Because if she has been found whom he so loves, he is alive and well. If she is not found, he is not well, and is like to die. His mistress is the very life of a lover. If she is away, he is non-existent; if she is with him, his property is non-existent, and himself worthless and wretched.But what have you done in respect of his commission?PISTOCLERUS And ought I not to have his request complied with against his arrival, which his messenger brought to me from him? I’d sooner be dwelling in the realms of Acheron than not.CHRYSALUS How now, have you found out this Bacchis?PISTOCLERUS Yes, and a Samian one too. CHRYSALUS Prithee, do take care that no one handles her carelessly: you know how soon a Samian vesselA Samian vessel: He plays upon the word Samian, as the isle of Samos was celebrated for the quality of its earthenware, which, as he here says, was very brittle. is wont to break.PISTOCLERUS What now, your old habit? CHRYSALUS Prithee, do tell me where she now is.PISTOCLERUS Here, where you just now saw me coming out.CHRYSALUS How capital that is! She’s living almost next door. Does she at all remember Mnesilochus?PISTOCLERUS Do you ask me that? Aye, him alone does she esteem at the very highest value.CHRYSALUS Indeed! PISTOCLERUS Yes, and were you to believe her, distractedly in love—she quite longs for him.CHRYSALUS That’s good. PISTOCLERUS Yes, Chrysalus; see, now; not even so small a space of time ever passes by as thisPasses by as this: This is doing what the Greeks call δεικτικῶς. Suiting the action to the word, he points at the time of speaking to something very small, perhaps the breadth of his finger-nail., out that she is uttering his name.CHRYSALUS I’ faith, so much the better.(Moving, as if about to go.)PISTOCLERUS Yes; but—(Holds him.)CHRYSALUSYes, faith Yes, faith: It has been suggested that Chrysalus is put out of patience here by the frequent repetition by Pistoclerus of the word immo,aye, or yes. on which he rejoins, immo, &c., yes, and I’ll be off., I’d rather be off.PISTOCLERUS And do you so unwillingly hear how your master’s interests have prospered?CHRYSALUSNo, not the subjectNo, not the subject: He seems to mean that he is not displeased with the subject. but at the tedious way in which Pistoclerus relates it to him., but the actor offends my feelings with his tediousness. Even Epidicus, a play that I love quite as much as my own self, were Pollio to act itPollio to act it: It is clear from this that the Epidicus of Plautus was written before the Bacchides. With a rather unusual degree of license he seems to refer to an event that has recently happened, and it is not improbable that the Epidicus, good play as it was, had suffered from the demerits of some contemptible actor of the day, known as Pollio. Plautus thus excuses his play, and excites a laugh by the quaintness of the remark. There is a passage in the Nigrinus of Lucian that throws light on this: Friend, have you never seen a bad Tragic or Comic actor? some of those I mean who are hissed because they spoil a good play with their acting, and are at last driven off the stage; though the play itself be at other times applauded, and bear away the prize., no play would I see so reluctantly. But, does Bacchis seem handsome, as well, to you?PISTOCLERUS Do you ask the question? Had I not got a Venus, I should pronounce her a Juno.CHRYSALUS I’ faith, Mnesilochus, as I find these matters proceeding, there’s something ready for you to love; ’tis needful that you find something to give her.But, perhaps you have need of gold for that other one?PISTOCLERUS Yes, some Philippeans. CHRYSALUS And you have need of it directly, perhaps?PISTOCLERUS Aye, and even sooner than directly. For there’s a Captain coming here just now—CHRYSALUS A Captain, indeed! PISTOCLERUS Who is demanding some gold here for relinquishing Bacchis.