Publius Terentius Afer (Terence) Andria 5.4

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator), George Colman (Translator)

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Andria. Publius Terentius Afer (Terence). Henry Thomas Riley (Translator), George Colman (Translator). Ney York. 1874.

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Current edition Perseus

Andria; or, The Fair Andrian (English) (Terence. The Comedies of Terence. Riley, Henry Thomas; Colman, George, translators. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1872.)

Editions (1)
Andria Perseus (Terence. Publii Terentii Comoediae Sex. Parry, Edward St. John, editor. London: Whittaker and Co.; George Bell, 1857.) — 5.4 focus

Notes on the current edition

Andria; or, The Fair Andrian

1. Part of line 908b in the Latin.
2. Could opportunely suggest to him: Colman has the following remark on this line:
Madame Dacier and several English Translators make Pamphilus say that he could give Crito a hint or two. What hints he could propose to suggest to Crito, I can not conceive. The Italian translation, printed with the Vatican Terence, seems to understand the words in the same manner that I have translated them, in which sense (the pronoun illum referring to Simo instead of Crito) they seem to be the most natural words of Pamphilus on occasion of his father’s anger and the speech immediately preceding.
3. A sharper:
Sycophanta.
For some account of the sycophantae, swindlers or sharpers of ancient times, see the Notes to the Trinummus of Plautus, Bohn’s Translation.
4. A long time ago: The story begins with Olim, just in the same way that with us nursery tales commence with There was, a long time ago.
5. A citizen of Rhamnus: Rhamnus was a maritime town of Attica , near which many of the more wealthy Athenians had country-seats. It was famous for the Temple of Nemesis there, the Goddess of Vengeance, who was thence called Rhamnusia. In this Temple was her statue, carved by Phidias out of the marble which the Persians brought to Greece for the purpose of making a statue of Victory out of it, and which was thus appropriately devoted to the Goddess of Retribution. The statue wore a crown, and had wings, and, holding a spear of ash in the right hand, it was seated on a stag.
6. One difficulty:
Scrupus,
or scrupulus, was properly a stone or small piece of gravel which, getting into the shoe, hurt the foot; hence the word figuratively came to mean a scruple, difficulty, or doubt. We have a similar expression: to be graveled.
7. A knot in a bulrush:
Nodum in scirpo quaerer.
was a proverbial expression implying a desire to create doubts and difficulties where there really were none; there being no knots in the bulrush. The same expression occurs in the Menaechmi of Plautus, 1. 247.
8. Of course—Then be it so:
Nempe id. Scilicet.
Colman has the following remark on this line:
Donatus, and some others after him, understand these words of Simo and Pamphilus as requiring a fortune of Chremes with his daughter; and one of them’ says that Simo, in order to explain his meaning, in the representation, should produce a bag of money. This surely is precious refinement, worthy the genius of a true Commentator. Madame Dacier, who entertains a just veneration for Donatus, doubts the authenticity of the observation ascribed to him. The sense I have followed is, I think, the most obvious and natural interpretation of the words of Pamphilus and Simo, which refers to the preceding, not the subsequent, speech of Chremes.
9. He is not rightly bound:
Non recte vinctus,
meaning it was not well done to bind him. The father pretends to understand him as meaning (which he might equally well by using the same words), non satis stricte. he wasn’t tightly enough bound; and answers I ordered that he should be, referring to his order for Davus to be bound hand and foot. Donatus justly observes that the disposition of the old gentleman to joke is a characteristic mark of his thorough reconciliation.