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equidem ioco illa dixeram dudum tibi,
ridiculi causa. vel hunc rogato Sosiam. |
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If I said it, that doesn't make you that, nor do I think you're that
and I've come back to apologize to you,
because nothing has ever made me suffer more
than when I learned that you were angry with me.
'Why did you say it?' you'll ask. I'll tell you.
Not, certainly, because I believed you were unchaste;
I was testing your fibre,
to see what you'd do, how you'd handle it.
Yes, I said those things just now as a game,
a kind of practical joke. Why just ask Sosia here.
(90817) |
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Alcumena won't accept this, doesn't offer the preferred response. Instead, she counters by daring him to carry out the "threat" Amphitruo had made in 848851. |
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ALC. Quin huc adducis meum cognatum Naucratem,
testem quem dudum te adducturum dixeras,
te huc non venisse? |
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ALC. Why don't you bring here my kinsman Naucrates,
whom you said before you'd bring as a witness
that you hadn't come here.
(91820) |
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Not wanting to produce a witness for the prosecution, Juppiter clings to his excuse: Si quid dictum est per iocum, / non aequom est id te serio praevortier ("If something's been said as a joke, it's not fair for you to take it seriously" 920921); but Alcumena will not yield: Ego illud scio quam doluerit cordi meo ("I know how deeply that pained my heart" 922); so he must get to his divine knees: Per dexteram tuam te, Alcumena, oro obsecro, / da mihi hanc veniam, ignosce, irata ne sies ("By your right hand, Alcumena, I beg and beseech you, forgive me, pardon me, don't be angry" 923924). |
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This is the basic move made by Juppiter in this scene (and it should be noted that it refers to and is probably accompanied by a gesture the taking of her right hand which symbolizes the move). He has abandoned pre-requests, conciliatory gestures and explanations, and formally begs to be pardoned. Austin would call this a speech-act, and Juppiter's language here is lexically and morpho-syntactically formulaic. Two verbs of beseeching in the first person present indicative active (oro obsecro) introduce the request, articulated by three verbs which are morphologically or semantically imperatives, though here these imperatives beg (rather than order) the addressee to perform the indicated acts (da . . . ignosce . . . ne sies). But it is only in context that we can know what the speaker is asking forgiveness for, |
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