§533non licet, perdam operam potius quam carebo filia.
[Melaenis] It is not permitted.
§534sed quis hic est qui recta platea cursum huc contendit suom? §535et illud paveo et hoc formido, ita tota sum misera in metu. §536Anum sectatus sum clamore per vias, §537miserrumam habui.
I would rather lose my labor than be without my daughter. But who is this who is directing his course here straight along the street? I dread that and I fear this, so miserable am I, entirely in fear. [Lampadio] I pursued the old woman with shouting through the streets, I made her most miserable.
ut illaec hodie quot modis §538moderatrix linguae fuit atque immemorabilis. §539quot illí blanditias, quid illi promisi boni, §540quot admoenivi fabricas, quot fallacias §541in quaestione.
How, today, in how many ways was she the controller of her tongue and unspeakable! How many flatteries, what good things did I promise her, how many plots did I lay, how many deceits in the inquiry.
vix exculpsi ut diceret, §542quia ei promisi dolium vini dare. §543Audire vocem visa sum ante aedis modo §544mei Lampadisci servi. §544bNon surda es, era: §545recte audivisti. §545bQuid agis hic? §545cQuod gaudeas. §546Quid id est? §546bHinc ex hisce aedibus paulo prius §547vidi exeuntem mulierem. §547bIllam quae meam §548gnatam sustulerat? §548bRem tenes. §548cQuid postea? §549Dico éi, quo pacto eam ab hippodromo viderim §550erilem nostram filiam sustollere. §551extimuit tum illa. §551bIam horret corpus, cor salit. §552nam mihi ab hippodromo memini adferri parvolam §553puellam eamque me mihi supponere. §554Age perge, quaeso.
I scarcely carved it out that she should speak, because I promised to give her a jar of wine. [Phanostrata] I seemed just now to hear the voice before the house of my servant Lampadiscus. [Lampadio] You are not deaf, mistress: you heard rightly. [Phanostrata] What are you doing here? [Lampadio] Something for you to rejoice at. [Phanostrata] What is it? [Lampadio] From this house here, a little while ago, I saw a woman coming out. [Phanostrata] Her who had picked up my daughter? [Lampadio] You have the matter. [Phanostrata] What then? [Lampadio] I told her how I saw her from the racecourse pick up our master’s daughter. Then she became terrified. [Melaenis] Already my body shudders, my heart leaps. For I remember that a little girl was brought to me from the racecourse and that I substituted her for my own. [Phanostrata] Come, go on, I pray.
ánimus audire expetit §555ut gesta res sit. §555bVtinam audire non queas. §556Pergo illam onerare dictis: “illaec ted anus §557fortunis ex secundis ad miseras vocat. §558nam illaec tibi nutrix est, ne matrem censeas. §559ego te reduco et revoco ad summas ditias, §560ubi tu locere in luculentam familiam, §561unde tíbi talenta magna viginti pater §562det dotis; non enim hic, ubi ex Tusco modo §563tute tibi indigne dotem quaeras corpore. ” §564An, amabo, meretrix illa est quae illam sustulit? §565Immo fuit; sed ut sit dé ea re, eloquar. §566iam perducebam illam ad me suadela mea: §567anus éi amplexa est genua, plorans, obsecrans, §568ne deserat se: eam suam esse filiam, §569seque eam peperisse sancte adiurabat mihi. §570istanc quam quaeris
inquit “ego amicae meae §571dedi, quae éducaret eam pro filiola sua; §572et vivit” inquit. ubi ea est?
inquam extempulo. §573Servate di med obsecro. §573bAt me perditis. §574Quoi illam dedisset exquisisse oportuit. §575Quaesivi, et dixit meretrici Melaenidi. §576Meum elocutust nomen, interii oppido. §577Vbi elocuta est, ego continuo interrogo; §578ubi habitat?
inquam
duc ac demonstra mihi. §579avecta est
inquit
peregre hinc habitatum. §579bObsipat §580aculam. §580bQuo avecta est, eo sequemur.
My mind eager to hear how the thing was done. [Melaenis] Would that you could not hear. [Lampadio] I went on loading her with words: “That old woman of yours calls you from favorable fortunes to miserable ones. For she is your nurse, do not think her your mother. I lead you back and recall you to the greatest riches, where you may be married into a brilliant family, from where a father may give you twenty great talents of dowry; not here, where from the Tuscan street just now you yourself would unworthily seek a dowry for yourself with your body.” [Phanostrata] I pray, is that woman a courtesan who picked her up? [Lampadio] Nay, she was; but how it is concerning that matter, I will tell. I was already leading her to my side by my persuasion: the old woman embraced her knees, weeping, beseeching, that she should not desert her: that she was her daughter, and she solemnly swore to me that she had given birth to her. “That one whom you seek,” she said, “I gave to my friend, that she might bring her up as her own little daughter; and she lives,” she said. “Where is she?” I said immediately. [Phanostrata] Save me, gods, I beseech you. [Melaenis] But you ruin me. [Phanostrata] It was necessary to have inquired to whom she had given her. [Lampadio] I inquired, and she said to the courtesan Melaenis. [Melaenis] My name has been spoken, I am utterly ruined. [Lampadio] When it was spoken, I immediately ask; “Where does she live?” I say, “lead and show me.” “She was carried away,” she said, “abroad from here to live.” [Melaenis] She sprinkles water (she is making a screen). [Lampadio] “Wherever she was carried away, there we will follow.
sicine
Do you play such trifles?
§581agis núgas? periisti hercle, ni §582non hoc longe destiti §583instare, usque adeo donec se adiurat anus §584iam mihi monstrare. §584bÁt non missam oportuit. §585Servatur.
By Hercules, you are dead, unless—” I did not stop pressing hard, even until the old woman swore that she would show me now. [Phanostrata] But it was not necessary to have let her go. [Lampadio] She is watched.
sed illaec se quandam aibat mulierem §586suam bene volentem convenire etiam prius, §587commune quacum id esset sibi negotium. §588et scio venturam. §588bMe indicabit, et suas §589_590ad meas miserias † alias faciem consciam. §591Quid nunc vis facere me? §591bIntro abi atque animo bono es. §592vir tuos si veniet, iube domi opperirier, §593ne in quaestione mihi sit, si quid eum velim. §594ego ad ánum recurro rursum. §594bLampadio, obsecro, §595cura. §595bPerfectum ego hoc dabo negotium. §596Deos téque spero. — §596bEosdem ego, uti abeas domum. §597Adulescens, asta atque audi. §597bMen, mulier, vocas? §598Te. §598bQuid negoti est? nam occupatus sum ampliter.
But she said that she had to meet a certain woman, her well-wisher, even before, with whom she had this common business. And I know she will come. [Melaenis] She will betray me, and she will make a conscious face of my other miseries to her own. [Phanostrata] What do you want me to do now? [Lampadio] Go inside and be of good cheer. If your husband comes, tell him to wait at home, lest he be in search for me, if I should want anything of him. I run back again to the old woman. [Phanostrata] Lampadio, I beseech you, take care. [Lampadio] I will deliver this business accomplished. [Phanostrata] I hope in the gods and you.— [Lampadio] I in the same, that you go away home. [Melaenis] Young man, stand and listen. [Lampadio] Are you calling me, woman? [Melaenis] You. [Lampadio] What business is it?
§599Quis istic habitat? §599bDemipho dominus meus. §600Nempe istic est, qui Alcesimarcho filiam §601suam despondit in divitias maxumas? §602Is ipsust. §602bEho tu, quam vos igitur filiam §603nunc quaeritatis alteram? §603bEgo dicam tibi: §604non ex uxore natam uxoris filiam. §605Quid istuc est verbi? §605bEx priore muliere
For I am amply occupied. [Melaenis] Who lives there? [Lampadio] Demipho, my master. [Melaenis] Is it indeed he who betrothed his daughter to Alcesimarchus into the greatest riches? [Lampadio] It is he himself. [Melaenis] Look here, what other daughter are you then seeking for now? [Lampadio] I will tell you: a daughter of his wife, not born from his wife. [Melaenis] What kind of speech is that? [Lampadio] From a former woman...