Mostellaria is a play by the Roman author Plautus. Its name translates from Latin as The Haunted House . It is a comedy with a very linear plot. It is set in the city of Athens, on a street in front of the houses of Theopropides and Simo.
“To blow and swallow at the same moment is not easy.”
Act III, sc. 2, line 104; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
“I love truth, and wish to have it always spoken to me : I hate a liar. (translated by Thornton)”
Ego verum amo, verum vol mihi dici : mendacem odi.
Mostellaria, Act I, scene 3, line 26
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
“Nothing so wretched as a guilty conscience.”
Nihil est miserius, quam animus hominis conscius.
Act III, scene i, line 13.
Variant translation: Nothing is more wretched than the mind of a man conscious of guilt. (translator unknown)
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
“Each man reaps on his own farm.”
Act III, sc. 2, line 112; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
“Drink! live like the Greeks! eat! gorge!. (translator unknown)”
Bibite ! pergraecamini ! Este ! effercite vos !
Mostellaria, Act I, scene 1, lines 61-62
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
“Things we hope not for oftener come to pass than things we wish for. (translated by Thornton)”
Insperata accidunt magis saepe quam que speres.
Act I, scene 3, line 42.
Variant translation: Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope. (translator unknown)
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)
