ACT I
_Eucl._
Exi, inquam. age exi. exeundum hercle tibi hinc est foras, 40 circumspectatrix cum oculis emissicus.
(_within_) Out with you, I say! Come now, out with you! By the Lord, you’ve got to get out of here, you snook-around, you, with your prying and spying.
ENTER _Staphyla_ FROM _Euclio’s_ HOUSE, FOLLOWED BY _Euclio_ WHO IS PUSHING AND BEATING HER.
_Staph._
Nam cur me miseram verberas?
(_groaning_) Oh, what makes you go a-hitting a poor wretch like me, sir?
_Eucl._
Ut misera sis atque ut te dignam mala malam aetatem exigas.
(_savagely_) To make sure you are a poor wretch, so as to give a bad lot the bad time she deserves.
_Staph._
Nam qua me nunc causa extrusisti ex aedibus?
Why, what did you push me out of the house for now?
_Eucl._
Tibi ego rationem reddam, stimulorum seges? illuc regredere ab ostio. illuc sis vide, ut incedit. at scin quo modo tibi res se habet? si hercle hodie fustem cepero aut stimulum in manum, testudineum istum tibi ego grandibo gradum.
I give my reasons to you, you,--you patch of beats, you? Over there with you, (_pointing_) away from the door! (_Staphyla hobbles to place indicated_) Just look at her, will you,--how she creeps along! See here, do you know what’11 happen to you? Now by heaven, only let me lay my hand on a club or a stick and I’ll accelerate that tortoise crawl for you!
_Staph._
Utinam me divi adaxint ad suspendium 50 potius quidem quam hoc pacto apud te servium.
(_aside_) Oh, I wish Heaven would make me hang myself, I do! Better that than slaving it for you at this rate, I’m sure.
_Eucl._
At ut scelesta sola secum murmurat oculos hercle ego istos, improba, ecfodiam tibi, ne me observare possis quid rerum geram abscede etiam nunc--etiam nunc--etiam--ohe.
(_aside_) Hear the old criminal mumbling away to herself, though! (_aloud_) Ah! those eyes of yours, you old sinner! By heaven, I’ll dig ’em out for you. I will, so that you can’t keep watching me whatever I do. Get farther off still! still farther! still--Whoa!
istic astato. si hercle tu ex istoc loco digitum transvorsum aut unguem latum excesseris aut si respexis, donicum ego te iussero, continuo hercle ego te dedam discipulam cruci.
Stand there! You budge a finger’s breadth a nail’s breadth from that spot; you so much as turn your head till I say the word, and by the Almighty, the next minute I’ll send you to the gallows for a lesson, so I will.
scelestiorem me hac anu certo scio 60 vidisse numquam, nimisque ego hanc metuo male, ne mi ex insidiis verba imprudent duit neu persentiscat aurum ubi est absconditum, quae in occipitio quoque habet oculos pessima. nunc ibo ut visam sitne ita aurum ut condidi, quod me sollicitat plurimis miserum modis.
(_aside_) A worse reprobate than this old crone I never did see, no, never. Oh, but how horribly scared I am she’ll come some sly dodge on me when I’m not expecting it, and smell out the place where the gold is hidden. She has eyes in the very back of her head, the hell-cat. Now I’ll just go see if the gold is where I hid it. Dear, dear, it worries the life out of me! [EXIT _Euclio_ INTO HOUSE.
_Staph._
Noenum mecastor quid ego ero dicam meo malae rei evenisse quamve insaniam, queo comminisci; ita me miseram ad hunc modum decies die uno saepe extrudit aedibus. 70 nescio pol quae illunc hominem intemperiae tenent; pervigilat noctes totas, tum autem interdius quasi claudus sutor domi sedet totos dies.
Mercy me! What’s come over master, what crazy streak he’s got, I can’t imagine,--driving a poor woman out of the house this way ten times a day, often. Goodness gracious, what whim-whams the man’s got into his head I don’t see. Never shuts his eyes all night: yes, and then in the daytime he’s sitting around the house the whole livelong day, for all the world like a lame cobbler.
neque iam quo pacto celem erilis filiae probrum, propinqua partitudo cui appetit, queo comminisci; neque quicquam meliust mihi, ut opinor, quam ex me ut unam faciam litteram longam, meum laqueo collum quando obstrinxero.
How I’m going to hide the young mistress’s disgrace now is beyond me, and she with her time so near. There’s nothing better for me to do, as I see, than tie a rope round my neck and dangle myself out into one long capital I.
I. 2.