Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 3).djvu/120

He just inquired "How much she ask'd a night?"
Gnathæna, looking on his purple robe,
And princely bodyguard, said, "A thousand drachmæ."
He, as if smitten with a mortal wound,
Said, "I perceive, because of all these soldiers,
You look upon me as a captured enemy;
But take five minæ, and agree with me,
And let them get a bed prepared for us."
She, as the satrap seem'd a witty man,
Received his terms, and said, "Give what you like,
O father, for I know most certainly,
You'll give my daughter twice as much at night."
  There was at Athens once a handsome smith,
When she, Gnathænium, had almost abandon'd
Her trade, and would no longer common be,
Moved by the love of the actor Andronicus;
(But at this moment he was gone away,
After she'd brought him a male child;) this smith
Then long besought the fair Gnathænium
To fix her price; and though she long refused,
By long entreaty and liberality,
At last he won her over to consent.
But being but a rude and ill-bred clown,
He, one day sitting with some friends of his
In a leather-cutter's shop, began to talk
About Gnathænium to divert their leisure,
Narrating all their fond love passages.
But after this, when Andronicus came
From Corinth back again, and heard the news,
He bitterly reproach'd her, and at supper
He said, with just complaint, unto Gnathænium,
That she had never granted him such liberties
As this flogg'd slave had had allow'd to him.
And then they say Gnathænium thus replied:
That she was her own mistress, and the smith
Was so begrimed with soot and dirt that she
Had no more than she could help to do with him.
  One day they say Gnathænium, at supper,
Would not kiss Andronicus when he wish'd,
Though she had done so every day before;
But she was angry that he gave her nothing.
Said he, on this, "Gnathæna, don't you see
How haughtily your daughter's treating me?"
And she, indignant, said, "You wretched girl,
Take him and kiss him if he wishes it."
But she replied, "Why should I kiss him, mother,
Who does no good to any one in the house,
But seeks to have his Argos all for nothing?"
  Once, on a day of festival, Gnathænium
Went down to the Piræus to a lover,
Who was a foreign merchant, riding cheaply