The jest in this sentence turns on the word rectè, which refers to an Athenian custom of binding criminals’ hands and feet together. Simo (A. 5. S. 3. p. [86].) orders Dromo to bind Davus in the manner before mentioned: (atque audin’? quadrupedem constringito.) Pamphilus says, non rectè vinctus est: rectè has a double meaning, it signifies rightly, and also straight. Simo pretends to take it in the latter sense, which makes his son’s speech run thus, He is not bound straight or upright: to which Simo replies, I ordered he should not be bound straight, but crooked, or neck and heels. I trust I have made the force of this pun clear to the unlearned reader: the turn given it in the English translation is borrowed from Echard.
Pam. (to himself.)—Any one would think, perhaps, that I do not believe this to be true, but I know it is because I wish it so. I am of opinion, that the lives of the gods are eternal, because their pleasures are secure and without end.
“Epicurus observed, that the gods could not but be immortal, since they are exempt from all kinds of evils, cares, and dangers. But Terence gives another more refined reason, which more forcibly expresses the joy of Pamphilus; for he affirms that their immortality springs only from the durability of their pleasures. This passage is very beautiful. Pamphilus prefaces what he is going to say by the expression, “Any one would think, perhaps;” this was in a manner necessary to excuse the freedom which, arising from his joy, makes him assign another reason for the immortality of the gods than those discovered by the philosophers, particularly by Epicurus, whose name was still fresh in the recollection of every person, and whose doctrines were very generally received and adopted.” Madame Dacier.
[NOTE 213.]
Pam.—There is now no impediment to our marriage.
Nec mora ulla est, quin jam uxorem ducam.
Pamphilus does not mean by this expression, that he was not married before, but that now that he has his father’s consent to his union, he can ducere uxorem, lead his wife publicly to his own house with the usual ceremonies. The latter phrase ducere uxorem, to marry, took its rise from the custom of leading the bride from her father’s to her husband’s house, in a ceremonial procession. For an account of the marriages of the Greeks, vide Notes [116], [117], [118]. Marriages, among the Romans, were of three kinds. The first, and most binding, by which women of rank and consideration were married, was called confarreatio: when the parties were joined by the high priest, in the presence of a great number of witnesses; and ate a cake made of meal and salt. The second kind of marriage was usus, when the parties lived together for one year. The third kind was called coemptio or mutual purchase, in which the bride and bridegroom gave each other a piece of money, and repeated over a set form of words.
[NOTE 214.]
Char. (aside.)—This man is dreaming of what he wishes when awake.
——Num ille somniat
Ea, quæ vigilans voluit.
The optative influence, (if I may so call it,) on the visions of the night, here alluded to by Terence, has been described at length by a celebrated poet, in verses which charm the ear with their melody, and which command the approbation of the judgment as a faithful portraiture of nature. Their author wrote verses, which, in harmony of measure, excelled those of all the Roman poets, excepting Ovid.