The Casket Comedy Essay Research Paper Example For Students

The Casket Comedy Essay Research Paper A monologue from the play by Titus Maccius Plautus NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from Plautus, vol. II. Trans. Paul Nixon. London: William Heinemann, 1917. HALISCA: If heaven doesnt rescue me, Im dead and done for, with not a soul to look to for aid! Oh, how miserable my own heedlessness makes me! Oh! how I dread what will happen to my back, if my mistress finds out Ive been so negligent! Surely I had that little casket in my hands and received it from her here in front of the houseand where it is now I dont know, unless I dropped it somewhere about here, as I suspect. Dear gentlemen, dear spectators, do tell me if anyone of you saw him, the man who carried it off or who picked it up. Did he go this way, or that? Im none the wiser for asking or pestering themthe creatures always enjoy seeing a woman in trouble! Now Ill examine the footprints here, in case I can find any. For if no one passed by after I went inside, the casket would be lying here. What am I to do? Im done for, I fancy! Its all over, my day has come, unlucky, fated wretch that I am! Not a trace of it, and there wont be a trace left of me, either! Its lost, and so Im lost, too! But I wont give up, though; Ill keep on looking. Oh, my hearts in a flutter and my backs in a frightfear on both sides driving me frantic! What poor, poor things human beings are! Now hes happy, whoever he is, that has itsomething thats no use to him and the death of me! But Im delaying myself by not setting to work. To work, Halisca! Eyes on the ground, eyes down! Track itsharp nowlike an augur! He went this way . . . heres the mark of a shoe in the dust . . . Ill follow it up this way! Now heres where he stopped with someone else . . . Heres the scene of some sort of fracas . . . No, he didnt go on this way . . . he stood here . . . from here he went over there . . . A consultation was held here . . . There are two people concerned, thats clear as day . . . Aha! Just one persons tracks! . . . He went this way . . . Ill investigate . . . From here he went over here . . . from here he went nowhere! Its no use. Whats lost is lostthe casket and my cuticle together. Im g oing back inside.