Andria 228 - 235

[Pacifica]

Mysis
Audivi, Archylis, iamdudum: Lesbiam adduci iubes.
sane pol illa temulentast mulier et temeraria
nec sati' digna quoi committas primo partu mulierem. 230
tamen eam adducam? inportunitatem spectate aniculae
quia compotrix eius est. di, date facultatem obsecro
huic pariundi atque illi in aliis potiu' peccandi locum.
sed quidnam Pamphilum exanimatum video? vereor quid siet.
opperiar, ut sciam num quid nam haec turba tristitiae adferat. 235

Mysis
I heard this, Archylis, some while ago now: you order that Lesbia be brought here. By Pollux, that woman's clearly drunken and reckless and not worthy enough to be entrusted with a woman giving birth for the first time. You still want me to bring her? Look at the old woman's relentlessness, because she's her drinking companion. Gods, I beseech you, give to this woman the possibility to give birth, and to that one the opportunity to do wrong to some others instead. But why on earth do I see Pamphilus faint with fear? I'm afraid of what the matter is. I'll wait and see if this mess brings anything sad.

 

[limetrees]

235
Opperiar, ut sciam num quid nam haec turba tristitiae adferat
I’ll wait to know if this trouble means any bad news [the old-ish English word “import” had the same sense as “afferre” here: “news of sad import”]

And, a little off topic, but hey.
On “opperior ut”, here it’s a purpose clause, and could have been any verb, but look at this phrase: any opinions as to how to explain the ut clause here?
From Tacitus:
Opperiebatur Nero, ut Vestinus quoque consul in crimina traheretur, violentum et infensum ratus.

Is it, as here, that he simply tarried, so that Vestinus be charged? Or is there a sense of “Expecting Vestinus to be charged”? But if so, how does the “ut” work with the “opperiebatur”?

 

[Pacifica]

It's "to wait for". An ut clause can be like a noun with some verbs (whose meaning is generally by nature close to that of wishing or aiming at something - opperiri, expectare, velle, ardere, petere, imperare...), kind of a direct object, as an acc-inf. can be. (and it can also be a subject clause, again, as well as acc-inf's).

Acc-inf's, ut clauses, quod clauses, and even the bare subjunctive have something of a "substantial potentiality" (I always invent terms...).

 

[limetrees]

It's "to wait for". An ut clause can be like a noun with some verbs (whose meaning is generally by nature close to that of wishing or aiming at something - opperiri, expectare, velle, ardere, petere, imperare...), kind of a direct object, as an acc-inf. can be. (and it can also be a subject clause, again, as well as acc-inf's).

Acc-inf's, ut clauses, quod clauses, and even the bare subjunctive have something of a "substantial potentiality" (I always invent terms...).

I'm just wondering what happened to the rest of the play.
Did ye ever finish it? Does it end here? Is it in the forum somewhere but I can't find it?

Thanks for this "Opperior ut" comment, by the way.

 

[Pacifica]

We finished it, but had decided to stop posting everything automatically, but only do so if we encountered a problem we couldn't solve by ourselves (which didn't happen, except for two or three little bits which we later checked with an English translation).

Currently we're translating Plautus' Asinaria.

 

[limetrees]

Fair enough.