Plautus Truculentus 5.1

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator)

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

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Current edition Perseus

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

Editions (1)
Truculentus Perseus (Plautus. Plauti Comoediae, Volume 2. Leo, Friedrich, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1896.) — 5.1 focus

Notes on the current edition

Truculentus, or The Churl

1. That I should love: Eo mi amare. It is much more easy to guess at the sense of this passage, than at what is really the proper reading of it as it is evidently corrupt.
2. For the dame: Matri. Literally, the mother.
3. For the nurse: Even in those days, nurses were famed for their toping propensities. See the Andria of Terence, l. 229.
4. Upon medlars: It is not known whether setanium or setanum here means medlars or onions. Some Commentators think it means an inferior kind of pulse, used as food for the children of the poor.
5. Appears to be part of 921 in the Latin.
6. No use in badinage: φλυαρεῖν, to trifle, to play upon; almost exactly corresponding with our use of the French term badinage.
7. Part of line 937 in the Latin.
8. Mere kickshaws: Κάμπας. This is from the Greek καμπὴ, a caterpillar, and means nonsensical, trifling stuff. He gives her a hint, in the next line, to beware of the great teeth of the countrymen.
9. Part of line 942 in the Latin. A corrupt passage.
10. With minae than with menaces: Melius, te minis certare mecum, quam minaciis. He plays upon the resemblance of the word minis, with minae, to minaciis, with threats, and means that money is more likely than menaces to have weight with Phronesium.
11. Open your purse-strings: Solve zonam. Literally, loosen your girdle. The girdle was sometimes used as the purse itself. At other times the purse was placed there for safety
12. Part of line 954 in the Latin.
13. Part of line 954 in the Latin.
14. You are from abroad: He alludes to the alleged service of Stratophanes in the Babylonian army, and implies that he hesitates to answer to the challenge because he does not know whether Stratophanes may not turn out to be a sharper.
15. Part of line 955 in the Latin.
16. Flounder the fellow: Stratophanes plumes himself with the idea that, he having given the money to Phronesium, the other will not dare to answer his challenge.
17. Part of line 958 in the Latin.
18. Part of line 959 in the Latin.
19. Part of line 959 in the Latin.
20. Part of line 960 in the Latin.
21. Yours likewise: There has been some doubt as to the meaning of this and the next two lines; but, on examination, it is clear that they have an indecent signification.
22. Then rise up: Cicero, in his Treatise On Old Age, informs us that this Play was a favourite one of Plautus. It is difficult to see for what reason, as, compared with many of the others, it seems to be deficient in plot, and the Churl from whom it takes its name has scarcely, any part in the business of it.