Читать книгу The Comedies of Terence - Terence - Страница 7

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; complied

With all their humours, checking nobody,

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.

Sosia. Enough; I’ll take due care. Let’s now go in!

Simo. Go first: I’ll follow you.

Exit Sosia.

Beyond all doubt

My son’s averse to take a wife: I saw

How frighten’d Davus was, but even now,

When he was told a nuptial was preparing.

But here he comes.