Aulularia

Acts

• Prologue

  Prologue. The household god explains: Euclio has found a pot of gold buried by his grandfather. He is consumed by the terror of losing it.

  39 lines
• 1
  Act 1

  Euclio hoards the gold with paranoid ferocity. He screams at his slave Staphyla, suspects every visitor, and refuses to spend a penny.

  84 lines
• 2
  Act 2

  Megadorus, a wealthy bachelor, asks to marry Euclio's daughter without a dowry. Euclio suspects a trap — surely he's discovered the gold.

  359 lines
• 3
  Act 3

  Wedding preparations begin. Euclio's terror intensifies. He moves the gold's hiding place repeatedly and suspects the cooks of being spies.

  201 lines
• 4
  Act 4

  The gold is stolen from its latest hiding place. Euclio's grief is extreme and genuine: 'My gold! My beautiful gold!'

  282 lines
• 5
  Act 5

  The thief is revealed. The gold is returned. Euclio finally gives it away as a wedding dowry, freed from his obsession at last. (The ending is reconstructed from later summaries.)

  49 lines