born of a very high family, and of very great wealth; I trust that it will come to pass that I shall get my son in exchange for him.ERGASILUS May the Gods and Goddesses grant it so!HEGIOBut are you invited out anywhere to dinner?Part of line 172 in the Latin.ERGASILUS Nowhere that I know of. But, pray, why do you ask me?HEGIO Because this is my birthday; for that reason I’d like you to be invited to dinner at my house.ERGASILUS ’Tis kindly said. HEGIOBut if you can be content to eat a very little—Part of line 176 in the Latin. ERGASILUS Aye, even ever so little; for on such fare as that do I enjoy myself every day at home.HEGIOCome, then, please, set yourself up for sale.Part of line 179 in the Latin. ERGASILUS I’ll put myself up for purchase, just like a landed estate, unless any one shall privately make a better offer that pleases myself and my friends more, and to my own conditions will I bind myself.HEGIO You are surely selling me a bottomless pitA bottomless pit: He plays upon the resemblance in sound of the word fundum,landed property, to profundum, a deep cavity, to which he compares the Parasite’s stomach. You sell me landed property, indeed; say rather a bottomless pit., and not a landed estate. But if you are coming, do so in time.ERGASILUS Why, for that matter, I’m at leisure even now. HEGIO Go then, and hunt for a hare; at present, in me you have but a ferretHave but aferret: This passage has much puzzled the Commentators; but allowing for some very far-fetched wit, which is not uncommon with Plautus, it may admit of some explanation. He tells the Parasite that he had better look for a nicer dinner, a hare, in fact; for that in dining with him, he will only get the ferret (with which the hare was hunted) for his dinner. Then, inasmuch as the ferret was used for following the hare or rabbit into scruposae viae,impervious or rocky places where they had burrowed, he adds: For my dinner, ferret-like, frequents rugged places; by which he probably means that it is nothing but a meagre repast of vegetables, of which possibly capers formed a part, which grow plentifully in Italy, in old ruins and craggy spots. Some suggest that it was a custom with the huntsmen, if they failed to catch the hare, to kill and eat the ferret., for my fare is in the way of frequenting a rugged road.ERGASILUS You’ll never repulse me by that, Hegio, so don’t attempt it. I’ll come, in spite of it, with teeth well shod.HEGIO Really, my viands are but of a rough sortAre but of a rough sort: The word asper means either uncavoury or prickly, according to the context. Hegio means to use it in the former sense, but the Parasite, for the sake of repartee, chooses to take it in the latter.. ERGASILUS Are you in the habit of eating brambles?HEGIO Mine is an earthy dinner. ERGASILUS A pig is an earthy animal.HEGIO Earthy from its plenty of vegetables.ERGASILUS Treat your sick peoplesTreat your sick people: He means that such a dinner may suit sick people, but will not be to his taste. at home with that fare? Do you wish anything else?HEGIO Come in good time. ERGASILUS You are putting in mind one who remembers quite well. (Exit.)HEGIO I’ll go in-doors, and in the house I’ll make the calculation how little money I have at my banker’s; afterwards I’ll go to my brother’s, whither I was saying I would go. (Goes into his house.)

(Enter, from the house, PHILOCRATES, TYNDARUS, and SLAVES and CAPTIVES of HEGIO.)A SLAVE If the immortal Gods have so willed it that you should undergo this affliction, it becomes you to endure it with equanimity; if you do so, your trouble will be lighterWill be lighter: The English proverb corresponds with this: What can’t be cured must be endured.. At home you were free men, I suppose; now if slavery has befallen you, ‘tis a becoming way for you to put up with it, and by your dispositions to render it light, under a master’s rule.Unworthy actions which a master does must be deemed worthy ones.PHILOCRATES and TYNDARUS Alas! alas! alas! A SLAVE There’s no need for wailing; you cause much injury to your eyes. In adversity, if you use fortitude of mind, it is of service.PHILOCRATES and TYNDARUS But we are ashamed, because we are in bonds.