Nay, but do you let go my knees, then, and tell me why it is that you are making a noise? TRACHALIO I do beg and entreat you, that if you hope this year that you will have abundance of laserwort and silphium Laserwort and silphium : Sirpe and laserpitium seem to be different names for the same plant, laserwort, from which assafœtida is distilled. It grew abundantly in Cyrene, which region Catullus calls Laserpitiferae Cyrenae. The juice of this plant seems to have been used in making certain perfumes, for which reason it was exported to Capua . , and that that export will arrive at Capua At Capua —Ver. 631. Capua was the chief city of Campania , in Italy , and was famed for its luxury. It was celebrated for its choice perfumes; and in it there was one great street called Seplasia, which consisted entirely of shops, in which unguents and perfumes were sold. safe and sound, and that you may ever enjoy freedom from diseased eyes— DAEMONES Are you in your senses? TRACHALIO —Or whether you trust that you will have plenty of juice of silphium Juice of silphium : Magudaris is the root or juice of the plant called laserpicium. , that you will not hesitate to give me the aid which I shall entreat of you, aged sir. DAEMONES And I, by your legs, and ancles, and back, do entreat you that, if you hope that you will have a crop of elm-twigs, and that a fruitful harvest of beatings will this year be your lot, you will tell me what’s the matter here, by reason of which you are making this uproar. TRACHALIO Why do you choose to speak me ill? For my part, I wished you everything that’s good. DAEMONES And for my part, I’m speaking you well, in praying that things which you deserve may befall you. TRACHALIO Prithee, do prevent this. DAEMONES What’s the matter, then? TRACHALIO (pointing to the Temple.) Two innocent women are inside here, in need of your aid, on whom, against law and justice, an injury has been, is being, glaringly committed here in the Temple of Venus. Besides, the Priestess of Venus is being disgracefully insulted. DAEMONES What person is there of effrontery so great as to dare to injure the Priestess? But these women, who are they? Or what injury is being done to them? TRACHALIO If you give me your attention, I’ll tell you. They have clung to the statue of Venus; a most audacious fellow is now trying to tear them away. They ought, by rights, both of them to be free. DAEMONES What fellow is it that so lightly holds the Gods? In a few words tell me. TRACHALIO One most full of fraud, villany, parricide, and perjury; a lawbreaker, an immodest, unclean, most shameless fellow; to sum up all in one word, he is a Procurer; why need I say more about him? DAEMONES Troth now, you tell of a man that ought to be handed over to retribution. TRACHALIO A villain, to seize the Priestess by the throat. DAEMONES By my troth, but he has done it at his own great peril. (Calls aloud at his door.) Come you out of doors here, Turbalio and Sparax; where are you? TRACHALIO Prithee, do go in, and hasten to their rescue. DAEMONES (impatiently.) And am I to call for them once more? (from the cottage.) DAEMONES Follow me this way. Part of line 658b in the Latin. TRACHALIO Come on now this instant, bid them tear his eyes out, just in the way that cooks do cuttle-fish Cooks do cuttle-fish : This, probably, was a practice of ancient cookery, which, happily, has not come down to our times. . DAEMONES Drag the fellow out here by his legs, just like a slaughtered pig. (DAEMONES and his SERVANTS go into the Temple.) TRACHALIO (listening at the door.) I hear a scuffling; the Procurer, I guess, is being belaboured with their fists; I’d very much like them to knock the teeth out of the jaws of the most villanous fellow. But see, here are the women themselves coming out of the Temple in consternation. (Enter PALAESTRA and AMPELISCA, in haste, from the Temple, with dishevelled locks.) PALAESTRA Now is that time arrived when destitution of all resources and aid, succour and defence, overtakes us. Neither hope nor means is there to bring us aid, nor know we in what direction we should commence to proceed. In exceeding terror now are we both, in this our wretchedness. Such cruelty and such outrage have been committed towards us just now in-doors here by our master, who, in his villany, pushed down the old lady, the Priestess, headlong, and struck her in a very disgraceful manner, and with his violence tore us away from the inner side The inner side : Signo intumo may either mean the statue in the most distant and sacred recess, or the inner side of the statue, to which spot they had retired for safety. of the statue. But as our lot and fortunes are now showing themselves, ’twere best to die, nor in our miseries is there anything better than death. TRACHALIO (behind.) What’s this? Whose words are those? Why do I delay to console them? (Aloud.) Harkye, Palaestra,