Thursday, February 01, 2024
How Is Everybody Doing?
Terence, Andria 804-805 (Crito and Mysis; tr. John Sargeaunt):
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CRI And you others? how do you get on here? pretty well?Sidney G. Ashmore on line 805:
MYS So so, Sir: as the saying is, we do as we can since we can't as we would.
CRI quid vos? quo pacto hic? satine recte?
MYS nosne? sic:
ut quimus, aiunt, quando ut volumus non licet.
A proverb, as aiunt (= "as the saying runs") shows. Cf. the fuller id quod aiunt and quod aiunt in Phorm. 506 and 768. Among the fragments of Menander (Mein. vol. iv. p. 84) the line appears with slight variation: ζῶμεν γὰρ οὐχ ὡς θέλομεν, ἀλλ ' ὡς δυνάμεθα; and among those of Caecilius are the words (Ribbeck, Com. Lat. Rel. p. 56), uiuas ut possis, quando non quia ut uelis.In modern numbering this is Menander, fragment 47 Kassel and Austin.
