Scene 2.
_Mercury_, MUCH DISHEVELED, APPEARS ON ROOF.
_Mer._
Quis ad fores est?
(_thickly_) Who’s at the door?
_Amph._
Ego sum.
I am.
_Mer._
Quid ego sum?
I am, eh?
_Amph._
Ita loquor.
(_sharply_) So I say.
_Mer._
Tibi Iuppiter dique omnes nati certo sunt, qui sic frangas fores.
Jupiter and ... all the ... gods ... are surely angry at you ... demolishing our door so.
_Amph._
Quo modo?
What do you mean!
_Mer._
Eo modo, ut profecto vivas aetatem miser.
Here’s ... what I mean ... you’re certainly going to have a bad, bad time of it.
_Amph._
Sosia.
(_sternly_) Sosia!
_Mer._
Ita, sum Sosia, nisi me esse oblitum existimas. quid nunc vis?
Just so! That’s me ... unless you think I’ve forgotten. Now what do ... you want?
_Amph._
Sceleste, at etiam quid velim, id tu me rogas.
Rascal! Do you actually dare ask me that--what I want?
_Mer._
Ita, rogo. paene effregisti, fatue, foribus cardines an foris censebas nobis publicitus praeberier? quid me aspectas, stolide? quid nunc vis tibi? aut quid tu es homo?
Of course I do. You’ve almost hammered the doors off their hinges, you ... stupid. Didn’t suppose we were supplied with doors at public expense, did you? What are you staring at me for, you ... booby? What are you after now? Who are you?
_Amph._
Verbero, etiam quis ego sim me rogitas, ulmorum Acheruns? quem pol ego hodie ob istaec dicta faciam ferventem flagris. 1030
You scoundrel! Still asking me who I am, you death on rods, you? By gad, I’ll warm you up with a whip to day for this insolence!
_Mer._
Prodigum te fuisse oportet olim in adulescentia.
You must have been a waster ... in your ... younger days.
_Amph._
Quidum?
How so?
_Mer._
Quia senecta aetate a me mendicas malum.
Well ... here you are in your declining years begging ... me for trouble.
_Amph._
Cum cruciatu tuo istaec hodie, verna, verba funditas.
You shall soon suffer for this flow of language, you drudge.
_Mer._
Sacrufico ego tibi.
I’m sacrificing to ye, I am.
_Amph._
Qui?
How?
_Mer._
Quia enim te macto infortunio.
(_slyly poising a pail of water_) Why, because I’m making you an offering of a ... calamity.
[_At this point there is a gap in the MSS. Only a few lines have been preserved. Leo outlines the lost part as follows: After Mercury has had sufficient amusement with Amphitryon, the disturbance calls Alcmena from within. She has a dispute with her husband--Jupiter had left her earlier so that he might offer sacrifice--and shuts him out of the house. Perhaps Amphitryon went away to summon friends to aid him: at any rate, Sosia appears with Blepharo and gets a bad welcome from his master, despite Blepharo’s patronage, and then escapes. Jupiter comes out of the house. Husband and lover abuse each other vigorously and a scuffle ensues. Blepharo is appealed to by Amphitryon, only to be made ridiculous by Jupiter._]
_Amph._
At ego te cruce et cruciatu mactabo, mastigia. I
But I’ll make you an offering of torture and torment, you whipping post.
_Mer._
Erus Amphitruost occupatus. II
The master, Amphitryon, is busy.
_Mer._
abiendi nunc tibi etiam occasiost. III (XV LG)
---- now you still have a chance to leave.
_Mer._
Optimo iure infringatur aula cineris in caput. IV (III)
It would serve you right to have a pot of ashes broken on your head.
_Mer._
Ne tu postules matulam unam tibi aquae infundi in caput V (IV)
You would certainly ask to have one jar of water emptied on your head.
_Mer._
Larvatu’s edepol hominem miserum medicum quaerita. VI (VII)
Bewitched! Dear, dear! poor man! Look for a doctor.
_Alc._
Exiuravisti te mihi dixe per iocum. VII (XI)
You swore solemnly that you said it to me in fun.
_Alc._
Quaeso advenienti morbo medicari iube VIII (XII) tu certe aut larvatus aut cerritus es.
For mercy’s sake have this disease treated at the outset; you surely are bewitched or crazed.
_Alc._
Nisi hoc ita factum est, proinde ut factum esse autumo, IX (XIII) non causam dico quin vero insimules probri.
If this did not take place just as I state, you have every right to accuse me of unchastity.
_Amph._
Cuius? quae me absente corpus volgavit suom. X (XVI)
Whose? A woman that prostituted herself in my absence!
_Amph._
Quid minitabas te facturum, si istas pepulissem fores? XI (V)
What were you threatening to do, if I pounded on that door?
_Amph._
Ibi scrobes ecfodito tu plus sexagenos in die. XII (VI)
There dig more than sixty ditches a day.
_Amph._
Noli pessimo precari XIII (XVII)
Don’t intercede for an utter rascal.
_Bleph._
animam comprime XIV (XVIII)
---- save your breath.
_Iup._ _Jup._
Manifestum hunc optorto collo teneo furem flagiti XV (IX)
I have him by the scruff of the neck, an outrageous thief caught in the act.
_Amph._
Immo ego hunc, Thebani cives, qui domi uxorem meam XVI (X) impudicitia impedivit, teneo, thensaurum stupri
No, no, Theban citizens, I have him, the monster of lust who has brought disgrace on my wife at home.
_Amph._
Nilne te pudet, sceleste, populi in conspectum ingredi? XVII (VIII)
Aren’t you at all ashamed, you villain, to come out into public sight?
_Amph._
clandestino. XVIII (XIX)
---- clandestinely.
_Amph._ sive _Iup._ _Amph._ or _Jup._
Qui nequeas nostrorum uter sit Amphitruo decernere. XIX (XIV)
You who are unable to decide which of us is Amphitryon.
IV. 3.