Publius Terentius Afer (Terence) Eunuchus 3.1

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

Table of Contents

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

View: By Line
← Previous Next →

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

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by NSF, NEH: Digital Libraries Initiative, Phase 2.

Current edition Perseus

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

Editions (1)
Eunuchus Perseus (Terence. Publii Terentii Comoediae Sex. Parry, Edward St. John, editor. London: Whittaker and Co.; George Bell, 1857.) — 3.1 focus

Notes on the current edition

Eunuchus; or, The Eunuch

1. The most mighty King: It has been suggested that Darius III. is here alluded to, who was a contemporary of Menander. As however Pyrrhus, king of Epirus , is mentioned in this Play, there is no necessity to go out of the way to make Terence guilty of an anachronism. Madame Dacier suggests that Seleucus, king of part of Asia Minor , is meant; and as Thraso is called a stranger or foreigner toward the end of the Play, he probably was intended to be represented as a native of Asia and a subject of Seleucus. One of the Seleuci was also favored with the services of Pyrgopolinices, the Braggart Captain of Plautus, in the Miles Gloriosus. See 1. 75 in that Play:
For King Seleucus entreated me with most earnest suit that I would raise and enlist recruits for him.
2. You’ve just hit it. Colman here remarks, quoting the following passage from Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor Lost,
That that Poet was familiarly acquainted with this Comedy is evident from the passage, olofernes says, Novi hominem tanquam te. His humor is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behavior vain, ridiculous, and Thrasonical.
We may remark that the previous words of Gnatho, though spoken with reference to the King, contain a reproach against the Captain’s boastfulness, though his vanity will not let him perceive it.
3. In his eye. In oculis is generally supposed to mean as dearly in his eyes. As, however, the Satraps of the East were called the king’s eyes, those who suppose that Darius is alluded to, might with some ground consider the passage as meaning that the king ranked him in the number of his nobles. See the Paenulus of Plautus, 1. 693, and the Note in Bohn’s Translation.
4. You understand: He says this at the very moment when lie is at a loss what to say next; the Parasite obligingly steps in to help him out with the difficulty.
5. Indeed, of none: Immo, nullorum arbitror, si tecum vivit. This expression which is used aside, has two meanings, neither of which is complimentary to the Captain. It may mean, he has no society if he associates with you, making the Captain equivalent to nobody; or it may signify, if he associates with you he’ll be sure to drive all his other acquaintances away.
6. Over the Indian elephants: Here he shows his lofty position to perfection; he dares to take down the pride of one who commanded even the royal elephants. The Braggart Captain of Plautus comes into collision with the elephants themselves: l. 26. Artotrogus says to him,
In what a fashion it was you broke the fore-leg of even an elephant in India with your fist!
7. Lookinq out for game?: Pulmentum, more strictly speaking, A nice bit. Patrick has the following Note on this passage:
Lepus tute es, et pulmentum quaeris? A proverbial expression in use at that time: the proper meaning of it, stripped of its figure, is, You are little more than a woman yourself, and do you want a mistress?
We learn from Donatus and Vopiscus, that Livius Andronicus had used this proverb in his Plays before Terence. Commentators who enter into a minute explanation of it offer many conjectures rather curious than solid, and of a nature not fit to be mentioned here. Donatus seems to think that allusion is made to a story prevalent among the ancient naturalists that the hare was in the habit of changing its sex.
8. If, indeed, she loved me: Colman has the following Note upon this passage:
I am at a loss to determine whether it was in order to show the absurdity of the Captain or from inadvertence in the Poet, that Terence here makes Thraso and Gnatho speak in contradiction to the idea of Thais’s wonderful veneration for Thraso, with which they opened the Scene.