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context are not sufficient to determine its specific force; its place in the structure of this conversation enables us to read it as a conclusive "no" to the request for peace. That Melaenis means it as conclusive can be confirmed by Alcesimarchus' desperate attempt to continue the conversation: |
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ALC. Face semel periclum. MEL. Feci saepe, quod factum queror. |
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ALC. Give it a try this one time.
MEL. I've often given it a try, and I'm sorry I did.
(504) |
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We can arguably infer from this exchange that she means to leave (or is already walking off the stage), and the directness and vehemence of his subsequent pleas would seem to support this inference. |
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ALC. Redde mi illam. MEL. Inter novam rem verbum usurpabo vetus.
quod dedi datum non vellem, quod relicuomst non dabo.
ALC. Non remissura es mihi illam? MEL. Pro me responsas tibi.
ALC. Non remittes? MEL. Scis iam dudum omnem meam sententiam.
ALC. Satin istuc tibi in corde certumst? MEL. Quin ego commentor quidem. |
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ALC. Send her back to me. MEL. I'll apply an old adage to a new situation:
What I gave, I wish I hadn't given. What's left I won't give.
ALC. You're not going to send her back?
MEL. You're answering yourself for me.
ALC. You won't send her back?
MEL. You've long since learned my intention.
ALC. Have you really firmly decided that? MEL. Why, I'm not even thinking
about it any more.
(5059) |
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Each of his utterances in this segment of the dialogue is an indirect request delivered to a representative of the beloved for reconciliation. Each is equivalent to a direct request such as "come back," but each is grammatically and lexically different. We find an imperative (redde), a question with a periphrastic construction consisting of a future active participle plus a form of esse (remissura es), another question, this time with a simple future (remittes), and finally the follow-up question "Are you quite sure (that you will not send her back to me)?" Her responses are much more varied in form and content, but each one is a refusal to accede to his request. |
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Then, true to his promise (304) to swear until he is hoarse, he begins an oath, but confuses the genealogies of the gods he is invoking, and Melainis interrupts to correct them (512516). He blames these slip-ups on her (517). "Go on" (perge dicere 517), she says. He responds, "Why don't you go on and speak, so I can know what you're going to decide" (Anne etiam, ut quid consultura sis sciam, pergis eloqui? 518). ''I won't sent her back. That's |
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(footnote continued from previous page) |
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friendship," it could also be read as "you've destroyed the ticket (that entitled you to special privileges)." |
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