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Enter CHARINUS, from the house of DEMIPHO, in a travelling habit.
CHARINUS
looking towards the door . O higher and lower1 portions of the threshold, now both of you farewell. This day for the last time do I raise this foot within my father's house. The ease, the enjoyment, the in-dwelling, the habitation of this house is henceforth for me cut off, destroyed, and alienated. I am undone! The household Gods of my parents, the Lar the father of the family2, to you do I recommend, that you will kindly protect the possessions of my parents. I shall now seek other household Gods for myself, another Lar, another city, another state. The people of Attica I do detest; for where worse manners are on the increase every day, where, those who are friends, those who are faithless, you are not able, to distinguish, and where that is torn away from you, which especially pleases your taste, there, in fact, if a kingdom were given one, that country is not desirable. Stands aside in deep thought.
1 Higher and lower: According to some writers, the threshold was sacred to Vesta Tertullian mentions a Deity called "Limentinus," or "the God of the Threshold."
2 Father of the family: The "Lares" seem to have been divided into two classes--the private and the public Lares. The private, or "familiares," were probably the same as the "Penates," under another name. The public Lares were the "urbani," presiding over the cities; "rustici," over the country; "compitales," over cross-roads; "marini," over the sea.
The Comedies of Plautus. Henry Thomas Riley. London. G. Bell and Sons. 1912.
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