by
Terence

Translated by Henry Thomas Riley, B.A.

Persons Represented

Prologue.
Simo.
Pamphilus.
Chremes.
Charinus.
Crito.
Sosia.
Davus.
Byrrhia.
Dromo.
Servants, etc.

Glycerium.
Mysis.
Lesbia.
Archyllis.

Scene, Athens.

Prologue

The Bard, when first he gave his mind to write,
Thought it his only business, that his Plays
Should please the people: but it now falls out,
He finds, much otherwise, and wastes, perforce,
His time in writing Prologues; not to tell
The argument, but to refute the slanders
Broach’d by the malice of an older Bard.

And mark what vices he is charg’d withal!
Menander wrote the Andrian and Perinthian:
Know one, and you know both; in argument
Less diff’rent than in sentiment and style.
What suited with the Andrian he confesses
From the Perinthian he transferr’d, and us’d
For his: and this it is these sland’rers blame,
Proving by deep and learned disputation,
That Fables should not be contaminated.
Troth! all the knowledge is they nothing know:
Who, blaming; him, blame Nævius, Plautus, Ennius,
Whose great example is his precedent;
Whose negligence he’d wish to emulate
Rather than their dark diligence. Henceforth,
Let them, I give them warning, be at peace,
And cease to rail, lest they be made to know
Their own misdeeds. Be favorable! sit
With equal mind, and hear our play; that hence
Ye may conclude, what hope to entertain,
The comedies he may hereafter write
Shall merit approbation or contempt.

Act the First

Scene I

SIMO, SOSIA, and SERVANTS with Provisions.

SIMO. Carry those things in: go! (Ex. SERVANTS.)
Sosia, come here;
A word with you!

SOSIA. I understand: that these
Be ta’en due care of.

SIMO. Quite another thing.

SOSIA. What can my art do more for you?

SIMO. This business
Needs not that art; but those good qualities,
Which I have ever known abide in you,
Fidelity and secrecy.

SOSIA. I wait
Your pleasure.

SIMO. Since I bought you, from a boy
How just and mild a servitude you’ve pass’d
With me, you’re conscious: from a purchas’d slave
I made you free, because you serv’d me freely:
The greatest recompense I could bestow.

SOSIA. I do remember.

SIMO. Nor do I repent.

SOSIA. If I have ever done, or now do aught
That’s pleasing to you, Simo, I am glad,
And thankful that you hold my service good
And yet this troubles me: for this detail,
Forcing your kindness on my memory,
Seems to reproach me of ingratitude.
Oh tell me then at once, what would you? Sir!

SIMO. I will; and this I must advise you first;
The nuptial you suppose preparing now,
Is all unreal.

SOSIA. Why pretend it then?

SIMO. You shall hear all from first to last: and thus
The conduct of my son, my own intent,
And what part you’re to act, you’ll know at once.
For my son, Sosia, now to manhood grown,
Had freer scope of living: for before
How might you know, or how indeed divine
His disposition, good or ill, while youth,
Fear, and a master, all constrain’d him?

SOSIA. True.

SIMO. Though most, as is the bent of youth, apply
Their mind to some one object, horses, hounds,
Or to the study of philosophy;
Yet none of these, beyond the rest, did he
Pursue; and yet, in moderation, all.
I was o’erjoy’d.

SOSIA. And not without good cause.
For this I hold to be the Golden Rule
Of Life, too much of one thing’s good for nothing.

SIMO. So did he shape his life to bear himself
With ease and frank good-humor unto all;
Mix’d in what company soe’er, to them
He wholly did resign himself; and join’d
In their pursuits, opposing nobody,
Nor e’er assuming to himself: and thus
With ease, and free from envy, may you gain
Praise, and conciliate friends.

SOSIA. He rul’d his life
By prudent maxims: for, as times go now,
Compliance raises friends, and truth breeds hate.

SIMO. Meanwhile, ’tis now about three years ago,
A certain woman from the isle of Andros,
Came o’er to settle in this neighborhood,
By poverty and cruel kindred driv’n:
Handsome and young.

SOSIA. Ah! I begin to fear
Some mischief from this Andrian.

SIMO. At first
Modest and thriftily, though poor, she liv’d,
With her own hands a homely livelihood
Scarce earning from the distaff and the loom.
But when a lover came, with promis’d gold,
Another, and another, as the mind
Falls easily from labor to delight,
She took their offers, and set up the trade.
They, who were then her chief gallants, by chance
Drew thither, as oft happen with young men
My son to join their company. “So, so!”
Said I within myself, “he’s smit! he has it!”
And in the morning as I saw their servants
Run to and fro, I’d often call, “here, boy!
Prithee now, who had Chrysis yesterday?”
The name of this same Andrian.

SOSIA. I take you.

SIMO. Phædrus they said, Clinia, or Niceratus,
For all these three then follow’d her. — “Well, well,
But what of Pamphilus?” — “Of Pamphilus!
He supp’d, and paid his reck’ning.” — I was glad.
Another day I made the like inquiry,
But still found nothing touching Pamphilus.
Thus I believ’d his virtue prov’d, and hence
Thought him a miracle of continence:
For he who struggles with such spirits, yet
Holds in that commerce an unshaken mind,
May well be trusted with the governance
Of his own conduct. Nor was I alone
Delighted with his life, but all the world
With one accord said all good things, and prais’d
My happy fortunes, who possess’d a son
So good, so lib’rally disposed. — In short
Chremes, seduc’d by this fine character,
Came of his own accord, to offer me
His only daughter with a handsome portion
In marriage with my son. I lik’d the match;
Betroth’d my son; and this was pitch’d upon,
By joint agreement, for the wedding-day.

SOSIA. And what prevents it’s being so?

SIMO. I’ll tell you.
In a few days, the treaty still on foot,
This neighbor Chrysis dies.

SOSIA. In happy hour:
Happy for you! I was afraid of Chrysis.

SIMO. My son, on this event, was often there
With those who were the late gallants of Chrysis;
Assisted to prepare the funeral,
Ever condol’d, and sometimes wept with them.
This pleas’d me then; for in myself I thought,
“Since merely for a small acquaintance-sake
He takes this woman’s death so nearly, what
If he himself had lov’d? What would he feel
For me, his father?” All these things, I thought;
Were but the tokens and the offices
Of a humane and tender disposition.
In short, on his account, e’en I myself
Attend the funeral, suspecting yet
No harm.

SOSIA. And what ——

SIMO. You shall hear all. The Corpse
Borne forth, we follow: when among the women
Attending there, I chanc’d to cast my eyes,
Upon one girl, in form ——

SOSIA. Not bad, perhaps ——

SIMO. And look; so modest, and so beauteous, Sosia!
That nothing could exceed it. As she seem’d
To grieve beyond the rest; and as her air
Appear’d more liberal and ingenuous,
I went and ask’d her women who she was.
Sister, they said, to Chrysis: when at once
It struck my mind; “So! so! the secret’s out;
Hence were those tears, and hence all that compassion!”

SOSIA. Alas! I fear how this affair will end!

SIMO. Meanwhile the funeral proceeds: we follow;
Come to the sepulchre: the body’s plac’d
Upon the pile, lamented: whereupon
This sister I was speaking of, all wild,
Ran to the flames with peril of her life.
Then! there! the frighted Pamphilus betrays
His well-dissembled and long-hidden love:
Runs up, and takes her round the waist, and cries,
“Oh my Glycerium! what is it you do?
Why, why endeavor to destroy yourself?”
Then she, in such a manner, that you thence
Might easily perceive their long, long, love,
Threw herself back into his arms, and wept,
Oh how familiarly!

SOSIA. How say you!

SIMO. I
Return in anger thence, and hurt at heart,
Yet had no cause sufficient for reproof.
“What have I done? he’d say; or how deserv’d
Reproach? or how offended, Father? — Her
Who meant to cast herself into the flames,
I stopped.” A fair excuse!

SOSIA. You’re in the right;
For him, who sav’d a life, if you reprove,
What will you do to him that offers wrong?

SIMO. Chremes next day came open-mouth’d to me:
Oh monstrous! he had found that Pamphilus
Was married to this stranger woman. I
Deny the fact most steadily, and he
As steadily insists. In short we part
On such bad terms, as let me understand
He would refuse his daughter.

SOSIA. Did not you
Then take your son to task?

SIMO. Not even this
Appear’d sufficient for reproof.

SOSIA. How so?

SIMO. “Father, (he might have said) You have, you know,
Prescrib’d a term to all these things yourself.
The time is near at hand, when I must live
According to the humor of another.
Meanwhile, permit me now to please my own!”

SOSIA. What cause remains to chide him then?

SIMO. If he
Refuses, on account of this amour,
To take a wife, such obstinate denial
Must be considered as his first offense.
Wherefore I now, from this mock-nuptial,
Endeavor to draw real cause to chide:
And that same rascal Davus, if he’s plotting,
That he may let his counsel run to waste,
Now, when his knaveries can do no harm:
Who, I believe, with all his might and main
Will strive to cross my purposes; and that
More to plague me, than to oblige my son.

SOSIA. Why so?

SIMO. Why so! Bad mind, bad heart: But if
I catch him at his tricks! — But what need words?
— If, as I wish it may, it should appear
That Pamphilus objects not to the match,
Chremes remains to be prevail’d upon,
And will, I hope, consent. ’Tis now your place
To counterfeit these nuptials cunningly;
To frighten Davus; and observe my son,
What he’s about, what plots they hatch together.