The Portable Roman Reader (Portable Library) Read Online Free Page A

eloquence that while one reads, at least, it really seems what it seemed to Lucretius, good news.
    Catullus was the most brilliant of a circle of brilliant young men who cultivated Greek literature and wrote imitations of it. Through the body of his verse it is possible to know him as one knows few men in history. He shares with us the rapture of first love, the anguish of disillusionment, the pang of bereavement, even his friendships and his quarrels. Catullus, Lucretius, and the philosophic writings of Cicero remind us of what is so hard to remember in reading history—that even in periods of the greatest crisis men still ponder abstract themes, they still fall in love.

PLAUTUS
    (Titus Maccius Plautus, 254? B.C.-184 B.C.)

    Amphitryon
    Translated by Sir Robert Allison

CHARACTERS
    MERCURY, disguised asSosia
SOSIA, slave of Amphitryon
JUPITER, disguised as Amphitryon
ALCMENA, wife of Amphitryon
AMPHITRYON, leader of the Theban army
BLEPHARO, a pilot
BROMIA, maid-servant of Alcmena
THESSALA (persona muta), a maid-servant
    SCENE: A street in Thebes in front of the house of Amphitryon.

PROLOGUE
    MERCURY (disguised as Sosia): As you in all your mer
chandisings wish,
Whether you buy or sell, that I should help
And render aid in everything you do,
And see that all your businesses and plans
Should turn out well, whether they be at home
Or else abroad, and bless you with a rich
And full reward in all you are engaged,
Or will engage in, still to you and yours
Bring tidings of success, and still report
Of all that may be for your common good;
For you already know the gods have given
And granted me a preference as to news
And trade; and, as you wish, I still should try
To bless, and bring to you perpetual gain;
Listen in silence to this comedy,
As fair, impartial arbiters should do.
Now I will tell at whose command I come,
And wherefore, and will give my name as well.
Jove is my master; Mercury my name;
He sent me here as his ambassador;
Although he knew his word would be for you
As good as a command, and that you fear
And reverence his name, as well you should;
But still he bid me now to come to you,
Entreatingly, with kind and gentle words.
For sure this Jove as much as any one
Of you, dreads ill mischance; born as he is
Like you of mortal mother, mortal sire,
‘Tis nothing strange, if he fears for himself.
And I too, I who am the son of Jove
Infected am with this same dread of ill.
Therefore with kindly feeling ’tis I come
And bring the same to you; from you I ask
But what is just and feasible; as one
Who justice does, justice he asks from you.
To ask unfairness from the fair were wrong;
And to ask fair play from the unfair were but
To lose one’s time; they know not what is right
Nor try to do it. Now attend to me.
You ought to wish the same as we; for we,
I and my father, have deserved well
Of you and of your State. Why needs recall
How I in plays have seen the other gods,
Neptune and Virtue, Victory and Mars,
Aye, and Bellona, tell the good that they
Have done to you, while of that very good
My sire, who reigns in Heaven, was architect.
But sure, it never was my father’s way
To throw the good he’s done in people’s teeth;
He thinks you’re grateful for his services;
And ne‘er regrets what he has done for you.
Now first I’ll tell you what I come to say;
And then explain the plot, which underlies
This tragedy; but why contract your brows,
When I say tragedy? For I’m a god
And soon can change it; if you like I’ll make
These selfsame verses be a comedy.
Shall I or not? But sure I am a fool,
Being a god, and yet not knowing what you wish.
Ah, yes! I know your mind; and I will make it
A tragicomedy; for it is not right
To make a play where kings and gods do speak
All comedy. But since a slave takes part
I’ll make it for you tragicomedy.
Now Jupiter desires I ask of you
That the detectives look the seats all through,
And if they find there men who are suborned
To clap the actors, that they take their