Lucius Seneca - Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 2)

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Enter Micio from the house of Sostrata .

Mic. ( speaking at the door to Sostrata. ) Do as I told you , Sostrata; I’ll go find Æschinus, that he may know how these matters have been settled. ( Looking round. ) But who was it knocking at the door?

Æsch. ( apart. ) Heavens, it is my father!—I am undone!

Mic. Æschinus!

Æsch. ( aside. ) What can be his business here?

Mic. Was it you knocking at this door? ( Aside. ) He is silent. Why shouldn’t I rally him a little? It would be as well, as he was never willing to trust me with this secret . ( To Æschinus. ) Don’t you answer me?

Æsch. ( confusedly. ) It wasn’t I knocked at that door , that I know of.

Mic. Just so; for I wondered what business you could have here. ( Apart. ) He blushes; all’s well.

Æsch. Pray tell me, father, what business have you there?

Mic. Why, none of my own; but a certain friend of mine just now brought me hither from the Forum to give him some assistance.

Æsch. Why?

Mic. I’ll tell you. There are some women living here; in impoverished circumstances, as I suppose you don’t know them; and, in fact , I’m quite sure, for it is not long since they removed to this place.

Æsch. Well, what next?

Mic. There is a girl living with her mother.

Æsch. Go on.

Mic. This girl has lost her father; this friend of mine is her next of kin; the law obliges him to marry her. 75

Æsch. ( aside. ) Undone!

Mic. What’s the matter?

Æsch. Nothing. Very well: proceed.

Mic. He has come to take her with him; for he lives at Miletus.

Æsch. What! To take the girl away with him?

Mic. Such is the fact.

Æsch. All the way to Miletus, pray? 76

Mic. Yes.

Æsch. ( aside. ) I’m overwhelmed with grief. ( To Micio. ) But what of them? What do they say?

Mic. What do you suppose they should? Why, nothing at all. The mother has trumped up a tale, that there is a child by some other man, I know not who, and she does not state the name; she says that he was the first, and that she ought not to be given to the other.

Æsch. Well now, does not this seem just to you after all?

Mic. No.

Æsch. Why not, pray? Is the other to be carrying her away from here?

Mic. Why should he not take her?

Æsch. You have acted harshly and unfeelingly, and even, if, father, I may speak my sentiments more plainly, unhandsomely.

Mic. Why so?

Æsch. Do you ask me? Pray, what do you think must be the state of mind of the man who was first connected with her, who, to his misfortune, may perhaps still love her to distraction, when he sees her torn away from before his face, and borne off from his sight forever ? An unworthy action, father!

Mic. On what grounds is it so? Who betrothed her? 77Who gave her away? When and to whom was she married? Who was the author of all this? Why did he connect himself with a woman who belonged to another?

Æsch. Was it to be expected that a young woman of her age should sit at home, waiting till a kinsman of hers should come from a distance? This, my father, you ought to have represented, and have insisted on it.

Mic. Ridiculous! Was I to have pleaded against him whom I was to support? But what’s all this, Æschinus, to us? What have we to do with them? Let us begone:——What’s the matter? Why these tears?

Æsch. ( weeping. ) Father, I beseech you, listen to me.

Mic. Æschinus, I have heard and know it all; for I love you, and therefore every thing you do is the more a care to me.

Æsch. So do I wish you to find me deserving of your love, as long as you live, my dear father, as I am sincerely sorry for the offense I have committed, and am ashamed to see you.

Mic. Upon my word I believe it, for I know your ingenuous disposition: but I am afraid that you are too inconsiderate. In what city, pray, do you suppose you live? You have debauched a virgin, whom it was not lawful for you to touch. In the first place then that was a great offense; great, but still natural. Others, and even men of worth, have frequently done the same. But after it happened, pray, did you show any circumspection? Or did you use any foresight as to what was to be done, or how it was to be done? If you were ashamed to tell me of it, by what means was I to come to know it? While you were at a loss upon these points, ten months have been lost. So far indeed as lay in your power, you have periled both yourself and this poor girl , and the child. What did you imagine—that the Gods would set these matters to rights for you while you were asleep, and that she would be brought home to your chamber without any exertions of your own? I would not have you to be equally negligent in other affairs. Be of good heart, you shall have her for your wife.

Æsch. Hah!

Mic. Be of good heart, I tell you.

Æsch. Father, are you now jesting with me, pray?

Mic. I, jesting with you! For what reason?

Æsch. I don’t know; but so anxiously do I wish this to be true, that I am the more afraid it may not be.

Mic. Go home, and pray to the Gods that you may have your wife; be off.

Æsch. What! have my wife now?

Mic. Now.

Æsch. Now?

Mic. Now, as soon as possible.

Æsch. May all the Gods detest me, father, if I do not love you better than even my very eyes!

Mic. What! better than her?

Æsch. Quite as well.

Mic. Very kind of you!

Æsch. Well, where is this Milesian?

Mic. Departed, vanished, gone on board ship; but why do you delay?

Æsch. Father, do you rather go and pray to the Gods; for I know, for certain, that they will rather be propitious to you, 78as being a much better man than I am .

Mic. I’ll go in-doors, that what is requisite may be prepared. You do as I said, if you are wise.

Goes into his house.

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Æschinus alone.

Æsch. What can be the meaning of this? Is this being a father, or this being a son? If he had been a brother or familiar companion, how could he have been more complaisant! Is he not worthy to be beloved? Is he not to be imprinted in my very bosom? Well then, the more does he impose an obligation on me by his kindness, to take due precaution not inconsiderately to do any thing that he may not wish. But why do I delay going in-doors this instant, that I may not myself delay my own nuptials?

Goes into the house of Micio .

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Enter Demea .

I am quite tired with walking: May the great Jupiter confound you, Syrus, together with your directions! I have crawled the whole city over; to the gate, to the pond—where not? There was no joiner’s shop there; not a soul could say he had seen my brother; but now I’m determined to sit and wait at his house till he returns.