Suus rex reginae placet.

Her own king is pleasing to the queen
(Plautus, Stychus 133)

(pron = soos reks reh-GHEE-nai PLAH-ket)

Comment: This line comes in the middle of a conversation between a father and a
daughter about whether the daughters (there are two of them) will take new
husbands that their father has arranged for them since their husbands have been
gone for three years.

This particular daughter argues that she wishes to remain loyal to her missing
husband. This queen is pleased by her own king. She goes on to say that in
poverty (now) she still experiences what she once experienced in riches, and
she has a few more words to say to her father--that while he was working on a
match with regard to money, she has made a match to the man himself.

In Plautus' plays, fathers are often being outwitted or outdone somehow by their
"lesser" counterparts: sons, daughters, and slaves. Ironically, by showing a
Roman daughter besting her father in a marriage plan, Plautus is showcasing,
humorously, virtues that were valued by the Romans: loyalty, duty, and honor.
In this scene, the father, convinced that his daughters' will not take new
husbands, says that he will go and tell his friends. The daughter has a
parting shot: it will be received best it you will tell it to honorable men.

More often than not, when young people are allowed space to find their way,
express their hearts, identify their own paths in life, they do a beautiful
job! And often, while taking the way that seems unacceptable, they do a
brilliant job of demonstrating the very values their parents were trying to
force on them. The parents' real job is allowing space for this to happen.
Very difficult work!



Bob Patrick
(Used with permission)
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