Comedy · 1852
Casina
The Stratagem Defeated
Translated by Henry Thomas Riley (1852)
Two slaves, Olympio the bailiff and Chalinus the armour-bearer, are set to win the foundling girl Casina as a bride, each at the secret bidding of a rival in love: old Stalino wants her for himself, and his son for himself. His wife Cleostrata takes her son's side, the matter is settled by drawing lots, and when Stalino's man wins she and her friend Myrrhina dress up Chalinus as the veiled bride, so that the old lecher and the bailiff go off to the bridal chamber with a bearded, hard-fisted wife; the play ends in a thrashing, a pardon, and the discovery that Casina is a freeborn Athenian.
Contents · 6 parts