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266 PHORMIO 1. I have followed here the arguments of G. E. Duckworth in The Nature of Roman Comedy (Princeton, 1952), 85–87, that the Roman convention of wing entrances was opposite to the convention in Athens, where the harbor was off stage left, the agora off stage right. 2. Luscius Lanuvinus, one of Terence’s rivals. 3. Terence refers to a scene from a recently produced play of Luscius Lanuvinus. Antipho, Demipho’s son Chremes, Demipho’s brother, Phaedria’s father Davus, a slave, Geta’s friend Demipho, Antipho’s father, Chremes’ brother Dorio, a pimp Geta, slave of Antipho and Demipho Hegio, Cratinus, and Crito, Demipho’s friends Nausistrata, Chremes’ wife, Phaedria’s mother Phaedria, Chremes’ son Phormio, a parasite Sophrona, handmaid of Phanium, Antipho’s wife SCENE: A street in Athens. Off stage left, the street leads toward the forum; off stage right, it leads toward the harbor.1 Behind the street are two houses: Demipho’s at stage right and Chremes’ at stage left. prologue: (spoken by an anonymous actor) Well, that old playwright2 is at it again. He’s tried before to discourage our playwright and force him to retire , but he hasn’t succeeded. So now he’s decided to scare him off with insults . He’s been going around saying that what our playwright has written up to now has been weak in diction, anemic in style. Well, I suppose that’s because our playwright has never put onstage a young man hallucinating, convinced he sees a deer pursued by dogs, begging and pleading with him to rescue her.3 You know, that old playwright wouldn’t be so brazen in insulting our playwright if he realized the truth: back when his play succeeded at its first performance, it was more because of the chief actor than because of anything he did. Now perhaps there’s somebody out there who’s saying or 04B-T1535-P4 2/20/01 5:35 PM Page 266 thinking: “If the old playwright hadn’t insulted him, your new playwright wouldn’t be able to come up with a prologue of his own, since he wouldn’t have anybody to abuse.” Here’s what our playwright says to that: “The prize is available to anyone who writes poetry.” He has tried to drive him off the stage, to starvation: our man only wants to respond, not to insult him. If he had competed with kind words, he would have received kind words in return. Just let him think of it this way: he has gotten as good as he gave. For my part, I’ll lay off talking about him now, even though for his part he never lays off doing wrong. Now, listen to what I want. I am bringing you a new comedy. It’s called Epidicazomenos in Greek. In Latin it’s called Phormio, because the parasite Phormio will play the lead role, and will instigate most of the action—that is, as long as you are well disposed to our playwright. Pay attention, and give the play a fair hearing in silence, so we don’t have the same bad luck we had before, when our company was driven from the stage by confusion. Only the excellence of our lead actor—with the help of your goodness and fairness—has brought us back.4 He exits. Davus enters stage left and approaches Demipho’s house. davus: My best friend and fellow slave Geta came to me yesterday. For a long time I’ve had a little bit of his money in my possession. He wanted me to get it for him. I got it, and I’m bringing it to him. I hear his young master has taken a wife. I guess he’s scraping together a gift for her. You know, it’s really not fair: those who have less are always giving something to those who have more. Poor Geta just barely managed to save up some cash, bit by bit, from his allowance,5 cheating himself. Now she’s going to snatch all of it right out of his hands. And she won’t have any thought for how much work it took to get it. Not only that, but Geta will be hit up for another present, when his mistress has a baby; and still another, when it’s the child’s Phormio 267 4. The speaker refers to the first performance of Terence’s The Mother-in-Law...

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