, that the word in that sense could not be applied to him, Daemones says that Gripus is right there, at all events.
3. The trinkets: These crepundia, trinkets or toys, seem to have been not unlike the amulets, or charms, in metal, of the present day. As kidnapping was in ancient times much more prevalent than now, these little articles, if carefully preserved by the child, might be the means of leading to the discovery of its parents; at the same time it may be Justly asked how it came to pass that the kidnapper should allow such damning evidence of his villany to remain in existence.
4. Of my way of thinking:
Dum hic hinc à me sentiat.
This is clearly the meaning, though one translation renders this line thus: I easily bear all those things until this fellow may feel that he must go away hence from me, and TRACHALIO moves farther off as he delivers the next line.
5. Casket of wicker-work: Caudeam. Festus tells us that this kind of casket was made of wicker, and received its name from its resemblance to a horse’s tail, cauda; others, however, perhaps with more probability, derive it from caudex, a piece of wood.
6. In vain will she: By this he clearly means to say that conjuring is all nonsense, and that she has no chance of telling what is in it merely by guessing.
7. Take it: Hoc habe. This, though not adopted by Fleckeisen, seems to be the right reading, and we have followed the conjecture of the learned Rost in adopting it. Gripus undoes the strap, then holds the wallet to his master, saying, Take it, it’s unfastened. Daemones takes it, and at once draws out the casket, on seeing which Girpus makes an exclamation of surprise and disappointment.
8. A golden drop: The bulla was a ball of metal, so called from its resemblance in shape to a drop or bubble of water. These were especially worn by the Roman children, suspended from the neck, and were generally made of thin plates of gold, of about the size of a walnut. The use of them was derived from the people of Etruria, and though originally used solely by the children of the Patricians, they were subsequently worn by all of free birth. The children of the libertini, or freed-men, wore bullae, but made of leather. The bulla was laid aside at the same time as the toga praetexta, and was on that occasion consecrated to the Lares. It must be owned that the little sow, mentioned in the line before, was rather a curious sort of trinket. Thornton thinks that the word sucula admitted of a double entendre, though of what nature is now unknown.