The Captiva and The Mostellaria | Page 6

sort [8]. ERG. Are you in
the habit of eating brambles?
HEG. Mine is an earthy dinner. ERG. A pig is an earthy animal.
HEG. Earthy from its plenty of vegetables.
ERG. Treat your sick people [9] at home with that fare? Do you wish
anything else?
HEG. Come in good time. ERG. You are putting in mind one who
remembers quite well. (Exit.
HEG. I'll go in-doors, and in the house I'll make the calculation how
little money I have at my banker's; afterwards I'll go to my brother's,
whither I was saying I would go. (Goes into his house.)
[Footnote 1: Chains of light weight)--Ver. 112. "Singularias" This
word may admit of three interpretations, and it is impossible to decide
which is the right one. It may mean chains weighting a single "libra,"
or pound; it may signify chains for the captives singly, in
contradistiniction to those by which they were fastened to each other;
or it may mean single chains, in opposition to double ones. In the Acts
of the Apostles, ch. 12, v. 6, we read that St. Peter was bound with two
chains; and in ch. 13, v. 33, the chief captain orders St. Paul to be
bound with two chains.]
[Footnote 2: Don't seem to think so)--Ver. 120. Hegio means to say
that the slave does not seem to think liberty so very desirable, or he
would try more to please his master and do his duty, which might

probably be the right method for gaining his liberty. As the slave could
generally ransom himself out of his "peculium," or "savings," if they
were sufficient, the slave here either thinks, or pretends to think, that
Hegio is censuring him for not taking those means, and answer,
accordingly, that he has nothing to offer]
[Footnote 3: Give myself to flight)--Ver. 121. "Dem in pedes."
Literally, "give myself to my feet," meaning thereby "to run away." He
puns upon this meaning of "dare," and its common signification of "to
give" or "to offer to give."]
[Footnote 4: Giving you to the cage)--Ver. 124. "In cavears." He plays
on the word "cavea," which meaning "a cage" for a bird, might also
mean confinement for a prisoner.]
[Footnote 5: The Bakerians)--Ver. 162. This and the following
appellations are expressive both of the several trades that contributed
to furnishing entertainments, and, in the Latin, also denoted the names
of inhabitants of several places in Italy or elsewhere. As this meaning
could not be expressed in a literal translation of them, the original
words are here subjoined. In the word "Pistorienses," he alludes to the
bakers, and the natives of Pistorium, a town of Etruria; in the
"Panicei," to the bread or roll bakers, and the natives of Pana, a little
town of the Samnites, mentioned by Strabo; in the "Placentini," to the
"confectioners" or "cake-makers," and the people of Placentia, a city in
the North of Italy; in the "Turdetani," to the "poulterers" or "sellers of
thrushes," and the people of Turdentania, a district of Spain; and in the
"Fiendulae," to the "sellers of beccaficos," a delicate bird, and the
inhabitants of Ficculae, a town near Rome. Of course, these
appellations, as relating to the trades, are only comical words coined
for the occasion.]
[Footnote 6: A bottomless pit)--Ver. 183. He plays upon the
resemblance in sound of the word "fundum," "landed property," to
"profundum," "a deep cavity," to which he compares the Parasite's
stomach. "You sell me landed property, indeed; say rather a bottomless
pit."]

[Footnote 7: Have but a ferret)--Ver. 185. This passage has much
puzzled the Commentators; but allowing for some very far-fetched wit,
which is not uncommon with Plautus, it may admit of some explanation.
He tells the Parasite that he had better look for a nicer dinner, a hare,
in fact; for that in dining with him, he will only get the ferret (with
which the hare was hunted) for his dinner. Then, inasmuch as the ferret
was and for following the bare or rabbit into "scruposae viae,"
"impervious" or "rocky places" where they had burrowed, he adds:
"For my dinner, ferret-like, frequents ragged places;" by which he
probably means that it is nothing but a meagre repast of vegetables, of
which possibly capers formed a part, which grow plentifully in Italy, in
old ruins and craggy spots. Some suggest that it was a custom with the
huntsmen, if they failed to catch the hurt, to kill and eat the ferret.]
[Footnote 8: Are but of a rough sort)--Ver. 189. The word "asper"
means either "unsavoury" or "prickly," according to the context. Hegio
means to use it in the former sense, but the Parasite, for the sake of
repartee, chooses to take it in the latter.]
[Footnote 9: Treat your sick people)--Ver. 191. He means that