Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi

Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi - Amphitryon, The Comedy of Asses, The Pot of Gold, The Two

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD First printed 1916 v CONTENTS Greek Originals of the Plays vii Introduction ix Bibliography xvii I. Amphitruo, or Amphitryon 1 II. Asinaria, or the Comedy of Asses 123 III. Aulularia, or the Pot of Gold 231 IV. Bacchides, or the Two Bacchises 325 V. Captivi, or the Captives 459 Index The Index of Proper Names is not included in this e-text. 569 THE GREEK ORIGINALS OF THE PLAYS IN THIS VOLUME In this and each succeeding volume a summary will be given of the consensus of opinion1 regarding the Greek originals of the plays in the volume and regarding the time of presentation in Rome of Plautus's adaptations. It may be that some general readers will be glad to have even so condensed an account of these matters as will be offered them. The original of the Amphitruo is not now thought to have been a work of the Middle Comedy but of the New Comedy, very possibly Philemon's . A clue to the Greek play's date is found in the description of Amphitryon's battle with the Teloboians,2 a battle fought after the manner of those of the Diadochi who came into prominence at the death of Alexander the Great. The date of the Plautine adaptation of this play, as in the case of the Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides,3 and Captivi, is quite uncertain, beyond the fact that it no doubt belongs, like almost all of his extant work, to the viii last two decades of his life, 204-184 B.C. The Amphitruo is one of the five4 plays in the first two volumes whose scene is not laid in Athens. The of a certain Demophilus,5 otherwise unknown to us, was the onginal of the Asinaria. The assertion of Libanus that he is his master's Salus6 is thought to be a fling at the honours decreed certain of the Diadochi, who were called, while still alive, . This possibility, together with the fact that the Pellaean7 merchant and the Rhodian8 Periphanes travel to Athensnorthern Greece and the Aegaean therefore being pacified and Athens at peace with Macedonwould indicate that the was written while Demetrius Poliorcetes controlled Macedon, 294-288 B.C. Very slender evidence connects the Aulularia with some unknown play of Menander's in which a miser is represented . Euclio's distress9 at seeing any smoke escape from his house seems at least to suggest that Plautus may have borrowed the Aulularia from Menander. The allusion to praefectum mulierum,10 rather than censorem, would seem to show that in the original had been written; this would prove the Greek play to have been presented while Demetrius of Phalerum was in power at Athens (317-307 B.C.), where he introduced this detested office, which was done away with by 307 B.C. ix Ritschl11 has shown clearly enough that the original of the Bacchides was Menander's . The fact that Athens, Samos, and Ephesus are at peace, that the Aegaean is not swept by hostile fleets, that one can travel freely between Athens and Phoeis, together with the allusion to Demetrius,12 lead one to believe that the was written either between the years 316-307 or 298-296 B.C. The original of the Captivi is quite unknown, while the war between the Aetolians and Eleans gives the only clue to the date of this original. Hueffner13 considers it probable that the war was that between Aristodemus and Alexander, and the Greek play was produced shortly after 314 B.C. Others14 assume that the scene of the play would not be Aetolia unless Aetolia had become an important state, and that the war was therefore one of the third century B.C. 1: See especially Hueffner, De Plauti Comoediarum Exemplis Atticis, Gttingen, 1894; Legrand, Daos, Paris, 1910, English translation by James Loeb under title The New Greek Comedy, William Heinemann, 1916; Leo, Plautinische Forschungen, Berlin, 1912. 2: Amph. 203 seq. 3: Produced later than the Epidicus. Cf. Bacch. 214. 4: Amphitruo, Thebes, Captivi, Aetolia, Cistellaria, Sicyon, Curculio, Epidaurus (the Caria first referred to in v. 67 was a Greek town, not the state in Asia Minor), Menaechmi, Epidamnus. 5: Asin. Prol. 10-11. 6: Asin. 713. 7: Asin. 334. 8: Asin. 499. 9: Aulul. 299, 301. 10: Aulul. 504. 11: Ritschl, Parerga, pp. 405 seq. Cf. Menander, Fragments, 125, 126. 12: Bacch. 912. 13: Hueffner, op. cit. pp. 41-42. 14: Cf. Legrand, op. cit. p. 18. xi INTRODUCTION Little is known of the life of Titus Maccius Plautus. He was born about 255 B.C. at Sarsina, in Umbria; it is said that he went to Rome at an early age, worked at a theatre, saved some money, lost it in a mercantile venture, returned to Rome penniless, got employment in a mill and wrote, during his leisure hours, three plays. These three plays were followed by many more than the twenty extant, most of them written, it would seem, in the latter half of his life, and all of them adapted from the comedies of various Greek dramatists, chiefly of the New Comedy.15 Adaptations rather than translations they certainly were. Apart from the many allusions in his comedies to customs and conditions distinctly Roman, there is evidence enough in Plautus's language and style xii that he was not a close translator. Modern translators who have struggled vainly to reproduce faithfully in their own tongues, even in prose, the countless puns and quips, the incessant alliteration and assonance in the Latin lines, would be the last to admit that Plautus, writing so much, writing in verse, and writing with such careless, jovial, exuberant ease, was nothing but a translator in the narrow sense of the term. Very few of his extant comedies can be dated, so far as the year of their production in Rome is concerned, with any great degree of certainty. The Miles Gloriosus appeared about 206, the Cistellaria about 202, Stichus in 200, Pseudolus in 191 B.C.; the Truculentus, like Pseudolus, was composed when Plautus was an old man, not many years before his death in 184 B.C. Welcome as a full autobiography of Plautus would be, in place of such scant and tasteless biographical morsels as we do have, only less welcome, perhaps, would be his own stage directions for his plays, supposing him to have written stage directions and to have written them with something more than even modern fullness. We should learn how he met the stage conventions and limitations of his day; how successfully he could, by make-up and mannerism, bring on the boards palpably different persons in the Scapins and Bobadils and Doll Tear-sheets that on the printed page often seem so confusingly similar, and most important, we should learn precisely what sort of dramatist he was and wished to be. If Plautus himself greatly cared or expected his restless, uncultivated, fun-seeking audience to xiii care, about the construction of his plays, one must criticize him and rank him on a very different basis than if his main, and often his sole, object was to amuse the groundlings. If he often took himself and his art with hardly more seriousness than does the writer of the vaudeville skit or musical comedy of to-day, if he often wished primarily to gain the immediate laugh, then much of Langen's long list of the playwright's dramatic delinquencies is somewhat beside its intended point. And in large measure thisto hold his audience by any meansdoes seem to have been his ambition: if the joke mars the part, down with the part; if the ludicrous scene interrupts the development of the plot, down with the plot. We have plenty of verbal evidence that the dramatist frequently chose to let his characters become caricatures; we have some verbal evidence that their "stage business" was sometimes made laughably extravagant; in many cases it is sufficiently obvious that he expected his actors to indulge in grotesqueries, well or ill timed, no matter, provided they brought guffaws. It is probable, therefore, that in many other cases, where the tone and "stage business" are not as obvious, where an actor's high seriousness might elicit catcalls, and burlesque certainly would elicit chuckles, Plautus wished his players to avoid the catcalls. This is by no means the universal rule. In the writer of the Captivi, for instance, we are dealing with a dramatist whose aims are different and higher. Though Lessing's encomium of the play is one to which not all of us can assent, and though even the Captivi shows some technical flaws, it is xiv a work which must be rated according to the standards we apply to a Minna von Barnhelm rather than according to those applied to a Pinafore: here, certainly, we have comedy, not farce. But whatever standards be applied to his plays their outstanding characters, their amusing situations, their vigour and comicality of dialogue remain. Euclio and Pyrgopolynices, the straits of the brothers Menaechmus and the postponement of Argyrippus's desires, the verbal encounter of Tranio and Grumio, of Trachalio and the fishermencharacters, situations, and dialogues such as these should survive because of their own excellence, not because of modern imitations and parallels such as Harpagon and Parolles, the misadventures of the brothers Antipholus and Juliet's difficulties with her nurse, the remarks of Petruchio to the tailor, of Touchstone to William. Though his best drawn characters can and should stand by themselves, it is interesting to note how many favourite personages in the modern drama and in modern fiction Plautus at least prefigures. Long though the list is, it does not contain a large proportion of thoroughly respectable names: Plautus rarely introduces us to people, male or female, whom we should care to have long in the same house with us. A real lady seldom appears in these comedies, andto approach a paradoxwhen she does she usually comes perilously close to being no lady; the same is usually true of the real gentleman. The generalization in the Epilogue of The Captives may well be made particular: "Plautus finds few plays such as this which make good men better." Yet there is little in his xv plays which makes mento say nothing of good menworse. A bluff Shakespearean coarseness of thought and expression there often is, together with a number of atrocious characters and scenes and situations. But compared with the worst of a Congreve or a Wycherley, compared with the worst of our own contemporary plays and musical comedies, the worst of Plautus, now because of its being too revolting, now because of its being too laughable, is innocuous. His moral land is one of black and white, mostly black, without many of those really dangerous half-lights and shadows in which too many of our present day playwrights virtuously invite us to skulk and peer and speculate. Comparatively harmless though they are, the translator has felt obliged to dilute certain phrases and lines. The text accompanying his version is that of Leo, published by Weidmann, 1895-96. In the few cases where he has departed from this text brief critical notes are given; a few changes in punctuation have been accepted without comment. In view of the wish of the Editors of the Library that the text pages be printed without unnecessary defacements, it has seemed best to omit the lines that Leo brackets as un-Plautine16: attention is called to the omission in each case and the omitted lines are given in the note; the numbering, of course, is kept unchanged. Leo's daggers and xvi asterisks indicating corruption and lacunae are omitted, again with brief notes in each case. The translator gladly acknowledges his indebtedness to several of the English editors of the plays, notably to Lindsay, and to two or three English translators, for a number of phrases much more happily turned by them than by himself: the difficulty of rendering verse into proseif one is to remain as close as may be to the spirit and letter of the verse, and at the same time not disregard entirely the contributions made by the metre to gaiety and gravity of toneis sufficient to make him wish to mitigate his failure by whatever means. He is also much indebted to Professors Charles Knapp, K.C.M. Sills, and F.E. Woodruff for many valuable suggestions. Brunswick, Me., September, 1913. 15: The Asinaria was adapted from the of Demophilus; the Casina from the , the Rudens from an unknown play, perhaps the , of Diphilus; the Stichus, in part, from the ' of Menander. Menander's was probably the source of the Bacchides, while the Aulularia and Cistellaria probably were adapted from other plays (titles unknown) by Menander. The Mercator and Trinummus are adaptations of Philemon's and , the Mostellaria very possibly is an adaptation of his , the Amphitruo, perhaps, an adaptation of his . 16: It seemed best to make no exceptions to this rule; even such a line as Bacchides 107 is therefore omitted. Cf. Lindsay, Classical Quarterly, 1913, pp. 1, 2, Havet, Classical Quarterly, 1913, pp. 120, 121. xvii BIBLIOGRAPHY Principal Editions: Merula, Venice, 1472; the first edition. Camerarius, Basel, 1552. Lambinus, Paris, 1576; with a commentary. Pareus, Frankfurt, 1619, 1623, and 1641. Gronovius, Leyden, 1664-1684. Bothe, Berlin, 1809-1811. Ritschl, Bonn, 1848-1854; a most important edition; contains only nine plays. Goetz, Loewe, and Schoell, Leipzig, 1871-1902; begun by Ritschl, as a revision and continuation of the previous edition. Ussing, Copenhagen, 1875-1892; with a commentary. Leo, Berlin, 1895-1896. Lindsay, Oxford, 1904-1905. Goetz and Schoell. Leipzig, 1892-1904. English Translations: Thornton, and others, London, second edition, 1769-1774; in blank verse. Sugden, London, 1893; the first five plays, in the original metres. General: Ritschl, Parerga, Leipzig, 1845; Neue plautinische Excurse, Leipzig, 1869. xviii Mller, Plautinische Prosodie, Berlin, 1869. Reinhardstoettner (Karl von), Sptere Bearbeitungen plautinischer Lustspiele, Leipzig, 1886. Langen, Beitrge zur Kritik und Erklrung des Plautus, Leipzig, 1880; Plautinische Studien, Berlin, 1886. Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, Oxford, third edition, 1889, pp. 153-203. Skutsch, Forschungen zur lateinischen Grammatik und Metrik, Leipzig, 1892. Leo, Plautinische Forschungen, Berlin, 1895; second edition, 1912; Die plautinischen Cantica und die hellenistische Lyrik, Berlin, 1897. Lindsay, Syntax of Plautus, Oxford, 1907. xix PRINCIPAL MANUSCRIPTS Ambrosianus palimpsestus (A), 4th century. Palatinus Vaticanus (B), 10th century. Palatinus Heidelbergensis (C), 11th century. Vaticanus Ursinianus (D), 11th century. Leidensis Vossianus (V), 12th century. Ambrosianus (E), 12th century. Londinensis (J), 12th century. P = the supposed archetype of BCDVEJ. SOME ANNOTATED EDITIONS OF PLAYS IN THE FIRST VOLUME Amphitruo, A. Palmer 1890. Asinaria, Gray; Cambridge, University Press, 1894. Aulularia, Wagner; London, George Bell & Sons, 1878. Captivi, Brix; 6th edition, revised by Niemeyer; Leipzig, Teubner, 1910. Captivi, Sonnenschein; London, W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen, 1880. Captivi, W.M. Lindsay 1900. AMPHITRVO AMPHITRYON Argument I Argument II Dramatis Personae Prologue ACT I Scene 2 Scene 3 ACT II Scene 2 ACT III Scene 2 Scene 3 Scene 4 ACT IV Scene 2 Summary of missing text Fragments (Act IV) Scene 3 ACT V Scene 2 Scene 3 Footnotes ARGVMENTVM I1 ARGUMENT OF THE PLAY (I) In faciem versus Amphitruonis Iuppiter, dum bellum gereret cum Telobois hostibus, Alcmenam uxorem cepit usurariam. Mercurius formam Sosiae servi gerit absentis: his Alcmena decipitur dolis. postquam rediere veri Amphitruo et Sosia, uterque deluduntur in mirum modum. hinc iurgium, tumultus uxori et viro, donec cum tonitru voce missa ex aethere 10 adulterum se Iuppiter confessus est. While Amphitryon was engaged in a war with his foes, the Teloboians, Jupiter assumed his appearance and took the loan of his wife, Alcmena. Mercury takes the form of an absent slave, Sosia, and Alcmena is deceived by the two impostors. After the real Amphitryon and Sosia return they both are deluded in extraordinary fashion. This leads to an altercation and quarrel between wife and husband, until there comes from the heavens, with a peal of thunder, the voice of Jupiter, who owns that he has been the guilty lover. ARGVMENTVM II ARGUMENT OF THE PLAY (II) Amore captus Alcumenas Iuppiter Mutavit sese in formam eius coniugis, Pro patria Amphitruo dum decernit cum hostibus. Habitu Mercurius ei subservit Sosiae. Is advenientis servum ac dominum frustra habet. Turbas uxori ciet Amphitruo, atque invicem Raptant pro moechis. Blepharo captus arbiter Vter sit non quit Amphitruo decernere. Omnem rem noscunt. geminos Alcumena enititur.2 Jupiter, being seized with love for Alcmena, changed his form to that of her husband, Amphitryon, while he was doing battle with his enemies in defence of his country. Mercury, in the guise of Sosia, seconds his father and dupes both servant and master on their return. Amphitryon storms at his wife: charges of adultery, too, are bandied back and forth between him and Jupiter. Blepharo is appointed arbiter, but is unable to decide which is the real Amphitryon. They learn the whole truth at last, and Alcmena gives birth to twin sons. PERSONAE DRAMATIS PERSONAE MERCVRIVS DEUS SOSIA SERVUS IVPPITER DEUS ALCVMENA MATRONA AMPHITRVO DUX BLEPHARO GUBERNATOR BROMIA ANCILLA MERCURY, a god. SOSIA, slave of Amphitryon. JUPITER, a god. ALCMENA, wife of Amphitryon. AMPHITRYON, commander-in-chief of the Theban army. BLEPHARO, a pilot. BROMIA, maid to Alcmena. Scaena Thebis. Scene:Thebes. A street before Amphitryon's house. PROLOGVS3 PROLOGUE MERCVRIVS DEVSSPOKEN BY THE GOD MERCURY Ut vos in vostris voltis mercimoniis emundis vendundisque me laetum lucris adficere atque adiuvare in rebus omnibus et ut res rationesque vostrorum omnium bene me expedire voltis peregrique et domi bonoque atque amplo auctare perpetuo lucro quasque incepistis res quasque inceptabitis, According as ye here assembled would have me prosper you and bring you luck in your buyings and in your sellings of goods, yea, and forward you in all things; and according as ye all would have me find your business affairs and speculations happy outcome in foreign lands and here at home, and crown your present and future undertakings with fine, fat profits for evermore; et uti bonis vos vostrosque omnis nuntiis me adficere voltis, ea adferam, ea uti nuntiem 10 quae maxime in rem vostram communem sient nam vos quidem id iam scitis concessum et datum mi esse ab dis aliis, nuntiis praesim et lucro: haec ut me voltis adprobare adnitier,4 (13) (15) ita huic facietis fabulae silentium itaque aequi et iusti his eritis omnes arbitri. and according as ye would have me bring you and all yours glad news, reporting and announcing matters which most contribute to your common good (for ye doubtless are aware ere now that 'tis to me the other gods have yielded and granted plenipotence o'er messages and profits); according as ye would have me bless you in these things, then in such degree will ye (suddenly dropping his pomposity) keep still while we are acting this play and all be fair and square judges of the performance. Nunc cuius iussu venio et quam ob rem venerim dicam simulque ipse eloquar nomen meum. Iovis iussu venio, nomen Mercurio est mihi. 20 pater huc me misit ad vos oratum meus, tam etsi, pro imperio vobis quod dictum foret, scibat facturos, quippe qui intellexerat vereri vos se et metuere, ita ut aequom est Iovem; Now I will tell you who bade me come, and why I came, and likewise myself state my own name. Jupiter bade me come: my name is Mercury (pauses, evidently hoping he has made an impression). My father has sent me here to you to make a plea, yea, albeit he knew that whatever was told you in way of command you would do, inasmuch as he realized that you revere and dread him as men should Jupiter. verum profecto hoc petere me precario a vobis iussit, leniter, dictis bonis. etenim ille, cuius huc iussu venio, Iuppiter non minus quam vostrum quivis formidat malum: humana matre natus, humano patre, mirari non est aequom, sibi si praetimet; But the fact remains that he has bidden me make this request in suppliant wise, with gentle, kindly words. (confidentially) For you see, that Jupiter that "bade me come here" is just like any one of you in his horror of (rubbing his shoulders reflectively) troubleA: his mother being human, also his father, it should not seem strange if he does feel apprehensive regarding himself. 30 atque ego quoque etiam, qui Iovis sum filius, contagione mei patris metuo malum. propterea pace advenio et pacem ad vos affero5: iustam rem et facilem esse oratam a vobis volo, nam iusta ab iustis iustus sum orator datus. Yes, and the same is true of me, the son of Jupiter: once my father has some trouble I am afraid I shall catch it, too. (rather pompously again) Wherefore I come in peace and peace do I bring to you. It is a just and trifling request I wish you to grant: for I am sent as a just pleader pleading with the just for what is just. nam iniusta ab iustis impetrari non decet, iusta autem ab iniustis petere insipientia est; quippe illi iniqui ius ignorant neque tenent. nunc iam huc animum omnes quae loquar advortite. debetis velle quae velimus: meruimus 40 et ego et pater de vobis et re publica; It would be unfitting, of course, for unjust favours to be obtained from the just, while looking for just treatment from the unjust is folly; for unfair folk of that sort neither know nor keep justice. Now then, pay attention all of you to what I am about to say. Our wishes should be yours: we deserve it of you, my father and I, of you and of your state. nam quid ego memorem,ut alios in tragoediis vidi, Neptunum Virtutem Victoriam Martem Bellonam, commemorare quae bona vobis fecissent,quis bene factis meus pater, deorum regnator6 architectust7 omnibus? Ah well, why should Iafter the fashion of other gods, Neptune, Virtue, Victory, Mars, Bellona, whom I have seen in the tragedies recounting their goodness to yourehearse the benefits that my father, ruler of the gods, hath builded up for all men? sed mos numquam illi fuit patri meo,8 ut exprobraret quod bonis faceret boni; gratum arbitratur esse id a vobis sibi meritoque vobis bona se facere quae facit. It never was a habit of that sire of mine to twit good people with the good he did them; he considers you grateful to him for it and worthy of the good things he does for you. 50 Nunc quam rem oratum huc veni primum proloquar, post argumentum huius eloquar tragoediae. quid? contraxistis frontem, quia tragoediam dixi futuram hanc? deus sum, commutavero. Now first as to the favour I have come to ask, and then you shall hear the argument of our tragedy. What? Frowning because I said this was to be a tragedy? I am a god: I'll transform it. eandem hanc, si voltis, faciam ex tragoedia comoedia ut sit omnibus isdem vorsibus. utrum sit an non voltis? sed ego stultior, quasi nesciam vos velle, qui divos siem. teneo quid animi vostri super hac re siet: faciam ut commixta sit: sit tragicomoedia. I'll convert this same play from tragedy to comedy, if you like, and never change a line. Do you wish me to do it, or not? But there! how stupid of me! As if I didn't know that you do wish it, when I'm a deity. I understand your feelings in the matter perfectly. I shall mix things up: let it be tragi-comedy. 60 nam me perpetuo facere ut sit comoedia, reges quo veniant et di, non par arbitror. quid igitur? quoniam his servos quoque partes habet, faciam sit, proinde ut dixi, tragicomoedia. Of course it would never do for me to make it comedy out and out, with kings and gods on the boards. How about it, then? Well, in view of the fact that there is a slave part in it, I shall do just as I said and make it tragi-comedy. nunc hoc me orare a vobis iussit Iuppiter, ut conquaestores singula in subsellia eant per totam caveam spectatoribus, si cui favitores delegates viderint, ut is in cavea pignus capiantur togae; Now here is the favour Jove bade me ask of you: (with great solemnity) let inspectors go from seat to seat throughout the house, and should they discover claqueurs planted for the benefit of any party, let them take as security from all such in the housetheir togas. sive qui ambissint palmam histrionibus, 70 sive cuiquam artifici, si per scriptas litteras sive qui ipse ambissit seu per internuntium, sive adeo aediles perfidiose cui duint, sirempse legem iussit esse Iuppiter, quasi magistratum sibi alterive ambiverit. Or if there be those who have solicited the palm for actors, or for any artistwhether by letter, or by personal solicitation, or through an intermediaryor further, if the aediles do bestow the said palm upon anyone unfairly, Jove doth decree that the selfsame law obtain as should the said party solicit guiltily, for himself or for another, public office. virtute dixit vos victores vivere, non ambitione neque perfidia: qui minus eadem histrioni sit lex quae summo viro? virtute ambire oportet, non favitoribus. sat habet favitorum semper qui recte facit, 80 si illis fides est quibus est ea res in manu. 'Tis worth has won your wars for you, saith he, not solicitation or unfairness: why should not the same law hold for player as for noblest patriot? Worth, not hired support, should solicit victory. He who plays his part aright ever has support enough, if it so be that honour dwells in those whose concern it is to judge his acts. hoc quoque etiam mihi pater in mandatis dedit, ut conquaestores fierent histrionibus: qui sibi mandasset delegati ut plauderent quive quo placeret alter fecisset minus, eius ornamenta et corium uti conciderent. This injunction, too, did Jove lay upon me: that inspectors should be appointed for the actors, to the end that whosoever has enjoined claqueurs to clap himself, or whosoever has endeavoured to compass the failure of another, may have his player's costume cut to shreds, also his hide. mirari nolim vos, quapropter Iuppiter nunc histriones curet; ne miremini: ipse hanc acturust Iuppiter comoediam. quid? admirati estis? quasi vero novom 90 nunc proferatur, Iovem facere histrioniam; I would not have you wonder why Jove is now regardful of actors; do not so: he himself, Jove, will take part in this comedy. What? Surprised? As if it were actually a new departure, this, Jove's turning actor! etiam, histriones anno cum in proscaemo hic Iovem invocarunt, venit, auxilio is fuit9 (92) (94) hanc fabulam, inquam, hic Iuppiter hodie ipse aget, et ego una cum illo. nunc vos animum advortite, dum huius argumentum eloquar comoediae. Why, just last year when the actors on this very stage called upon Jupiter, he came,B and helped them out. This play, then, Jove himself will act in to-day, and I along with him. Now give me your attention while I unfold the argument of our comedy. Haec urbs est Thebae. in illisce habitat aedibus Amphitruo, natus Argis ex Argo patre, quicum Alcumena est nupta, Electri filia. 100 is nunc Amphitruo praefectust legionibus, nam cum Telobois bellum est Thebano poplo. This city here is Thebes. In that house there (pointing) dwells Amphitryon, born in Argos, of an Argive father: and his wife is Alcmena, Electrus's daughter. At present this Amphitryon is at the head of the Theban army, the Thebans being at war with the Teloboians. is prius quam hinc abut ipsemet in exercitum, gravidam Alcumenam uxorem fecit suam. nam ego vos novisse credo iam ut sit pater meus, quam liber harum rerum multarum siet quantusque amator sit quod complacitum est semel. Before he himself left to join his troops, his wife, Alcmena, was with child by him. (apologetically) Now I think you know already what my father is likehow free he is apt to be in a good many cases of this sort and what an impetuous lover he is, once his fancy is taken. is amare occepit Alcumenam clam virum usuramque eius corporis cepit sibi, et gravidam fecit is eam compressu suo. 110 nunc de Alcumena ut rem teneatis rectius, utrimque est gravida, et ex viro et ex summo Iove. Well, Alcmena caught his fancy, without her husband knowing it, and he enjoyed her and got her with child. So now Alcmena, that you may see it quite clearly, is with child by both of them, by her husband and by almighty Jove. et meu ......Buy Now (To Read More)

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Ebook Number: 16564
Author: Plautus, Titus Maccius
Release Date: Aug 20, 2005
Format: eBook
Language: Latin

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Translator: Nixon, Paul, 1882-1956