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Subject Area: History
Subject Area: Literature

TRANSLATION FROM PLAUTUS. (1850.) - Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay, Miscellaneous Writings, Vol.2 [1830]

Edition used:

The Miscellaneous Writings of Lord Macaulay, vol. 2, (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860).

Part of: The Miscellaneous Writings of Lord Macaulay, in 2 vols.

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TRANSLATION FROM PLAUTUS. (1850.)

[The author passed a part of the summer and autumn of 1850 at Ventnor, in the Isle of Wight. He usually, when walking alone, had with him a book. On one occasion, as he was loitering in the landslip near Bonchurch, reading the Rudens of Plautus, it struck him that it might be an interesting experiment to attempt to produce something which might be supposed to resemble passages in the lost Greek drama of Diphilus, from which the Rudens appears to have been taken. He selected one passage in the Rudens, of which he then made the following version, which he afterwards copied out at the request of a friend to whom he had repeated it.]

  • Act. IV. Sc. vii.
  • Dæmones. O Gripe, Gripe, in ætate hominum plurimæ
  • Fiunt transennæ, ubi decipiuntur dolis;
  • Atque edepol in eas plerumque esca imponitur.
  • Quam si quis avidus pascit escam avariter,
  • Decipitur in transenna avaritia sua.
  • Ille, qui consulte, docte, atque astute cavet,
  • Diutine uti bene licet partum bene.
  • Mi istæc videtur præda prædatum irier:
  • Ut cum majore dote abeat, quam advenerit.
  • Egone ut, quod ad me adlatum esse alienum sciam,
  • Celem? Minime istuc faciet noster Dæmones.
  • Semper cavere hoc sapientes æquissimum est,
  • Ne conscii sint ipsi maleficiis suis.
  • Ego, mihi quum lusi, nil moror ullum lucrum.
  • Gripus. Spectavi ego pridem Comicos ad istum modum
  • Sapienter dicta dicere, atque iis plaudier,
  • Quum illos sapientis mores monstrabant poplo;
  • Sed quum inde suam quisque ibant diversi domum,
  • Nullus erat illo pacto, ut illi jusserant.
    • ΔΑΙΜ. Ὦ Γρῖπε, Γρῖπε, πλεῖστα παγίδων σχήματα
    • ἴδοι τις ἂν πεπηγμέν’ ἐν θνητῶν βίῳ,
    • ϰαὶ πλεῖστ’ ἐπ’ αὐτοῖς δελέαθ’, ώ̃ν ἐπιθυμίᾳ
    • ὀρεγόμενός τις ἐν ϰαϰοῖς ἁλίσϰεται·
    • ὅστις δ’ ἀπιστεῖ ϰαὶ σοϕῶς ϕυλάττεται
    • ϰαλῶς ἀπολαύει τῶν ϰαλῶς πεπορισμένων.
    • ἅρπαγμα δ’ οὐχ ἅρπαγμ’ ὁ λάρναξ οὑτοσὶ,
    • ἀλλ’ αὐτὸς, οἶμαι, μᾶλλον ἁρπάξει τινά.
    • τόνδ’ ἄνδρα ϰλέπτειν τἀλλότρι’ — εὐϕήμει, τάλαν·
    • ταυτήν γε μὴ μαίνοιτο μανίαν Δαιμονῆς.
    • τόδε γὰρ ἀεὶ σοϕοῖσιν εὐλαβητέον,
    • μή τί ποθ’ ἑαυτῷ τις ἀδίϰημα συννοῇ·
    • ϰέρδη δ’ ἔμοιγε πάνθ’ ὅσοις εὐϕραίνομαι,
    • ϰέρδος δ’ ἀϰερδὲς ὃ τοὐμὸν ἀλγύνει ϰέαρ.
    • ΓΡΙΠ. ϰἀγὼ μὲν ἤδη ϰωμιϰῶν ἀϰήϰοα
    • σεμνῶς λεγόντων τοιάδε, τοὺς δὲ θεωμένους
    • ϰροτεῖν, ματαίοις ἡδομένους σοϕίσμασιν·
    • εἶθ’, ὡς ἀπῆλθ’ ἕϰαστος οἴϰαδ’, οὐδενὶ
    • οὐδὲν παρέμεινε τῶν ϰαλῶς εἰρημένων.