Publius Terentius Afer (Terence), Hecyra, ed. Edward St. John Parry, 4.1

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516 (MYRRHINA. PHIDIPPUS.)

MYRRHINA

Perii: quid agam? quo me vertam? quid viro meo respondebo

Misera? nam audivisse vocem pueri visus est vagientis:

Ita corripuit derepente tacitus sese ad filiam.

Quod si rescierit peperisse eam, id qua causa clam me habuisse

Dicam non edepol scio.
520

Sed ostium concrepuit. Credo ipsum exire ad me: nulla sum.

PHIDIPPUS

Uxor ubi me ad filiam ire sensit, se duxit foras;

Atque eccam video. Quid ais, Myrrhina? Heus, tibi dico.

MYRRHINA

Mihine, mi vir?

PHIDIPPUS

Vir ego tuus sim? tun virum me aut hominem deputas adeo esse?

Nam si utrumvis horum, mulier, unquam tibi visus forem,
525

Non sic ludibrio tuis factis habitus essem.

MYRRHINA

Quibus?

PHIDIPPUS

At rogitas?

Peperit filia. Hem, taces? ex quo?

MYRRHINA

Istuc patrem rogare est aequum?

Perii: ex quo censes nisi ex illo cui data est nuptum, obsecro?

PHIDIPPUS

Credo; neque adeo arbitrari patris est aliter: sed demiror

Quid sit quamobrem tantopere omnes nos celare volueris
530

Partum, praesertim quum et recte et tempore suo pepererit.

Adeon pervicaci esse animo ut puerum praeoptares perire,

Ex quo firmiorem inter nos fore amicitiam posthac scires,

Potius quam adversum animi tui libidinem esset cum illo nupta?

Ego etiam illorum esse hanc culpam credidi, quae te est penes.
535

MYRRHINA

Misera sum.

PHIDIPPUS

Utinam sciam ita esse istuc sed nunc mihi in mentem venit

De hac re quod locuta es olim, quum illum generum cepimus:

Nam negabas nuptam posse filiam tuam te pati

Cum eo qui meretricem amaret, qui pernoctaret foris.

MYRRHINA

Quamvis causam hunc suspicari quam ipsam veram mavolo.
540

PHIDIPPUS

Multo prius scivi quam tu illum amicam habere, Myrrhina:

Verum id vitium nunquam decrevi esse ego adolescentiae:

Nam id est omnibus innatum: at pol iam aderit se quoque etiam quum oderit.

Sed ut olim te ostendisti eadem esse nihil cessavisti usque adhuc,

Ut filiam ab eo abduceres, neu quod ego egissem asset ratum.
545

Id nunc res indicium haec facit quo pacto factum volueris.

MYRRHINA

Adeon me esse pervicacem censes cui mater siem

Ut eo essem animo, si ex usu esset nostro hoc matrimonium?

PHIDIPPUS

Tun prospicere, aut iudicare nostram in rem quod sit potes?

Audisti ex aliquo fortasse qui vidisse eum diceret
550

Exeuntem aut introeuntem ad amicam. Quid tum postea,

Si modeste ac raro hoc fecit? nonne ea dissimulare nos

Magis humanum est quam dare operam id scire qui nos oderit?

Nam si is posset ab ea sese derepente avellere

Quacum tot consuesset annos, non eum hominem ducerem,
555

Nec virum satis firmum gnatae.

MYRRHINA

Mitte adolescentem, obsecro,

Et quae me peccasse ais. Abi: solum solus conveni.

Roga velitne an non uxorem: si est ut dicat velle se,

Redde; sin est autem ut nolit, recte ego consului meae.

PHIDIPPUS

Si quidem ille ipse non vult, et tu sensti esse in eo, Myrrhina,
560

Peccatum, aderam cuius consilio ea par fuerat prospici.

Quamobrem incendor ira esse ausam facere haec te iniussu meo.

Interdico ne extulisse extra aedes puerum usquam velis.

Sed ego stultior meis dictis parere hanc qui postulem.

Ibo intro, atque edicam servis ne quoquam efferri sinant.
565

MYRRHINA

Nullam pol credo mulierem me miseriorem vivere;

Nam ut hic laturus hoc sit, si ipsam rem ut siet resciverit,

Non edepol clam me est, quum hoc quod levius est tam animo iracundo tulit:

Nec qua via sententia eius possit mutari scio.

Hoc mihi unum ex plurimis miseriis reliquum fuerat malum,
570

Si puerum ut tollam cogit, cuius nos qui sit nescimus pater.

Nam quum compressa est nata, forma in tenebris nosci non quita est;

Neque detractum ei est quicquam qui posset post nosci qui siet.

Ipse eripuit vi in digito quem habuit virgini abiens annulum.

Simul vereor Pamphilum, ne orata nostra nequeat diutius
575

Celare, quum sciet alienum puerum tolli pro suo.

Hecyra. Publius Terentius Afer (Terence). ed. Edward St. John Parry. London. 1857.

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Current edition Perseus

Hecyra (Terence. Publii Terentii Comoediae Sex. Parry, Edward St. John, editor. London: Whittaker and Co.; George Bell, 1857.)

Translations (1)

Hecyra; The Mother-in-Law Perseus (Terence. The Comedies of Terence. Riley, Henry Thomas; Colman, George, translators. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1872.) — 4.1 focus

516 (Enter MYRRHINA, from her house.)

MYRRHINA

I am undone! What am I to do? which way turn myself? In my wretchedness, what answer am I to give to my husband? For he seems to have heard the voice of the child when crying, so suddenly did he rush in to my daughter without saying a word. What if he comes to know that she has been delivered? for what reason I am to say I kept it concealed,

upon my faith I do not know. But there’s a noise at the door; I believe it is himself coming out to me: I’m utterly undone!
520
(Enter PHIDIPPUS, from the house.)

PHIDIPPUS

(to himself.)

My wife, when she saw me going to my daughter, betook herself out of the house: and look, there she is. (Addressing her.) What have you to say, Myrrhina? Hark you! to you I speak.

MYRRHINA

What, to me, my husband?

PHIDIPPUS

Am I your husband? Do you consider me a husband, or a man, in fact?

For, woman, if I had ever appeared to you to be either of these, I should not in this way have been held in derision by your doings.
525

MYRRHINA

By what doings?

PHIDIPPUS

Do you ask the question? Is not your daughter brought to bed? Eh, are you silent? By whom?

MYRRHINA

Is it proper for a father to be asking such a question? Oh, shocking! By whom do you think, pray, except by him to whom she was given in marriage?

PHIDIPPUS

I believe it; nor indeed is it for a father to think otherwise. But I wonder much

what the reason can be for which you so very much wish all of us to be in ignorance of the truth, especially when she has been delivered properly, and at the right time.¹ That you should be of a mind so perverse as to prefer that the child should perish, through which you might be sure that hereafter there would be a friendship more lasting between us, rather than that, at the expense of your feelings, his wife should continue with him!
530

I supposed this to be their fault, while in reality it lies with you.
535

MYRRHINA

I am an unhappy creature!

PHIDIPPUS

I wish I were sure that so it was; but now it recurs to my mind what you once said about this matter, when we accepted him as our son-in-law. For you declared that you could not endure your daughter to be married to a person who was attached to a courtesan, and who spent his nights away from home.

MYRRHINA

(aside.)

Any cause whatever I had rather he should suspect than the right one.
540

PHIDIPPUS

I knew much sooner than you did, Myrrhina, that he kept a mistress; but this I never considered a crime in young men; for it is natural to them all. For, i’ faith, the time will soon come when even he will be disgusted with himself for doing so. But just as you formerly showed yourself, you have never ceased to be the same up to the present time;

in order that you might withdraw your daughter from him, and that what I did might not hold good, one thing itself now plainly proves how far you wished it carried out.
545

MYRRHINA

Do you suppose that I am so willful that I could have entertained such feelings toward one whose mother I am, if this match had been to our advantage?

PHIDIPPUS

Can you possibly foresee or judge what is to our advantage?

You have heard it of some one, perhaps, who has told you that he has seen him coming from or going to his mistress. What then? If he has done so with discretion, and but occasionally, is it not more kind in us to conceal our knowledge of it, than to do our. best to be aware of it, in consequence of which he will detest us? For if he could all at once have withdrawn himself from her
550

with whom he had been intimate for so many years, I should not have deemed him a man, or likely to prove a constant husband for our daughter.
555

MYRRHINA

Do have done about the young man, I pray; and what you say I’ve been guilty of. Go away, meet him by yourself; ask him whether he wishes to have her as a wife or not; if so it is that he should say he does wish it, why, send her back; but if on the other hand he does not wish it, I have taken the best course for my child.

PHIDIPPUS

And suppose he does not wish it, and you, Myrrhina, knew him to be in fault; still I was at hand, by whose advice it was proper for these matters to be settled; therefore I am greatly offended that you have presumed to act thus without my leave. I forbid you to attempt to carry the child any where out of this house. But I am very foolish to be expecting her to obey my orders.
560

I’ll go in-doors, and charge the servants to allow it to be carried out nowhere.
565
(Goes into the house.)

MYRRHINA

Upon my faith, I do believe that there is no woman living more wretched than I; for how he would take it, if he came to know the real state of the case, i’ faith, is not unknown to me, when he bears this, which is of less consequence, with such angry feelings; and I know not in what way his sentiments can possibly be changed.

Out of very many misfortunes, this one evil alone had been wanting to me, for him to compel me to rear a child of whom we know not who is the father; for when my daughter was ravished, it was so dark that his person could not be distinguished, nor was any thing taken from him on the occasion by which it could be afterward discovered who he was. He, on leaving her, took away from the girl, by force, a ring which² she had upon her finger.
570

I am afraid, too, of Pamphilus, that he may be unable any longer to conceal what I have requested, when he learns that the child of another is being brought up as his.
575
(Goes into the house.)

Publius Terentius Afer (Terence) Hecyra 4.1

ed. Edward St. John Parry

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PHIDIPPUS

Uxor ubi me ad filiam ire sensit, se duxit foras;

Atque eccam video. Quid ais, Myrrhina? Heus, tibi dico.

MYRRHINA

Mihine, mi vir?

PHIDIPPUS

Vir ego tuus sim? tun virum me aut hominem deputas adeo esse?

Nam si utrumvis horum, mulier, unquam tibi visus forem,
525

Non sic ludibrio tuis factis habitus essem.

MYRRHINA

Quibus?

PHIDIPPUS

At rogitas?

Peperit filia. Hem, taces? ex quo?

MYRRHINA

Istuc patrem rogare est aequum?

Perii: ex quo censes nisi ex illo cui data est nuptum, obsecro?

MYRRHINA

Misera sum.

PHIDIPPUS

Utinam sciam ita esse istuc sed nunc mihi in mentem venit

De hac re quod locuta es olim, quum illum generum cepimus:

Nam negabas nuptam posse filiam tuam te pati

Cum eo qui meretricem amaret, qui pernoctaret foris.

MYRRHINA

Quamvis causam hunc suspicari quam ipsam veram mavolo.
540

MYRRHINA

Adeon me esse pervicacem censes cui mater siem

Ut eo essem animo, si ex usu esset nostro hoc matrimonium?

MYRRHINA

Mitte adolescentem, obsecro,

Et quae me peccasse ais. Abi: solum solus conveni.

Roga velitne an non uxorem: si est ut dicat velle se,

Redde; sin est autem ut nolit, recte ego consului meae.

Current edition Perseus

PHIDIPPUS

(to himself.)

My wife, when she saw me going to my daughter, betook herself out of the house: and look, there she is. (Addressing her.) What have you to say, Myrrhina? Hark you! to you I speak.

MYRRHINA

What, to me, my husband?

PHIDIPPUS

Am I your husband? Do you consider me a husband, or a man, in fact?

For, woman, if I had ever appeared to you to be either of these, I should not in this way have been held in derision by your doings.
525

MYRRHINA

By what doings?

PHIDIPPUS

Do you ask the question? Is not your daughter brought to bed? Eh, are you silent? By whom?

MYRRHINA

Is it proper for a father to be asking such a question? Oh, shocking! By whom do you think, pray, except by him to whom she was given in marriage?

MYRRHINA

I am an unhappy creature!

MYRRHINA

(aside.)

Any cause whatever I had rather he should suspect than the right one.
540

MYRRHINA

Do you suppose that I am so willful that I could have entertained such feelings toward one whose mother I am, if this match had been to our advantage?

Stable identifiers

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PHIDIPPUS Uxor ubi me ad filiam ire sensit, se duxit foras; Atque eccam video. Quid ais, Myrrhina? Heus, tibi dico.

MYRRHINA Mihine, mi vir?

PHIDIPPUS Vir ego tuus sim? tun virum me aut hominem deputas adeo esse? Nam si utrumvis horum, mulier, unquam tibi visus forem, 525 Non sic ludibrio tuis factis habitus essem.

MYRRHINA Quibus?

PHIDIPPUS At rogitas? Peperit filia. Hem, taces? ex quo?

MYRRHINA Istuc patrem rogare est aequum? Perii: ex quo censes nisi ex illo cui data est nuptum, obsecro?

MYRRHINA Misera sum.

PHIDIPPUS Utinam sciam ita esse istuc sed nunc mihi in mentem venit De hac re quod locuta es olim, quum illum generum cepimus: Nam negabas nuptam posse filiam tuam te pati Cum eo qui meretricem amaret, qui pernoctaret foris.

MYRRHINA Quamvis causam hunc suspicari quam ipsam veram mavolo. 540

MYRRHINA Adeon me esse pervicacem censes cui mater siem Ut eo essem animo, si ex usu esset nostro hoc matrimonium?

MYRRHINA Mitte adolescentem, obsecro, Et quae me peccasse ais. Abi: solum solus conveni. Roga velitne an non uxorem: si est ut dicat velle se, Redde; sin est autem ut nolit, recte ego consului meae.

Current edition Perseus

PHIDIPPUS (to himself.) My wife, when she saw me going to my daughter, betook herself out of the house: and look, there she is. (Addressing her.) What have you to say, Myrrhina? Hark you! to you I speak.

MYRRHINA What, to me, my husband?

PHIDIPPUS Am I your husband? Do you consider me a husband, or a man, in fact? For, woman, if I had ever appeared to you to be either of these, I should not in this way have been held in derision by your doings. 525

MYRRHINA By what doings?

PHIDIPPUS Do you ask the question? Is not your daughter brought to bed? Eh, are you silent? By whom?

MYRRHINA Is it proper for a father to be asking such a question? Oh, shocking! By whom do you think, pray, except by him to whom she was given in marriage?

MYRRHINA I am an unhappy creature!

MYRRHINA (aside.) Any cause whatever I had rather he should suspect than the right one. 540

MYRRHINA Do you suppose that I am so willful that I could have entertained such feelings toward one whose mother I am, if this match had been to our advantage?

Stable identifiers

PHIDIPPUS

Uxor ubi me ad filiam ire sensit, se duxit foras;

Atque eccam video. Quid ais, Myrrhina? Heus, tibi dico.

MYRRHINA

Mihine, mi vir?

PHIDIPPUS

Vir ego tuus sim? tun virum me aut hominem deputas adeo esse?

Nam si utrumvis horum, mulier, unquam tibi visus forem,
525

Non sic ludibrio tuis factis habitus essem.

MYRRHINA

Quibus?

PHIDIPPUS

At rogitas?

Peperit filia. Hem, taces? ex quo?

MYRRHINA

Istuc patrem rogare est aequum?

Perii: ex quo censes nisi ex illo cui data est nuptum, obsecro?

MYRRHINA

Misera sum.

PHIDIPPUS

Utinam sciam ita esse istuc sed nunc mihi in mentem venit

De hac re quod locuta es olim, quum illum generum cepimus:

Nam negabas nuptam posse filiam tuam te pati

Cum eo qui meretricem amaret, qui pernoctaret foris.

MYRRHINA

Quamvis causam hunc suspicari quam ipsam veram mavolo.
540

MYRRHINA

Adeon me esse pervicacem censes cui mater siem

Ut eo essem animo, si ex usu esset nostro hoc matrimonium?

MYRRHINA

Mitte adolescentem, obsecro,

Et quae me peccasse ais. Abi: solum solus conveni.

Roga velitne an non uxorem: si est ut dicat velle se,

Redde; sin est autem ut nolit, recte ego consului meae.

PHIDIPPUS

(to himself.)

My wife, when she saw me going to my daughter, betook herself out of the house: and look, there she is. (Addressing her.) What have you to say, Myrrhina? Hark you! to you I speak.

MYRRHINA

What, to me, my husband?

PHIDIPPUS

Am I your husband? Do you consider me a husband, or a man, in fact?

For, woman, if I had ever appeared to you to be either of these, I should not in this way have been held in derision by your doings.
525

MYRRHINA

By what doings?

PHIDIPPUS

Do you ask the question? Is not your daughter brought to bed? Eh, are you silent? By whom?

MYRRHINA

Is it proper for a father to be asking such a question? Oh, shocking! By whom do you think, pray, except by him to whom she was given in marriage?

MYRRHINA

I am an unhappy creature!

MYRRHINA

(aside.)

Any cause whatever I had rather he should suspect than the right one.
540

MYRRHINA

Do you suppose that I am so willful that I could have entertained such feelings toward one whose mother I am, if this match had been to our advantage?