I see your mistress, Calidorus.CALIDORUSWhere is she, prithee?PSEUDOLUSSee, here she is at full length in the letter; she’s lying upon the wax.CALIDORUSNow, may the Gods and Goddesses, inasmuch— Inasnmuch: He is going to say, may the Divinities confound you; which anathema Pseudolus adroitly turns aside, and refrains from further provoking his master.PSEUDOLUSPreserve me from harm, to wit.CALIDORUSFor a short season have I been like a summer plant Like a summer plant: Some Commentators think that Plautus refers to some imaginary plant, which was supposed to grow up and wither on the day of the summer Solstice. It seems, however, more probable that he only refers to the short existence of summer flowers in general.; suddenly have I sprung up, suddenly have I withered.PSEUDOLUSBe silent, while I read the letter through.CALIDORUSWhy don’t you read it then?PSEUDOLUS(reading.)Phœnicium to her lover, Calidorus, by means of wax and string and letters, her exponents, sends health, and safety does she beg Safety does she beg: The writer plays upon the different meanings of the word sarus. She sends you salus, greeting or salutation, and requests you to find her salus, safety or rescue, in return. of you, weeping, and with palpitating feelings, heart, and breast.CALIDORUSI’m undone; I nowhere find, Pseudolus, this safety for me to send her back.PSEUDOLUSWhat safety?CALIDORUSA silver one.PSEUDOLUSAnd do you wish to send her back a silver safety for one on wood For one on wood: Meaning, in return for her salus, or salutation, upon the wooden tablet, is it your wish to send her salus, safety, procured through the medium of money, by effecting her liberation.? Consider what you’re about.CALIDORUSRead on now; I’ll soon cause you to know from the letter how suddenly there’s need for me for one of silver to be found.PSEUDOLUS(reading on.)The procurer has sold me, my love, for twenty minae, to a Macedonian officer from abroad. Before he departed hence, the Captain paid him fifteen minae; only five minae now are remaining unpaid.On that account the Captain left here a token—his own likeness impressed on wax by his ring—that he who should bring hither a token like to that, together with him the procurer might send me. The next day hence, on the Festival of Bacchus Festival of Bacchus: Dionysia. There were several festivals of Bacchus at Athens. They were called Dionysia from Dionysus, the Greek same of that God., is the one fixed for this matter.CALIDORUSWell, that’s to-morrow; my ruin is near at hand, unless I have some help in you.PSEUDOLUSLet me read it through.CALIDORUSI permit you; for I seem to myself to be talking to her. Read on; the sweet and the hitter are you now mingling together for me.PSEUDOLUS(reading on.)Now our loves, our tenderness, our intimacy,our mirth, our dalliance, our talking, our sweet kisses, the close embrace of us lovers equally fond, the soft, dear kisses impressed on our tender lips, the delicious pressing of the swelling bosom; of all these delights, I say, for me and for you as well,the severance, the destruction, and the downfal is at hand, unless there is some rescue for me in you or for you in me. I have taken care that you should know all these things that I have written; now shall I make trial how far you love me, and how far you pretend to do so.CALIDORUS’Tis written, Pseudolus, in wretchedness.PSEUDOLUSAlas! very wretchedly Very wretchedly: Pseudolus probably intends to allude to the bad hand in which the letter seems to have been written, while his master refers to the sorrowful tone of the epistle..CALIDORUSWhy don’t you weep, then?PSEUDOLUSI’ve eyes of pumice stone Of pumice stone: That is, as dry as purnice stone.; I can’t prevail upon them to squeeze out one tear even.CALIDORUSWhy so?PSEUDOLUSMy family was always a dryeyed one.