Terentia

“ To another correspondent, his wife Terentia, he poured out his heart yet more freely. "Don't think," he writes in one of his letters to her, "that I write longer letters to others than to you, except indeed I have received some long communication which I feel I must answer. Indeed I have nothing to write; and in these days I find it the most difficult of duties. Writing to you and to my dearest Tullia I never can do without floods of tears. I see you are utterly miserable, and I wanted you to be completely happy. ”

“ We cannot but imagine that, when men had so much the best of it in the affairs of life, a woman had always the worst of it in these enforced separations. But as the wind is tempered to the shorn lamb, so were divorces made acceptable to Roman ladies. No woman was disgraced by a divorce, and they who gave over their husbands at the caprice of a moment to other embraces would usually find consolation. Terentia when divorced from Cicero was at least fifty, and we are told she had the extreme honor of having married Sallust after her break with Cicero. ”

“ It is universally agreed that the letters ad Familiares were published by Tiro, whose hand is revealed by the fact that he suppresses all letters written by himself, and modestly puts at the end those written to him. That Cicero kept copies of his letters, or of many of them, we know from a passage in which, when addressing a friend who had inadvertently torn up a letter from him, he says that there is nothing to grieve about; he has himself a copy at home and can replace the loss (Fam. vii. 25. 1) . Tiro may have obtained from Terentia copies of letters written to her. ”

“ Towards the close of в. с. 46, in consequence, it would appear, of some disputes connected with pecuniary transactions, he divorced his wife Terentia, to whom he had been united for upwards of thirty years, and soon after married a young and wealthy maiden, Publilia, his ward, but, as might have been anticipated, found little comfort in this new alliance, which was speedily dissolved. But his great and overpowering affliction was the death of his beloved daughter, Tullia (early in в. с. 45) , towards whom he cherished the fondest attachment. ”

“ While Christian literature was developing in the third century the pagan literature dragged on its senile existence. Pagan poetry of the third century. There was little poetry that deserved the name, though skill in versification was not uncommon. Terentianus wrote in verse his handbook of metres about the beginning of the century, and not far from the same time Quintus Serenus Sammonicus composed a medical handbook containing sixty-three recipes in 1,107 hexameters. He does not pretend to be a physician, but derives his wisdom, such as it is, from Pliny and other writers. ”

“ The slave who had gained his freedom might rise—for it was Terence's own case—to be a successful dramatist himself, and to sit down at table with such men as Scipio and Lælius. The anomaly is that a man who stood in such confidential relations to his master, and with such possibilities in his future, should feel himself every moment liable, at that master's slightest caprice, to the stocks and the whip. ”

“ SCENE X. Enter Phædria.
Phæd. Good heavens!
What wondrous things has Parmeno just told me!
But where’s my brother?
Chær. Here.
Phæd. I’m quite transported.
Phæd. O heavenly powers!
What wondrous things has Parmeno just told me!
But where’s my brother?
Chær. Here he is.
Phæd. I’m happy.
Chær. I dare believe you are; and trust me, brother,
Naught can be worthier of your love than Thais:
Our family are all much bounden to her.
Phæd. So! you’d need sing her praise to me!
Thraso. Confusion!
As my hope dies, my passion gathers strength.
Gnatho, your help! my only hope’s in you. ”

“ SCENE IX. Enter Menedemus.
Mene. (to himself) . Oh son, how happy hast thou made thy father,
Convinc’d of thy repentance!
Chrem. (overhearing) . How mistaken!
Mene. Chremes! I wish’d for you.—’Tis in your power,
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And I beseech you do it, to preserve
My son, myself, and family.
Chrem. I’ll do’t.
Wherein can I oblige you?
308 Mene. You to-day
Have found a daughter.
Chrem. True. What then?
Mene. My Clinia
Begs your consent to marry her.
Chrem. Good Heaven!
What kind of man are you?
Mene. What mean you, Chremes? ”

“ Phæd. (to Geta.) What is it you say?
Geta. That I have seen his father, your uncle.
Ant. How am I, wretch that I am, now to find a remedy for this sudden misfortune? But if it should be my fortune, Phanium, to be torn away from you, life would cease to be desirable.
Geta. Therefore, Antipho, since matters are thus, the more need have you to be on your guard; fortune helps the brave.
Ant. I am not myself.
Geta. But just now it is especially necessary you should be so, Antipho; for if your father perceives that you are alarmed, he will think that you have been guilty of some fault. ”

“ Terence never liked the stories about the Good People. "Don't be telling us about them fairies all the time," he would say. "Tell us about men; that's what I like better."
"Don't call them by that name," Mrs. O'Brien would answer. "They don't like it, and if you call them by it they may do you harm."
"I'll call them what I like," Terence would say, "and they'll do me no harm. It's a worthless lot they are, and you know that same yourself, Mrs. O'Brien, if you'ld only think so. They can do no harm to you, or to any woman or man that knows how to deal with them. ”

“ Neither does Terence ever descend to anything not possible, such as the statue of the warrior supping with Don Juan. His facts are all such as were probable, and find their main plot in infanticide; and the recognition by means of the token appended to obtain their funeral rites; and in the paucity of women, which affords a sufficient cause for a forcible abduction of the wife. ”

“ Has got a music-girl, Heav’n bless the mark!
With whom he means to live, and quit the other.
Dem. And are you well assur’d of this?
Hegio. The mother,
The girl, the fact itself, are all before you,
Joining to vouch the truth on’t. And besides,
This Geta here—as servants go, no bad one,
Nor given up to idleness—maintains them;
The sole support of all the family.
Here take him, bind him, force the truth from him.
Geta. Aye, torture me, if ’tis not so, good Demea!
Nay, Æschinus, I’m sure, will not deny it. ”

“ Life TERENCE.
Terence was born probably at Carthage, reached Rome as a slave-boy, and passed there into the possession of a rich and educated Senator, P. Terentius Lucanus, by whom he was educated and manumitted, taking from him the name of Publius Terentius the African. ‘A small literary circle of the Roman aristocracy admitted young Terence to their intimate companionship; and soon he was widely known as making a third in the friendship of Gaius Laelius with the first citizen of the Republic, the younger Scipio Africanus. ”

“ Terence was speaking. My lady held her breath to listen.
'I speak to you as from the grave,' he said. 'My life is done. A week or two at most, and my place will be vacant--my shadow will darken the threshold of my ancestors no more. Take care, my brother! When you look on my empty seat let the sad memory of me be precious on your hearth, untarnished by regret. You are the head of the house. Do not forget the responsibilities to which you are born. Look at the tapestry in the drawing-room, and follow the example of your fathers. Do your duty by them; be without fear and without reproach. ”

“ Geta?
Geta. Æschinus——
Sos. What about him?
Geta. Has abandoned our family.
Sos. Then I am undone! Why so?
Geta. He has attached himself to another woman.
Sos. Woe unto wretched me!
Geta. And he makes no secret of it; he himself has carried her off openly from a procurer.
Sos. Are you quite sure of this?
Geta. Quite sure; I saw it myself, Sostrata, with these same eyes.
Sos. Ah wretched me! What is one now to believe, or whom believe? Our own Æschinus, the very life of us all, in whom all our hopes and comforts were centred! Who used to swear he could never live a single day without her! ”

“ Mene. Give me your hand: and let me beg you, Chremes,
Continue to assist me!
Chrem. Willingly.
Mene. D’ye know what I would have you do at present?
Chrem. What?
Mene. Since you have found out they meditate
Some practice on me, prithee, urge them on
To execute it quickly: for I long
To grant his wishes, long to see him straight.
Chrem. Let me alone. I must lay hold of Syrus,
And give him some encouragement.—But see!
Some one, I know not who, comes forth: In, in,
Lest they perceive that we consult together! ”

“ I have always said that Terence was one of the Good People, and I never believed it more than this minute. If he is one of them, he cannot come near the cross, and the iron will be a terror to him too. If he [268] tries to come too near to you, touch him with it, and then we'll see."
"Why can he not come near the cross?" Kathleen asked.
"Because," Mrs. O'Brien said, "the Good People are a kind of spirits, and no spirits can do you any harm if you hold the cross before you, or if you make the sign of the cross. Did I never tell you what the Good People were? ”

“ What! am I a stranger to you, Geta?
Geta. I don’t consider you so. But is it so trifling a matter that the old gentleman is now vexed with us all, that we must provoke him still more, and leave no room for entreaty?
Phæd. Is another man to take her away from before my eyes to some unknown spot? Alas! speak to me then, Antipho, and look upon me while you have the opportunity, and while I’m present. ”

“ Syr. You mean the design upon Menedemus? I have; I have just hit upon one.
Chrem. You are a clever fellow; what is it? Tell me.
Syr. I’ll tell you; but, as one matter arises, out of another——
Chrem. Why, what is it, Syrus?
Syr. This Courtesan is a very bad woman.
Chrem. So she seems.
Syr. Aye, if you did but know. O shocking! just see what she is hatching. There was a certain old woman here from Corinth,—this Bacchis lent her a thousand silver drachmæ.
Chrem. What then?
Syr. She is now dead: she has left a daughter, a young girl. She has been left with this Bacchis as a pledge for that sum. ”

“ Phormio has so arranged it, that you shall not be a suppliant to your father, but his judge.
Phæd. You are joking.
Phor. So it is, I tell you. Do you only give me the thirty minæ which Dorio—
Phæd. You put me well in mind; I understand you; you may have them; for he must give them back, as the law forbids a free woman to be sold; and, on my faith, I do rejoice that an opportunity is afforded me of rewarding you, and taking a hearty vengeance upon him; a monster of a fellow! he has feelings more hardened than iron.
Phor. Now, Phædria, I return you thanks ”

“ But him they suit not: his stupidity
Is so transcendent, it exceeds them all.
SCENE II. Enter Chremes.
Chrem. (to Sostrata, within) . Nay prithee, good wife, cease to stun the Gods
With thanking them that you have found your daughter;
Unless you fancy they are like yourself,
And think they can not understand a thing
Unless said o’er and o’er a hundred times.
—But meanwhile (coming forward) wherefore do my son and Syrus
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Loiter so long?
Mene. Who are those loiterers, Chremes?
Chrem. Ha, Menedemus, are you there?—Inform me,
Have you told Clinia what I said?
Mene. The whole. ”

“ It was insisted on, relied on, made a trump card of, flung full in young Terence's audacious face. May sat by her husband in that strange mixed mood that he roused in her, half pride, half humiliation; scorning him because he would not bow before the truth, exulting in the audacity, the dash, and the daring of him, at the spirit that caught victory out of danger and turned mistake into an occasion of triumph. For triumph it was that night. Who could doubt his sincerity, who question the injured honour that rang like a trumpet through his words? ”

“ Ctesipho goes into the house of Micio; and exeunt Æschinus and Syrus, followed by Sannio.
ACT THE THIRD. Scene I. Enter Sostrata and Canthara, from the house of the former.
Sos. Prithee, my dear nurse, how is it like to end?
Can. Like to end, do you ask? I’troth, right well, I trust.
Sos. Her pains are just beginning, my dear.
Can. You are in a fright now, just as though you had never been present on such an occasion—never been in labor yourself.
Sos. Unfortunate woman that I am! I have not a person at home; we are quite alone; Geta too is absent. ”

“ ACT THE THIRD. Scene I. Enter Demipho and Chremes.
Dem. Well, have you brought your daughter with you, Chremes, for whom you went to Lemnos?
Chrem. No.
Dem. Why not?
Chrem. When her mother found that I staid here longer than usual, and at the same time the age of the girl did not 335 suit with my delays, they told me that she, with all her family, set out in search of me.
Dem. Pray, then, why did you stay there so long, when you had heard of this?
Chrem. Why, faith, a malady detained me.
Dem. From what cause? Or what was it?
Chrem. Do you ask me? Old age itself is a malady. ”

“ For your young son, d’ye think, to have one mistress,
While you have two wives?—Are you not asham’d?
Have you the face to chide him? answer me!
609 Dem. He shall do ev’ry thing you please.
Naus. Nay, nay,
To tell you plainly my whole mind at once,
I’ll not forgive, nor promise any thing,
Nor give an answer, till I see my son.
Phor. Wisely resolv’d, Nausistrata.
Naus. Is that
Sufficient satisfaction for you?
Phor. Quite.
I rest contented, well pleas’d, past my hopes.
Naus. What is your name, pray?
Phor. My name? Phormio:
A faithful friend to all your family,
Especially to Phædria. ”

“ Good Gods! what a multitude there is! Our house will hardly hold them, I’m sure. How much they will eat! how much they will drink! what will there be more wretched than our old gentleman? (Catching sight of Clinia and Clitipho.) But look, I espy the persons I was wanting.
Clin. (apart.) Oh Jupiter! Why, where is fidelity gone? While I, distractedly wandering, have abandoned my country for your sake, you, in the mean time, Antiphila, have been enriching yourself, and have forsaken me in these troubles, you for whose sake I am in extreme disgrace, and have been disobedient to my father ”