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In the exchange that follows, Agorastocles explains the reason for his fury, and gives more specific grammatical instructions on the method of persuasion to be used. |
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AG. sicine ego te orare iussi? MI. Quo modo ergo orem? AG. Rogas?
sic enim diceres, sceleste: huius voluptas, te opsecro,
huius mel, huius cor, huius labellum, huius lingua, huius savium,
huius delicia, huius salus amoena, huius festivitas:
huius colustra, huius dulciculus caseus, mastigia,
huius cor, huius studium, huius savium, mastigia.
omnia illa, quae dicebas tua, esse ea memorares mea. |
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AG. Is that how I told you to plead? MI. Then how should I be pleading?
AG. You're asking? Well you should have spoken like this: "his joy, I beg you,
his honey, his heart, his lip, his tongue, his kiss,
his delight, his sweet salvation, his darling,
his beestings, his sweet little cheese . . ." rascal!
" . . . his heart, his desire, his kiss . . ." rascal!
Everything that you said was yours you should have been calling mine.
(38691) |
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The essence of this outburst is that the spokesman cannot use amorous vocatives of the form "my . . ." in trying to make peace between the lover and the beloved. These expressions, as Agorastocles points out, cannot be "happily" maintained with first person singular pronominal adjectives. Milphio then renews his attempt to persuade the girl, demonstrating how awkward, or ridiculous, it is to use "his . . .'' with a string of amorous vocatives. |
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MI. Opsecro hercle te, voluptas huius atque odium meum,
huius amica mammeata, mea inimica et malevola,
oculus huius, lippitudo mea, mel huius, fel meum,
ut tu huic irata ne sis aut, si id fieri non potest,
capias restim ac te suspendas cum ero et vostra familia.
nam mihi iam video propter te victitandum sorbilo,
itaque iam quasi ostreatum tergum ulceribus gestito
propter amorem vestrum. |
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MI. By Hercules, I beseech you, his joy and my pain,
his full-breasted friend, my ill-wishing enemy,
his eye, my oozing of eyes, his honey, my bile,
that you not be angry at him, or, if that can't be,
that you get a rope and hang yourself, with my master and your family,
because I see now that because of you I'll be subsisting on sips,
and my back is striped like an oyster with wounds
for your love's sake.
(3929) |
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