Chapter 5

(Enter STROBILUS, at a distance.)

STROBILUS: (to himself.) Immortal Gods, with what and how great delights do you present me! I’ve got a four pound pot filled with gold; who there is richer than I?

What man is there greater than I at Athens now; any one, I mean, to whom the Gods are propitious?

LYCONIDES: (to himself.) Why, surely, I seemed just now to hear the voice of some one speaking here.

STROBILUS: (to himself.) Ha! do I not see my master?

LYCONIDES: (to himself.) Do I see Strobilus now, my servant?

STROBILUS: (to himself.) ’Tis he himself.

LYCONIDES: (to himself.) ’Tis no other.

STROBILUS: (to himself.) I’ll accost him.

LYCONIDES: (to himself.) I’ll step out towards him. I do think that he has been, as I requested him, to the old woman, the nurse herself of this damsel.

STROBILUS: (to himself.) Why don’t I tell him that I’ve found this prize, and speak out? For that reason, I’ll beg of him to make me free. I’ll go and speak to him. (Addressing him.) I’ve found—

LYCONIDES: What have you found?

STROBILUS: Not that which the boys cry out that they’ve found in the bean.

LYCONIDES: And are you trifling with me then, as you are in the habit of doing? (He turns as if to go away.)

STROBILUS: Master, stop; I’ll speak out then; do listen.

LYCONIDES: Come then, tell me.

STROBILUS: I’ve found to-day, master very great riches.

LYCONIDES: Where, pray?

STROBILUS: A four pound pot, I say, full of gold!

LYCONIDES: What crime is this that I hear of from you?

STROBILUS: I’ve stolen it from this old fellow, Euclio.

LYCONIDES: Where is this gold?

STROBILUS: In my box at home; I now wish to be made free.

LYCONIDES: I, make you free, you fellow, brimful of wickedness?

STROBILUS: Out upon you, master, I know what you would be at. Troth, I’ve cleverly tried your inclination; you were just getting ready to take it away from me; what would you do, if I had found it?

LYCONIDES: You can’t make good your pretences. Come, give up the gold!

STROBILUS: I, give up the gold?

LYCONIDES: Give it up, I say, that it may be given back to him.

STROBILUS: Where am I to get it from?

LYCONIDES: That which you confessed just now to be in your box.

STROBILUS: I’ faith, I’m in the habit of talking nonsense;

’twas in that way I was speaking.

LYCONIDES: (seizing him.) But do you know what?—

STROBILUS: Even kill me outright, i’ faith, you never shall get it hence of me

A SUPPLEMENT TO THE AULULARIA BY CODRUS URCEUS.) STROBILUS: — the pot belonging to the old fellow, which I’ve not got.

LYCONIDES: I will have it, whether you will or no; when I’ve tied you up all fours, and torn asunder your body for you tied up to the beam. But why do I delay to rush upon the jaws of this rascal, and why this instant do I not compel his soul to take its journey before its time? Are you going to give it me or not?

STROBILUS: I will give it you.

LYCONIDES: I want you to give it me now, and not at a future time.

STROBILUS: I’ll give it now; but I entreat you to allow me to recover breath. (LYCONIDES lets him go.) Aha! What is it you want me to give you, master?

LYCONIDES: Don’t you know, you rascal? And do you dare to refuse me the four pound pot full of gold which you just now said you had stolen? (Calling at the door.) Hallo there! Where now are the flogging men?

STROBILUS: Master, do hear a few words. Lyc. I won’t hear; floggers, hallo there—hallo!

(Enter two FLOGGING SLAVES.)

SLAVE.: What’s the matter?

LYCONIDES: I want the chains to be got ready.

STROBILUS: Listen to me, I beg of you; afterwards order them to bind me as much as you please.

LYCONIDES: I will hear you; but hasten the matter very quickly.

STROBILUS: If you order me to be tortured to death, see what you obtain; in the first place, you have the death of your slave. Then, what you wish for you cannot get. But if you had only allured me by the reward of dear liberty, you would already have obtained your wish. Nature produces all men free, and by nature all desire freedom. Slavery is worse than every evil, than every calamity; and he whom Jupiter hates, him he first makes a slave.

LYCONIDES: You speak not unwisely

STROBILUS: Now then hear the rest. Our age has produced masters too grasping, whom I’m in the habit of calling Harpagos, Harpies, and Tantali, poor amid great wealth, and thirsty in the midst of the waters of Ocean; no riches are enough for them, not those of Midas, not of Crœsus; not all the wealth of the Persians can satisfy their Tartarean maw. Masters use their slaves rigorously, and slaves now obey their masters but tardily; so on neither side is that done which would be fair to be done. Their provisions, kitchens, and store-cellars, avaricious old fellows shut up with a thousand keys. Slaves, thievish, doubledealers, and artful, open for themselves things shut up with a thousand keys, which the owners hardly like to be granted to their lawful children, and stealthily do they carry off, consume, and lick them up—fellows that will never disclose their hundred thefts even at the gibbet; thus in laughter and joking do bad slaves take revenge upon their slavery. So then, I come to the conclusion that liberality renders slaves faithful.

LYCONIDES: Rightly, indeed, have you spoken, but not in a few words, as you promised me. But if I do make you free, will you give me back what I’m asking for?

STROBILUS: I will give it back; but I wish for witnesses to be present; you’ll pardon me, master, I trust you but little.

LYCONIDES: Just as you please; let there be present even a hundred; then I shouldn’t care about it.

STROBILUS: (going to the door of the house of MEGADORUS.) Megadorus, and you, Eunomia, please come here, I beg of you; the business finished, you shall return directly.

(Enter MEGADORUS and EUNOMIA.)

MEGADORUS: Who’s calling us? Ha! Lyconides!

EUNOMIA: Ha! Strobilus, what is the matter? Say.

LYCONIDES: ’Tis a short matter.

MEGADORUS: What is it?

STROBILUS: I’m calling you as witnesses. If I bring here a four pound pot full of gold and give it up to Lyconides, Lyconides makes me a free man, and orders me to be my own master. (To LYCONIDES.) Do you not promise me so?

LYCONIDES: I do promise so.

STROBILUS: Have you heard now what he has said?

MEGADORUS: We have heard.

STROBILUS: Swear, then, by Jupiter.

LYCONIDES: Alas! to what I am reduced by the misfortunes of others! You are too insulting; still, I’ll do what he bids me.

STROBILUS: Hark you, our generation hasn’t much confidence in people: the documents are signed; the twelve witnesses are present; the registrar writes down the time and the place; and still, the pleader is found to deny that it has been done.

LYE.: But release me speedily, please.

STROBILUS: Here, take this stone. (Giving him a stone.)

LYCONIDES: If I knowingly deceive you, so may Jupiter reject from me his blessings, the city and citadel safe, as I do this stone. (He throws it.) Have I now satisfied you?

STROBILUS: I am satisfied; and I’m going to bring the gold.

LYCONIDES: Go with the speed of Pegasus, and return devouring the road with your rapid steps. (Exit STROBILUS.) Any impertinent slave, that wishes to be more wise than his master, is a nuisance to a decent man. Let this Strobilus be off as a free man to utter perdition, if he only brings me the pot full of pure gold, so that I may restore Euclio, my father-in-law, from his grief to joy, and obtain the favour of his daughter, who is just brought to bed by reason of my debauching her. But see! Strobilus is returning, loaded; as I guess, he’s bringing the pot; and, for sure, it is the pot that he’s carrying.

(Enter STROBIOUS, carrying the pot of gold.)

STROBILUS: Lyconides, I bring you my findings that I promised—the four pound pot of gold; have I been long?

LYCONIDES: Why, yes. (He takes some of the gold out of the pot.) O immortal Gods, what do I behold? Or what is it I hold? More than six hundred Philippean pieces, three or four times over. But let’s call out Euclio forthwith.

LYCONIDES: (going to the door of EUCLIO’S house.) Ho, Eucho, Euclio!

MEGADORUS: Euclio, Euclio!

EUCLIO: (opening his window.) What’ the matter?

LYCONIDES: Come down to us, for the Gods will you to be saved; we’ve got the pot.

EUCLIO: Have you got it, or are you trifling with me?

LYCONIDES: We’ve got it, I say. Now, if you can, fly down hither.

EUCLIO: (having come out of the house to them.) O great Jupiter! O household Divinity and Queen Juno! and Alcides, my treasurer! that at length you do show pity upon a wretched old man. (Taking the pot in his arms.) O my pot! O how aged I, your friend, do clasp you with joyful arms, and receive you with kisses; with a thousand embraces even I cannot be satisfied. O my hope! my heart! that dissipates my grief.

LYCONIDES: (aside, to MEGADORUS.) I always thought that to be in want of gold was the worst thing for both boys and men, and all old people. Indigence compels boys to be guilty of misdeeds, men to thieve, and old men themselves to become beggars. But’tis much worse, as I now see, to abound in gold beyond what’s necessary for us. Alas! what miseries has Euclio endured on account of the pot, that a little while since was lost by him!

EUCLIO: To whom shall I give deserved thanks? Whether to the Gods, who show regard for good men, or to my friends, upright men, or to them both? Rather to both, I think; and first to you, Lyconides, the origin and author of so great a good; you do I present with this pot of gold; accept it with pleasure. I wish it to be your own, and my daughter as well, in the presence of Megadorus, and his good sister, Eunomia.

LYCONIDES: (receiving the pot of gold.) The favour is received, and is returned, in thanks, as you deserve, Eucho, a father-in-law most acceptable to me.

EUCLIO: I shall think the favour sufficiently returned to me, if you now receive with pleasure my gift, and myself as well for your father-in-law.

LYCONIDES: I do receive it; and I wish my house to be that of Euclio.

STROBILUS: What still remains, master,—remember now that I’m to be free.

LYCONIDES: You’ve well put me in mind. Be you a free man, O Strobilus, for your deserts; and now prepare in-doors the dinner that has been so disturbed.

STROBILUS: (coming forward.) Spectators, the avaricious Euclio has changed his nature; he has suddenly become liberal; so, too, do you practise liberality; and if the play has pleased you well, loudly clap your hands.