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Enter a COOK, from the house of PHÆDROUMS.
COOK
Palinurus, why do you delay? Why are not the things served out for me which are needed for the breakfast to be prepared for the Parasite when he comes. PAR.
Wait, please, until I interpret his dream. Pointing to CAPPADOX. COOK
Why, you your own self, if you've had any dream, always apply to me. PALINURUS
I confess it. COOK
Be off, then, and serve out the things. PALINURUS
to CAPPADOX . Come now, do you in the meantime relate your dream to him. I give you a substitute better than I am myself; for what I do know, all of it I know from him. Pointing to the COOK. CAPPADOX
Let him give his attention then. PALINURUS
He'll give it. CAPPADOX
He does what few do, in being attentive to their masters even. To the COOK. Do you give me your attention then. PALINURUS goes into the house of PHÆDROMUS. COOK
Although I don't know you, I'll give it you. CAPPADOX
Last night I seemed in my sleep to behold Æsculapius, seated at a distance far away from me; and it seemed that he didn't come near me, or set any value upon me. COOK
The other Gods will do the same, you must know; in fact, among themselves they agree with perfect unanimity. It isn't to be wondered at, if it fares no better with you. But it had been better for you to pass the night in Jove's Temple, who has given you his assistance1 in your oaths. CAPPADOX
If, indeed, those should wish to sleep there who have been guilty of perjury, it were not possible for room to be found them in the Capitol2. COOK
Give your attention to this; ask peace of Æsculapius, lest perchance some great mishap befall you, which has been portended to you in your rest. CAPPADOX
You do well in advising me; I'll go and pray to him. Goes into the Temple. COOK
And ill speed you with it * * * * * * Goes into the house of PHÆDROMUS. Enter PALINURUS, from the house. PALINURUS
looking in the distance, as he enters . O immortal Gods, whom do I behold? Who's that yonder? Pointing. Isn't that the Parasite, who was sent to Caria? Goes to the door. Hallo, come out, Phædromus, come out, come out, come out this instant, I say. from the house. PHÆD.
Why are you making this noise here? PALINURUS
] see your Parasite running; see, there he is pointing , down at the end of the street3. Let's listen from here what he's about. PHÆD.
I think it's as well. They stand aside.
1 Given you his assistance: -- He may either mean that Jupiter has favoured him when he has been guilty of perjury, or that the Procurer must be greatly indebted to that God for having so often lent him his name on his making solemn adjurations to further his base purposes.
2 In the Capitol: Though the Scene is in the Peloponnesus, Plautus makes mention of the Capitol, a part of Rome. Some others of the Italian towns had their "Capitols" in later times.
3 The end of the street: This passage, combined with the long soliloquy of the Parasite while still walking along, gives an apt illustration of the great width and depth of the Roman stage.
The Comedies of Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley. London. G. Bell and Sons. 1912.
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