Cistellaria, or The Casket (549-565)

I told her in what way I had seen her take up the daughter of my mistress from the Hippodrome.

Then she was in a fright.

(apart.) Now my body’s in a shudder, my heart is throbbing; for I recollect that from the Hippodrome the little female infant was brought to me, and that I brought it up as my own.

Come, prithee, do go on; my soul’s longing to hear

how the matter proceeded.

(apart.) I only wish you couldn’t hear.

I proceed ⋯ saying[*], This old woman calls you her daughter wrongfully. ⋯ For this woman here is your foster-mother, so don’t think she is your mother. I’m to take you back and invite you to opulence, where you may be settled in a noble family,

where your father may present you with twenty great talents for a portion. For this is not a place where after the Etrurian mode[*] you are disgracefully to earn a dowry for yourself by prostitution of your person.

Is she, pray, a Courtesan, who took it up?

Yes, she was a Courtesan. But how it happened, I’ll tell you about that matter. I was now winning her over to me by my persuasion. The old woman embraced her knees, weeping and entreating that she would not forsake her; saying that she was her own daughter; and she took a solemn oath to me that she herself had borne her.