80
THE COMEDIES OF PLAUTUS.
gon in 'L'Avare.' It shall be given in as literal a prose version as it will bear, in order to its more ready comparison with the French imitation.
EUCLIO (solus, rushing on the stage).
I'm ruined! dead! murdered!—where shall I run? Where shall I not run to? Stop him there, stop him!—Stop whom! Who's to stop him? (Striking his forehead in despair.) I can't tell—I can see nothing—I'm going blind. Where I'm going, or where I am, or who I am, I cannot for my life be sure of! (Wringing his hands, and appealing to the audience.) Oh pray—I beseech you, help me! I implore you, do! Show me the man that stole it! Ah! people put on respectable clothes, and sit there as if they were all honest! (Addressing a spectator in the front seats.) What did you say, sir? I can believe you, I'm sure—I can see from your looks you're an honest man. (Looking round on them all.) What is it? Why do you all laugh? Ah, I know you all! There are thieves here, I know, in plenty! Eh! have none of them got it? I'm a dead man! Tell me then, who's got it?—You don't know? Oh, wretch, wretch that I am! utterly lost and ruined! Never was man in such miserable plight. Oh, what groans, what horrible anguish this day has brought me! Poverty and hunger! I'm the most unhappy man on earth. For what use is life to me, when I have lost all my gold? And I kept it so carefully!—Pinched myself, starved myself, denied myself in everything! And now others are making merry over it,—mocking at my loss and my misery! I cannot bear it!—Act v. sc. 2.[1]
The scene which follows between the miser and the
- ↑ Compare Molière's 'L'Avare,' act iv. sc. 7.
