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Enter SIMO and SOSIA, followed by SERVANTS carrying provisions.
SIMO
to the Servants. Do you carry those things away in-doors; begone. (Beckoning to SOSIA.) Sosia, just step here; I want a few words with you. SOSIA
Consider it as said; that these things are to be taken care of, I suppose.1 SIMO
No, it's another matter. SOSIA
What is there that my ability can effect for you more than this? SIMO
There's no need of that ability in the matter which I have in hand; but of those qualities which I have ever known as existing in you, fidelity and secrecy. SOSIA
I await your will. SIMO
Since I purchased you, you know that, from a little child, your servitude with me has always been easy and light. From a slave I made you my freedman ;2 for this reason, because you served me with readiness. The greatest recompense that I possessed, I bestowed upon you. SOSIA
I bear it in mind. SIMO
I am not changed. SOSIA
If I have done or am doing aught that is pleasing to you, Simo, I am glad that it has been done; and that the same has been gratifying to you, I consider sufficient thanks. But this is a cause of uneasiness to me; for the recital is, as it were, a censure3 to one forgetful of a kindness. But tell me, in one word, what it is that you want with me. SIMO
I'll do so. In the first place, in this affair I give you notice: this, which you suppose to be such, is not a real marriage. SOSIA
Why do you pretend it then ? SIMO
You shall hear all the matter from the beginning; by that means you'll be acquainted with both my son's mode of life and my own design, and what I want you to do in this affair. For after he had passed youthfulness,4 Sosia, and had obtained free scope of living, (for before, how could you know or understand his disposition, while youthful age, fear, and a master5 were checking him ?)---- SOSIA
That's true. SIMO
What all young men, for the most part, do,--devote their attention to some particular pursuit, either to training horses or dogs for hunting, or to the philosophers;6 in not one of these did he engage in particular beyond the rest, and yet in all of them in a moderate degree. I was pleased. SOSIA
Not without reason; for this I deem in life to be especially advantageous; that one do nothing to excess.7 SIMO
Such was his mode of life; readily to bear and to comply with all; with whomsoever he was in company, to them to resign himself; to devote himself to their pursuits; at variance with no one; never preferring himself to them. Thus most readily you may acquire praise without envy, and gain friends. SOSIA
He has wisely laid down his rule of life; for in these days obsequiousness begets friends; sincerity, dislike. SIMO
Meanwhile, three years ago,8 a certain woman from Andros removed hither into this neighborhood, driven by poverty and the neglect of her relations, of surpassing beauty and in the bloom of youth. SOSIA
Ah! I'm afraid that this Andrian will bring some mischief. SIMO
At first, in a modest way, she passed her life with thriftiness and in hardship, seeking a livelihood with her wool and loom. But after an admirer made advances, promising her a recompense, first one and then another; as the disposition of all mankind has a downward tendency from industry toward pleasure, she accepted their proposals, and then began to trade upon her beauty. Those who then were her admirers, by chance, as it often happens, took my son thither that he might be in their company. Forthwith I said to myself, " He is surely caught; he is smitten."9 In the morning I used to observe their servant-boys coming or going away; I used to make inquiry, "Here, my lad, tell me, will you, who had Chrysis yesterday?" for that was the name of the Andrian touching SOSIA on the arm . SOSIA
I understand. SIMO
Phaedrus, or Clinias, or Niceratus, they used to say; for these three then loved her at the same time. "Well now, what did Pamphilus do?" "What ? He gave his contribution;10 he took part in the dinner." Just so on another day I made inquiry, but I discovered nothing whatever that affected Pamphilus. In fact, I thought him sufficiently proved, and a great pattern of continence; for he who is brought into contact with dispositions of that sort, and his feelings are not aroused even under such circumstances, you may be sure that he is already capable of undertaking the governance of his own life. This pleased me, and every body with one voice began to say all kinds of flattering things, and to extol my good fortune, in having a son endowed with such a disposition. What need is there of talking? Chremes, influenced by this report, came to me of his own accord, to offer his only daughter as a wife to my son, with a very large portion. It pleased me; I betrothed him; this was the day appointed for the nuptials. SOSIA
What then stands in the way? Why should they not take place ? SIMO
You shall hear. In about a few days after these things had been agreed on, Chrysis, this neighbor, dies. SOSIA
Bravo! You've made me happy. I was afraid for him on account of Chrysis. SIMO
Then my son was often there, with those who had admired Chrysis; with them he took charge of the funeral; sorrowful, in the mean time, he sometimes wept with them in condolence. Then that pleased me. Thus I reflected: "He by reason of this slight intimacy takes her death so much to heart; what if he himself had wooed her? What will he do for me his father?" All these things I took to be the duties of a humane disposition and of tender feelings. Why do I detain you with many words? Even I myself,11 for his sake, went forth to the funeral, as yet suspecting no harm. SOSIA
Ha! what is this? SIMO
You shall know. She is brought out; we proceed. In the mean time, among the females who were there present, I saw by chance one young woman of beauteous form. SOSIA
Very likely. SIMO
And of countenance, Sosia, so modest, so charming, that nothing could surpass. As she appeared to me to lament beyond the rest, and as she was of a figure handsome and genteel beyond the other women, I approached the female attendants ;12 I inquired who she was. They said that she was the sister of Chrysis. It instantly struck my mind: "Ay, ay, this is it; hence those tears, hence that sympathy." SOSIA
How I dread what you are coming to ! SIMO
The funeral procession meanwhile advances; we follow; we come to the burying-place.13 She is placed upon the pile; they weep. In the mean time, this sister, whom I mentioned, approached the flames too incautiously, with considerable danger. There, at that moment, Pamphilus, in his extreme alarm, discovers his well-dissembled and long-hidden passion; he runs up, clasps the damsel by the waist. "My Glycerium," says he, "what are you doing? Why are you going to destroy yourself?" Then she, so that you might easily recognize their habitual attachment, weeping, threw herself back upon him--how affectionately ! SOSIA
What do you say? SIMO
I returned thence in anger, and hurt at heart: and yet there was not sufficient ground for reproving him. He might say; " What have I done? How have I deserved this, or offended, father ? She who wished to throw herself into the flames, I prevented; I saved her." The defense is a reasonable one. SOSIA
You judge aright; for if you censure him who has assisted to preserve life, what are you to do to him who causes loss or misfortune to it? SIMO
Chremes comes to me next day, exclaiming: "Disgraceful conduct!"--that he had ascertained that Pamphilus was keeping this foreign woman as a wife. I steadfastly denied that to be the fact. He insisted that it was the fact. In short, I then left him refusing to bestow his daughter. SOSIA
Did not you then reprove your son? SIMO
Not even this was a cause sufficiently strong for censuring him. SOSIA
How so? Tell me. SIMO
" You yourself, father," he might say, "have prescribed a limit to these proceedings. The time is near, when I must live according to the humor of another; meanwhile, for the present allow me to live according to my own." SOSIA
What room for reproving him, then, is there left? SIMO
If on account of his amour he shall decline to take a wife, that, in the first place, is an offense on his part to be censured. And now for this am I using my endeavors, that, by means of the pretended marriage, there may be real ground for rebuking him, if lie should refuse; at the same time, that if that rascal Davus has any scheme, he may exhaust it now, while his knaveries can do no harm: who, I do believe, with hands, feet, and all his might, will do every thing; and more for this, no doubt, that he may do me an ill turn, than to oblige my son. SOSIA
For what reason ? SIMO
Do you ask? Bad heart, bad disposition. Whom, however, if I do detect ---- But what need is there of talking? If it should turn out, as I wish, that there is no delay on the part of Pamphilus, Chremes remains to be prevailed upon by me; and I do hope that all will go well. Now it's your duty to pretend these nuptials cleverly, to terrify Davus; and watch my son, what he's about, what schemes he is planning with him. SOSIA
'Tis enough; I'll take care; now let's go in-doors. SIMO
You go first; I'll follow. SOSIA goes into the house of SIMO. SIMO
to himself. There's no doubt but that my son doesn't wish for a wife; so alarmed did I perceive Davus to be just now, when he heard that there was going to be a marriage. But the very man is coming out of the house. Stands aside.
1 Are to be taken care of, I suppose: “"Nempe ut curentur recte haec."” Colman here remarks; "Madame Dacier will have it that Simo here makes use of a kitchen term in the word 'curentur.' I believe it rather means 'to take care of' any thing generally; and at the conclusion of this very scene, Sosia uses the word again, speaking of things very foreign to cookery, 'Sat est, curabo.'"
2 To be my freedman: “"Libertus"” was the name given to a slave set at liberty by his master. A "libertinus" was the son of a “"libertus."”
3 As it were a censure: Among the Greeks (whose manners and sentiments are supposed to be depicted in this Play) it was a maxim that he who did a kindness should forget it, while he who received it should keep it in memory. Sosia consequently feels uneasy, and considers the remark of his master in the light of a reproach.
4 After he had passed from youthfulness: "Ephebus" was the name given to a youth when between the ages of sixteen and twenty.
5 And a master: See the Notes to the Translation of the Bacchides of Plautus, l. 109, where Lydus, a slave, appears as the "paedagogus," or “"magister,"” of Pistoclerus.
6 Or to the philosophers: It was the custom in Greece with all young men of free birth to apply themselves to the study of philosophy, of course with zeal proportioned to the love of learning in each. They each adopted some particular sect, to which they attached themselves. There is something sarcastic here, and indeed not very respectful to the "philosophers," in coupling them as objects of attraction with horses and hounds.
7 Nothing to excess: “"Ne quid nimis."” This was one of the three sentences which were inscribed in golden letters in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The two others were "Know thyself," and "Misery is the consequence of debt and discord." Sosia seems from the short glimpse we have of him to have been a retailer of old saws and proverbs. He is unfortunately only a Protatic or introductory character, as we lose sight of him after this Act.
8 Meanwhile, three years ago: The following remark of Donatus on this passage is quoted by Colman for its curiosity. " The Author has artfully said three years, when he might have given a longer or a shorter period; since it is probable that the woman might have lived modestly one year; set up the trade the next; and died the third. In the first year, therefore, Pamphilus knew nothing of the family of Chrysis; in the second, he became acquainted with Glycerium; and in the third, Glycerium marries Pamphilus, and finds her parents."
9 He is smitten: “"Habet,"” literally "He has it." This was the expression used by the spectators at the moment when a Gladiator was wounded by his antagonist. In the previous line, in the words “"captus est,"” a figurative allusion is made to the "retiarius," a Gladiator who was provided with a net, with which he endeavored to entangle his opponent.
10 Gave his contribution: “"Symbolam."” The "symbolae," " shot" at picnic or club entertainments, are more than once alluded to in the Notes to the Translation of Plautus.
11 Even I myself: Cooke remarks here: " A complaisant father, to go to the funeral of a courtesan, merely to oblige his son !"
12 The female attendants: "Pedissequae." These “"pedissequae,"” or female attendants, are frequently alluded to in the Plays of Plautus. See the Notes to Bohn's Translation.
13 To the burying-place: “"Sepulcrum"” strictly means, the tomb or place for burial, but here the funeral pile itself. When the bones were afterward buried on the spot where they were burned, it was called "bustum."
The Comedies of Terence. Henry Thomas Riley. Ney York. Harper and Brothers. 1874.
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