§546Id nunc res indicium haec facit quo pacto factum volueris.
Phidippus: This very fact now provides proof of how you wished it to be done.
§547Adeon me esse pervicacem censes cui mater siem §548Ut eo essem animo, si ex usu esset nostro hoc matrimonium?
Myrrhina: Do you think that I, being her mother, would be of so stubborn a mind, if this marriage were to our advantage? As to be of such a disposition?
§549Tun prospicere, aut iudicare nostram in rem quod sit potes?
Phidippus: Can you foresee or judge what is to our advantage?
Perhaps you heard from someone who said they had seen him going out or in to his mistress.
Quid tum postea, §552Si modeste ac raro hoc fecit? nonne ea dissimulare nos
What of it then, afterwards, if he did this discreetly and rarely?
§553Magis humanum est quam dare operam id scire qui nos oderit?
Is it not more decent for us to overlook those things, than to take pains to know that, which would make him hate us?
§554Nam si is posset ab ea sese derepente avellere §555Quacum tot consuesset annos, non eum hominem ducerem, §556Nec virum satis firmum gnatae.
For if he could suddenly tear himself away from her with whom he had spent so many years, I would not consider him a human being, nor a sufficiently reliable husband for our daughter.
Myrrhina: Dismiss the young man, I pray, and the things in which you say I have done wrong.
Abi: solum solus conveni.
Go: meet him alone, face to face.
§558Roga velitne an non uxorem: si est ut dicat velle se, §559Redde; sin est autem ut nolit, recte ego consului meae.
Ask him whether he wants his wife or not: if it happens that he says he wants her, give her back; but if it happens that he does not want her, I have counselled well for my daughter.
§560Si quidem ille ipse non vult, et tu sensti esse in eo, Myrrhina, §561Peccatum, aderam cuius consilio ea par fuerat prospici.
Phidippus: If indeed he himself does not want her, and you perceived, Myrrhina, that the fault was in him, I was here, by whose advice it would have been proper for those things to be foreseen.
§562Quamobrem incendor ira esse ausam facere haec te iniussu meo.
For which reason I am inflamed with anger that you dared to do these things without my order.
§563Interdico ne extulisse extra aedes puerum usquam velis.
I forbid you to wish to carry the child anywhere outside the house.
§564Sed ego stultior meis dictis parere hanc qui postulem.
But I am more foolish to expect her to obey my words.
§565Ibo intro, atque edicam servis ne quoquam efferri sinant.
I will go inside and order the servants not to allow him to be carried out anywhere.
§566Nullam pol credo mulierem me miseriorem vivere; §567Nam ut hic laturus hoc sit, si ipsam rem ut siet resciverit, §568Non edepol clam me est, quum hoc quod levius est tam animo iracundo tulit: §569Nec qua via sententia eius possit mutari scio.
Myrrhina: By Pollux, I believe no woman lives more miserable than I; for how he will bear this, if he finds out the matter itself as it really is, is indeed not hidden from me, since he took this lighter matter with such an angry mind: and I do not know by what way his opinion can be changed.
§570Hoc mihi unum ex plurimis miseriis reliquum fuerat malum, §571Si puerum ut tollam cogit, cuius nos qui sit nescimus pater.
This one evil had remained for me out of my many miseries, if he compels me to rear the child, whose father we do not know.
§572Nam quum compressa est nata, forma in tenebris nosci non quita est; §573Neque detractum ei est quicquam qui posset post nosci qui siet.
For when our daughter was violated, his face could not be recognized in the darkness; nor was anything taken from him by which it could afterward be known who he was.
§574Ipse eripuit vi in digito quem habuit virgini abiens annulum.
He himself, on leaving, snatched by force a ring which the maiden had on her finger.
§575Simul vereor Pamphilum, ne orata nostra nequeat diutius §576Celare, quum sciet alienum puerum tolli pro suo.
At the same time, I fear Pamphilus, lest he should no longer be able to conceal our entreaties, when he knows that another's child is being reared as his own.
§577Non clam me est, nate mi, tibi me esse suspectam uxorem tuam §578Propter meos mores hinc abisse, etsi ea dissimulas sedulo.
Sostrata: It is not hidden from me, my son, that I am suspected by you, and that your wife departed from here because of my character, even though you carefully disguise those things.
§579Verum, ita me Di ament, itaque obtingant ex te quae exopto mihi, §580Ut nunquam sciens commerui merito ut caperet odium illa mei; §581Teque ante quam me amare rebar ei rei firmasti fidem.
But, so may the Gods love me, and so may those things which I desire from you happen to me, as I have never knowingly deserved that she should deservedly conceive a hatred of me; and you have confirmed my belief in that matter, in which I thought you loved her more than me.
§582Nam mihi intus tuus pater narravit modo quo pacto me habueris §583Praepositam amori tuo: nunc tibi me certum est contra gratiam §584Referre, ut apud me praemium esse positum pietati scias.
For your father just now told me inside how you held me preferred to your love: now I am resolved to return the favor to you, so that you may know that a reward for piety is placed with me.
§585Mi Pamphile, hoc et vobis et meae commodum famae arbitror: §586Ego rus abituram hinc cum tuo me esse certo decrevi patre, §587Ne mea praesentia obstet, neu causa ulla restet reliqua §588Quin tua Philumema ad te redeat.
My Pamphilus, I think this is suitable both for you and for my reputation: I have firmly resolved that I will depart from here to the countryside with your father, so that my presence may not stand in the way, and no reason may remain to prevent your Philumena from returning to you.
§588bQuaeso, quid istuc consili est?
Pamphilus: Pray, what kind of plan is that?
§589Illius stultitia victa ex urbe tu rus habitatum migres?
Defeated by her foolishness, are you, mother, to migrate from the city to live in the countryside?
§590Non facies: neque sinam ut qui nobis, mater, maledictum velit §591Mea pertinacia esse dicat factum, haud tua modestia.
You shall not do it; nor will I allow anyone who wishes us ill, to say that this was done by my obstinacy rather than by your modesty.
Furthermore, I do not wish you, for my sake, to desert your friends, relatives, and festive days.
§593bNihil pol iam istaec res mihi voluptatis ferunt: §594Dum aetatis tempus tulit perfuncta satis sum: satias iam tenet §595Studiorum istorum.
Sostrata: By Pollux, those things now bring no pleasure to me: while the time of my age permitted, I enjoyed them enough; a satiety of those pursuits now possesses me.
Haec mihi nunc cura est maxima ut ne cui meae §596Longinquitas aetatis obstet, mortemve exspectet meam.
This is now my greatest care, that the length of my life may not stand in anyone's way, nor that anyone should look forward to my death.