Publius Terentius Afer (Terence) Hecyra 2.1

LACHES

O faith of Gods and men! what a race is this! what a conspiracy this! that all women should desire and reject every individual thing alike!

And not a single one can you find to swerve in any respect from the disposition of the rest. For instance, quite as though with one accord, do all mothers-in-law hate their daughters-in-law. Just in the same way is it their system to oppose their husbands; their obstinacy here is the same. In the very same school they all seem to me to have been trained up to perverseness. Of that school, if there is any mistress, I am very sure that she (pointing at SOSTRATA) it is.

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SOSTRATA

Wretched me! when now I don’t so much as know why I am accused!

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LACHES

Eh ! you don’t know ?

SOSTRATA

So may the Gods kindly prosper me, Laches, and so may it be allowed us to pass our lives together in unity!

LACHES

(aside.)

May the Gods avert such a misfortune!

SOSTRATA

I’m sure that before long you will be sensible that I have been accused by you undeservedly.

LACHES

You, undeservedly? Can any thing possibly be said that you deserve in return for this conduct of yours?

You, who are disgracing both me and yourself and the family, and are laying up sorrow for your Son. Then besides, you are making our connections become, from friends, enemies to us, who have thought him deserving for them to intrust their children ¹ to him. You alone have put yourself forward, by your folly, to be causing this disturbance.

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SOSTRATA

What, I?

LACHES

You, woman, I say, who take me to be a stone, not a man.

Do you think because it’s my habit to be so much in the country, that I don’t know in what way each person is passing his life here? I know much better what is going on here than there, where I am daily; for this reason, because, just as you act at home, I am spoken of abroad. Some time since, indeed, I heard that Philumena had taken a dislike to you;

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nor did I the least wonder at it; indeed, if she hadn’t done so, it would have been more surprising. But I did not suppose that she would have gone so far as to hate even the whole of the family; if I had known that, she should have remained here in preference, and you should have gone away. But consider how undeservedly these vexations arise on your account, Sostrata; I went to live in the country, in compliance with your request,

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and to look after my affairs, in order that my circumstances might be able to support your lavishness and comforts, not sparing my own exertions, beyond what’s reasonable and my time of life allows. That you should take no care, in return for all this, that there should be nothing to vex me!

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SOSTRATA

Upon my word, through no means or fault of mine has this taken place.

LACHES

Nay, through you in especial; you were the only person here; on you alone, Sostrata, falls all the blame.

You ought to have taken care of matters here, as I had released you from other anxieties. Is it not a disgrace for an old woman to pick a quarrel with a girl? You will say it was her fault.

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SOSTRATA

Indeed I do not say so, my dear Laches.

LACHES

I am glad of that, so may the Gods prosper me, for my son’s sake. I am quite sure of this, that no fault of yours can possibly put you in a worse light.

SOSTRATA

How do you know, my husband, whether she may not have pretended to dislike me, on purpose that she might be more with her mother?

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LACHES

What say you to this? Is it not proof sufficient, when yesterday no one was willing to admit you into the house, when you went to see her?

SOSTRATA

Why, they told me that she was very ill just then; for that reason I was not admitted to her.

LACHES

I fancy that your humors are more her malady than any thing else;

and with good reason in fact, for there is not one of you but wants her son to take a wife; and the match which has taken your fancy must be the one; when, at your solicitation, they have married, then, at your solicitation, they are to put them away again.

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