Laudator Temporis Acti

Plautus, Truculentus 865-870 (Phronesium to Diniarchus; tr. Wolfgang de Melo):

I know that you have a betrothed and a son from your betrothed,
that you need to marry her now, and that your mind is already elsewhere,
so that you'll treat me as an abandoned girl. But still,
think what a clever animal the little mouse is;
it never entrusts its life to a single hole
without already having chosen another shelter if one is being besieged.

scio equidem sponsam tibi esse et filium ex sponsa tua,        865
et tibi uxorem ducendam iam, esse alibi iam animum tuom,
ut <me> quasi pro derelicta sis habiturus. sed tamen
cogitato mus pusillus quam sit sapiens bestia,
aetatem qui non cubili <uni> umquam committit suam,
quin, si unum [odium] opsideatur, aliud <iam> perfugium <ele>gerit.       870

867 ut me Lambinus: et BC, e D
869 uni add. Bücheler
870 quin si Bothe: quia si B, quasi CD
odium B: om. CD, ostium Camerarius
iam perfugium elegerit Leo: perfugium gerit P

Line 867 is garbled in the Digital Loeb Classical Library edition, with the presence of the nonsensical thanme: The text of Truculentus is poorly preserved as it is, and the Digital Loeb Classical Library just makes it worse here.

For parallels to lines 868-870 see Heinrich Bebel, Proverbia Germanica, ed. W.H.D. Suringar (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1879), pp. 389-391, number 305 (Misera est vulpes, quae unum tantum latibulum habet).

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