Miles Gloriosus

Plautus, Titus Maccius

Plautus. The Comedies of Plautus, Volume 1. Riley, H. T., translator. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1912.

  1. Why, Philocomasium is there at home, she whom you were saying that you had seen next door kissing and toying with another man.
SCELEDRUS
  1. ’Tis a wonder that you are in the habit of feeding on darnel[*](Feeding on darnel: He means to say that his sight must have failed him, and, by way of accounting for it, that he must have lived on bread made of darnel. This grain was supposed not only to cause the person eating to appear as it intoxicated, but very seriously to affect the eyesight. Ovid says in the Fasti, B. 1., l. 691, Let the fields, also, be clear of darnel that weakens the eyes.), with wheat at so low a price.
PALAESTRIO
  1. Why so?
SCELEDRUS
  1. Because you are so dim of sight.
PALAESTRIO
  1. You gallows-bird, ’tis you, indeed, that are blind, with a vengeance, and not dim of sight; for, sure enough, there she is at home.
SCELEDRUS
  1. How? At home?
PALAESTRIO
  1. At home, i’ faith, undoubtedly.
SCELEDRUS
  1. Be off with you; you are playing with me, Palaestrio
PALAESTRIO
  1. My hands are dirty, then.
SCELEDRUS
  1. How so?