XIII Lusco the Merchant
Grac. And that other one—what is the kind of commerce in which he engages?
Turd. He has sent his father a letter written in a weeping strain concerning the sad state of his studies. The letter-carrier himself read the letter since it was left open. The father, a man impervious to culture (crassae Minervae), has handed him over from MSS. to wools, cloths, dyes, pepper, ginger, and cinnamon. Now girt as to his arms, wonderfully diligent and sedulous in his odorous shop, he invites his customers, receives them blandly, climbs up and comes down most unsafe ladders, produces his goods, shows them this way and that, tells lies, perjures himself. Everything is easier to him than studying.
Nugo. From a boy I have known him intent on business, and to delight in money, and so he has held business in higher esteem than letters, and he has preferred filthy lucre to the excellency of erudition. Some time he will repent it.
Turd. But too late!
Nugo. Without doubt. May he take care that it does not happen to him as it did to his cousin.
Turd. Which?