DIONYSUS
O, dear! O, dear! now I
declare
I've got a bump upon my rump,
FROGS
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
DIONYSUS
But you, perchance,
don't
care.
FROGS
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
DIONYSUS
Hang you, and your
ko-axing
tool
There's nothing but ko-ax with you.
FROGS
That is right, Mr.
Busybody,
right!
For the Muses of
the
lyre love us
well;
And hornfoot Pan who plays on the pipe
his jocund lays;
And Apollo, Harper bright, in our Chorus
takes delight;
For the strong reed's sake which I grow within my lake
To be girdled in his lyre's deep shell.
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
DIONYSUS
My hands are blistered
very
sore;
My stern below is sweltering so,
'Twill soon, I know, upturn and roar
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
O tuneful race, O pray give o'er,
O sing no more.
FROGS
Ah, no! ah, no!
Loud and louder our chant must flow.
Sing if ever ye sang of yore,
When in sunny and glorious days
Through the rushes and marsh-flags springing
On we swept, in the joy of singing
Myriad-diving roundelays.
Or when fleeing the storm, we went
Down to the depths, and our choral song
Wildly raised to a loud and long
Bubble-bursting accompaniment.
FROGS AND DIONYSUS
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
DIONYSUS
This timing song I take
from
you.
FROGS
That's a dreadful thing
to
do.
DIONYSUS
Much more dreadful, if I
row
Till I burst myself, I trow.
FROGS AND DIONYSUS
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
DIONYSUS
Go, hang yourselves; for
what care
I?
FROGS
All the same we'll shout
and
cry,
Stretching all our throats with song,
Shouting, crying, all day long,
FROGS AND DIONYSUS
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
DIONYSUS
In this you'll never,
never
win.
FROGS
This you shall not beat
us
in.
DIONYSUS
No, nor ye prevail o'er
me.
Never! never! I'll my song,
Shout, if need be, all day Yong,
Until I've learned to master your ko-ax.
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
I thought I'd put a stop to your ko-ax.
CHARON
Stop! Easy! Take the oar
and push
her to.
Now pay your fare and go.
DIONYSUS
Here' tis: two obols.
Xanthias! where's Xanthias? Is it Xanthias there?
XANTHIAS
off
stage
Hoi, hoi!
DIONYSUS
Come hither.
XANTHIAS
Entering
Glad to meet you, master.
DIONYSUS
What have you there?
XANTHIAS
Nothing but filth and
darkness.
DIONYSUS
But tell me, did you see
the
parricides
And perjured folk he mentioned?
XANTHIAS
Didn't you?
DIONYSUS
Poseidon, yes. Why look!
pointing to the
audience
I see them now.
What's the next step?
XANTHIAS
We'd best be moving on.
This is the spot where Heracles declared
Those savage monsters dwell.
DIONYSUS
O hang the fellow.
That's all his bluff: he thought to scare me off,
The jealous dog, knowing my plucky ways.
There's no such swaggerer lives as Heracles.
Why, I'd like nothing better than to achieve
Some bold adventure, worthy of our trip.
XANTHIAS
I know you would. Hallo!
I hear a
noise.
DIONYSUS
Where? what?
XANTHIAS
Behind us, there.
DIONYSUS
Get you behind.
XANTHIAS
No, it's in front.
DIONYSUS
Get you in front
directly.
XANTHIAS
And now I see the most
ferocious
monster.
DIONYSUS
O, what's it like?
XANTHIAS
Like everything by turns.
Now it's a bull: now it's a mule: and now
The loveliest girl.
DIONYSUS
O, where? I'll go and
meet
her.
XANTHIAS
It's ceased to be a
girl: it's a
dog now.
DIONYSUS
It is Empusa!
XANTHIAS
Well, its face is all
Ablaze with fire.
DIONYSUS
Has it a copper leg?
XANTHIAS
A copper leg? yes, one;
and one of cow
dung.
DIONYSUS
O, whither shall I flee?
XANTHIAS
O, whither I?
DIONYSUS
My priest, protect me,
and we'll
sup together.
XANTHIAS
King Heracles, we're
done
for.
DIONYSUS
O, forbear, Good fellow,
call me
anything but that.
XANTHIAS
Well then, Dionysus.
DIONYSUS
O, that's worse again,
XANTHIAS
to
the SPECTRE
Aye, go thy way. O
master, here,
come here.
DIONYSUS
O, what's up now?
XANTHIAS
Take courage; all's
serene.
And, like Hegelochus, we now may say
"Out of the storm there comes a new wether."
Empusa's gone.
DIONYSUS
Swear it.
XANTHIAS
By Zeus she is.
DIONYSUS
Swear it again.
XANTHIAS
By Zeus.
DIONYSUS
Again.
XANTHIAS
By Zeus.
O dear, O dear, how pale I grew to see her,
But he, from fright has yellowed me all over.
DIONYSUS
Ah me, whence fall these
evils on
my head? on
Who is the god to blame for my destruction?
Air, Zeus's chamber, or the Foot of Time?
A flute is played
behind the
scenes.
XANTHIAS
What's the matter?
DIONYSUS
The breath of flutes.
XANTHIAS
Aye, and a whiff of
torches
Breathed o'er me too; a very mystic whiff.
DIONYSUS
Then crouch we down, and
mark
what's going on.
CHORUS
in
the distance
O lacchus! O lacchus! O
Iacchus!
XANTHIAS
I have it, master: 'tis
those
blessed Mystics,
Of whom he told us, sporting hereabouts.
They sing the Iacchus which Diagoras made.
DIONYSUS
I think so too: we had
better both
keep quiet
And so find out exactly what it is.
Enter CHORUS, who had chanted the songs of the FROGS, as
initiates.
CHORUS
O Iacchus! power
excelling, here in
stately temples dwelling.
O Iacchus! O lacchus!
Come to tread this verdant level,
Come to dance in mystic revel,
Come whilst round thy forehead hurtles
Many a wreath of fruitful myrtles,
Come with wild and saucy paces
Mingling in our joyous dance,
Pure and holy, which embraces all the charms of
all
the Graces,
When the mystic choirs advance.
XANTHIAS
Holy and sacred queen,
Demeter's
daughter,
O, what a jolly whiff of pork breathed o'er me!
DIONYSUS
Hist! and perchance
you'll get some
tripe yourself.
CHORUS
Come, arise, from sleep
awaking,
come the fiery torches shaking,
O Iacchus!
O Iacchus!
Morning Star that shinest
nightly.
Lo, the mead is blazing brightly,
Age forgets its years and sadness,
Aged knees curvet for gladness,
Lift thy flashing torches o'er us,
Marshal all thy blameless train,
Lead, O lead the way before us; lead the lovely youthful
Chorus
To the marshy
flowery plain.
All evil thoughts and profane be still: far hence, far
hence from our
choirs depart,
Who knows not well what the Mystics tell, or is not holy
and pure of
heart;
Who ne'er has the noble revelry learned, or danced
the dance of the Muses
high;
or shared in the Bacchic
rites which old bull-eating
Cratinus's
words supply;
Apis, Bull-eating
Dionysus
tauro-phagos [a^],
on,
A. bull-eating, epith. of Dionysus,
S.Fr.668; applied
to Cratinus by Ar.Ra.357 (anap.).
[6] Cratinus of
Aegeira in Achaia was the most
handsome man of his time and the most skilful
wrestler, and when he won
the wrestling-match for boys the Eleans allowed him to
set up a statue
of his trainer as well. The statue was made by
Cantharus of Sicyon,
whose father was Alexis, while his teacher was
Eutychides.
glôssa
2. obsolete or foreign
word, which needs explanation, Arist. Rh.1410b12,
Po.1457b4,
Plu.2.406f: hence Glôssai, title of works by Philemon
and others.
1. in Music, reed or tongue of
a pipe, Aeschin.3.229, Arist.HA565a24,
Thphr.HP4.11.4, etc.
Aeschines,
Speeches But when a man who is made up of words,
and those words bitter words and useless--when such a
man takes refuge
in "simplicity" and "the facts," who could have patience
with him? If y
bômolochos [lochaô]
1. properly one that
lurked
about the altars for the scraps that could be got there, a
half-starved
beggar, Luc.
2. metaph. one who
would do any dirty work to get a meal, a lick-spittle,
low jester, buffoon, Ar.:--as adj., bômolochon ti
exeurein to
invent some ribald trick, id=Ar.; of vulgar music,
id=Ar.
[1315] Who vulgar coarse buffoonery
loves, though
all untimely the they make;
Or lives not easy and
kind with all, or
kindling faction forbears to slake,
But fans the fire, from a base desire some pitiful gain
for himself
to reap;
parasi-tus , i,
m., = parasitos, lit. one who eats with another; hence,
parasiti Jovis, the gods,
parasitus Phoebi,
a player, actor,
Mart. 9, 29, 9.--
one who, by flattery and buffoonery, manages to live at another's expense, a sponger, toad-eater, parasite Comically, of a whip that
he will make
his elm-twigs stick to me like parasites, i. e. give me a
sound flogging, The tutelar
deity of parasites was Hercules
I. In gen., a guest (pure Lat. conviva):
parasiti
Jovis, the gods, Varr. ap. Aug. Civ. Dei, 6, 7;
App. M. 10, p.
246, 35.--Hence, parasitus Phoebi, a player, actor,
Mart.
9, 29, 9.--
II. In partic., in a bad
sense, one who, by flattery and
buffoonery, manages to live at another's expense, a
sponger, toad-eater, parasite (syn.
scurra): nos parasiti planius ... Quasi mures semper edimus alienum cibum, etc.,Plaut.
Capt.
1, 1, 7 ; cf. id.
Pers.
1, 3, 3; id.
Stich.
2, 1, 42: parasitorum in comoediis assentatio, Cic.
Lael. 26, 98 : edaces parasiti, Hor. Ep.
2, 1, 173 ;
Juv. 1, 139. --Comically, of a whip: ne ulmos parasitos
faciat, that
he will make his elm-twigs stick to me like parasites,
i. e. give
me a sound flogging, Plaut.
Ep.
2, 3, 5.--The tutelar deity of parasites was Hercules, Plaut.
Curc.
2, 3, 79.
Or takes, in office, his gifts and bribes, while the city
is tossed
on the stormy deep;
Who fort or fleet to the
foe betrays; or, a
vile Thorycion, ships away
Forbidden stores from Aegina's shores, to Epidaurus across
the
Bay
Transmitting oar-pads and sails and tar, that curst
collector of five
per cents;
The knave who tries to procure supplies for the use of the
enemy's
armaments;
The Cyclian
singer who dares
befoul the Lady
Hecate's wayside shrine;
The public speaker who once lampooned in our Bacchic feasts
would, with
heart malign,
Keep nibbling away the Comedians' pay;- to
these I
utter my
warning
cry,
I charge them once, I charge them twice,
I charge them thrice, that they draw not nigh
To the sacred dance of the Mystic
choir.
But ye, my comrades, awake the song,
The night-long revels
of joy and mirth
which ever of right to our feast belong.
- hupaidô
,
- A. sing by way of
accompaniment, Linon d' hupo kalon aeide (sc. têi
phormingi)
Il.18.570; hê d' hupo kalon aeise (sc. hê neurê)
Od.21.411; tais Mousais ti melos hupaisate Ar.Ra.874 ;
without acc., to
accompany with the voice, choroisi ib.366; tini
Luc.Salt.30; in poet.
form hupaeidô , aor. hupêeisan Call.Dian.242 ; hu.
nomon
Id.Del.304 . [The a of hupaeidô used long by Call.Del.
l. c.]
-
- Riducule kômôid-eô ,
- to koinon kai
kekômôidêmenon, of the parasites
- kuno-kephalos , on,
- A. dog-headed: hoi K.,
Dog-heads, name of a people, Hdt.1.191,
cf. Ctes.Fr.57.22, A.Fr.431.
Advance, true hearts, advance!
On to the gladsome bowers,
On to the sward, with flowers
Embosomed bright!
March on with jest, and jeer, and dance,
Full well ye've supped to-night.
March, chanting loud your lays,
Your hearts and voices raising,
The Saviour goddess praising
Who vows she'll still
Our city save to endless days,
Whate'er Thorycion's will.
Break off the measure, and change the time; and now with
chanting and
hymns adorn
Demeter, goddess mighty and high, the harvest-queen, the
giver of
corn.
O Lady, over our rites presiding,
Preserve and succour thy choral throng,
And grant us all, in thy help confiding,
To dance and revel the whole day long;
And much in earnest, and much in jest,
Worthy thy feast, may we speak therein.
And when we have bantered and laughed our best,
The victor's wreath be it ours to win.
Call we now the youthful god, call him hither without
delay,
Him who travels amongst his chorus, dancing along on the
Sacred
Way.
O, come with the joy of thy festival song,
O, come to the goddess, O, mix with our throng
Untired, though the journey be never so long.
O Lord of the frolic and dance, lacchus, beside me
advance!
For fun, and for cheapness, our dress thou hast rent,
Through thee we may dance to the top of our bent,
Reviling, and jeering, and none will resent.
O Lord of the frolic and dance, lacchus, beside me
advance!
A sweet pretty girl I observed in the show,
Her robe had been torn in the scuffle, and lo,
There peeped through the tatters a bosom of snow.
O Lord of the frolic and dance, lacchus, beside me
advance!
DIONYSUS
Wouldn't I like to
follow on, and
try
A little sport and dancing?
XANTHIAS
Wouldn't I?
CHORUS
Shall we all a merry joke
At Archedemus poke,
Who has not cut his guildsmen yet, though seven years old;
Yet up among the dead
He is demagogue and head
And contrives the topmost place of the rascaldom to hold?
And Cleisthenes, they say,
Is among the tombs all day,
Bewailing for his lover with a lamentable whine.
And Callias, I'm told,
Has become a sailor bold,
And casts a lion's hide o'er his members feminine.
DIONYSUS
Can any of you tell
Where Pluto here may dwell,
For we, sirs, are two strangers who were never here
before?
CHORUS
O, then no further stray,
Nor again inquire the way,
For know that ye have journeyed to his very entrance-door.
DIONYSUS
Take up the wraps, my
lad.
XANTHIAS
Now is not this too bad?
Like "Zeus's Corinth," he "the wraps" keeps saying o'er
and
o'er.
CHORUS
Now wheel your sacred
dances
through the glade with flowers bedight,
All ye who are partakers of the holy festal rite;
And I will with the women and the holy maidens go
Where they keep the nightly vigil, an auspicious light to
show.
Now haste we to the roses,
And the meadows full of posies,
Now haste we to the meadows
In our own old way,
In choral dances blending,
In dances never ending,
Which only for the holy
The Destinies array.
O, happy mystic chorus,
The blessed sunshine o'er us
On us alone is smiling,
In its soft sweet light:
On us who strove forever
With holy, pure endeavour,
Alike by friend and stranger
To guide our steps aright.
DIONYSUS
What's the right way to
knock? I
wonder how
The natives here are wont to knock at doors.
XANTHIAS
No dawdling: taste the
door. You've
got, remember,
The lion-hide and pride of Heracles.
DIONYSUS
knocking
Boy! boy!
The door opens.
AEACUS appears.
AEACUS
Who's there?
DIONYSUS
I, Heracles the strong!
AEACUS
O, you most shameless
desperate
ruffian, you
O, villain, villain, arrant vilest villain!
Who seized our Cerberus by the throat, and fled,
And ran, and rushed, and bolted, haling of
The dog, my charge! But now I've got thee fast.
So close the Styx's inky-hearted rock,
The blood-bedabbled peak of Acheron
Shall hem thee in: the hell-hounds of Cocytus
Prowl round thee; whilst the hundred-headed Asp
Shall rive thy heart-strings: the Tartesian Lamprey
Prey on thy lungs: and those Tithrasian Gorgons
Mangle and tear thy kidneys, mauling them,
Entrails and all, into one bloody mash.
I'll speed a running foot to fetch them hither.
Exit AEACUS.
XANTHIAS
Hallo! what now?
DIONYSUS
I've done it: call the
god.
XANTHIAS
Get up, you
laughing-stock; get up
directly,
Before you're seen.
DIONYSUS
What, I get up? I'm
fainting.
Please dab a sponge of water on my heart.
XANTHIAS
Here! Dab it on.
DIONYSUS
Where is it?
XANTHIAS
Ye golden gods,
Lies your heart there?
DIONYSUS
It got so terrified
It fluttered down into my stomach's pit.
XANTHIAS
Cowardliest of gods and
men!
DIONYSUS
The cowardliest? I?
What I, who asked you for a sponge, a thing
A coward never would have done!
XANTHIAS
What then?
DIONYSUS
A coward would have lain
there
wallowing;
But I stood up, and wiped myself withal.
XANTHIAS
Poseidon! quite heroic.
DIONYSUS
'Deed I think so.
But weren't you frightened at those dreadful threats
And shoutings?
XANTHIAS
Frightened? Not a bit. I
cared
not.
DIONYSUS
Come then, if you're so
very brave
a man,
Will you be I, and take the hero's club
And lion's skin, since you're so monstrous plucky?
And I'll be now the slave, and bear the luggage.
XANTHIAS
Hand them across. I
cannot choose
but take them.
And now observe the Xanthio-heracles
If I'm a coward and a sneak like you.
DIONYSUS
Nay, you're the rogue
from Melite's
own self.
And I'll pick up and carry on the traps.
Enter a
MAID-SERVANT of Persephone, from
the
door.
MAID
O welcome, Heracles!
come in,
sweetheart.
My Lidy, when they told her, set to work,
Baked mighty loaves, boiled two or three tureens
Of lentil soup, roasted a prime ox whole,
Made rolls and honey-cakes. So come along.
XANTHIAS
declining
You are too kind.
MAID
I will not let you go.
I will not let you! Why, she's stewing slices
Of juicy bird's-flesh, and she's making comfits,
And tempering down her richest wine. Come, dear,
Come along in.
XANTHIAS
still
declining
Pray thank her.
MAID
O you're jesting,
I shall not let you off: there's such a lovely
Flute-girl all ready, and we've two or three
Dancing-girls also.
XANTHIAS
Eh! what! Dancing-girls?
MAID
Young budding virgins,
freshly
tired and trimmed.
Come, dear, come in. The cook was dishing up
The cutlets, and they are bringing in the tables.
XANTHIAS
Then go you in, and tell
those
dancing-girls
Of whom you spake, I'm coming in Myself.
Exit MAID.
Pick up the traps, my
lad, and
follow me.
DIONYSUS
Hi! stop! you're not in
earnest,
just because
I dressed you up, in fun, as Heracles?
Come, don't keep fooling, Xanthias, but lift
And carry in the traps yourself
You are never going to strip me of these togs
You gave me!
DIONYSUS
Going to? No, I'm doing
it now. off
with that lion-skin.
XANTHIAS
Bear witness all,
The gods shall judge between us.
DIONYSUS
Gods, indeed!
Why, how could you (the vain and foolish thought I)
A slave, a mortal, act Alemena's son?
XANTHIAS
All right then, take
them; maybe,
if God will,
You'll soon require my services again.
CHORUS
This is the part of a
dexterous
clever
Man with his wits about him ever,
One who has travelled the world to see;
Always to shift, and to keep through all
Close to the sunny side of the wall;
Not like a pictured block to be,
Standing always in one position;
Nay but to veer, with expedition,
And ever to catch the favouring breeze,
This is the part of a shrewd tactician,
This is to be a-Theramenes!
DIONYSUS
Truly an exquisite joke
'twould
be,
Him with a dancing-girl to see,
Lolling at ease on Milesian rugs;
Me, like a slave, beside him standing,
Aught that he wants to his lordship handing;
Then as the damsel fair he hugs,
Seeing me all on fire to embrace her,
He would perchance (for there's no man baser),
Turning him round like a lazy lout,
Straight on my mouth deliver a facer,
Knocking my ivory choirmen out.
Enter HOSTESS and
PLATHANE.
Hostess. O Plathane!
Plathane! that
naughty man,
That's he who got into our tavern once,
And ate up sixteen loaves.
PLATHANE
O, so he is! The very
man.
XANTHIAS
Bad luck for somebody!
HOSTESS
O and, besides, those
twenty bits
of stew,
Half-obol pieces.
XANTHIAS
Somebody's going to
catch
it!
HOSTESS
That garlic too.
DIONYSUS
Woman, you're talking
nonsense.
You don't know what you're saying.
HOSTESS
O, you thought
I shouldn't know you with your buskins on!
Ah, and I've not yet mentioned all that fish,
No, nor the new-made cheese: he gulped it down,
Baskets and all, unlucky that we were.
And when I just alluded to the price,
He looked so fierce, and bellowed like a bull.
XANTHIAS
Yes, that's his way:
that's what he
always does.
HOSTESS
O, and he drew his
sword, and
seemed quite mad.
PLATHANE
O, that he did.
HOSTESS
And terrified us so
We sprang up to the cockloft, she and I.
Then out he hurled, decamping with the rugs.
XANTHIAS
That's his way too;
something must
be done.
HOSTESS
Quick, run and call my
patron Cleon
here
PLATHANE
O, if you meet him, call
Hyperbolus!
We'll pay you out to-day.
HOSTESS
O filthy throat,
O how I'd like to take a stone, and hack
Those grinders out with which you chawed my wares.
PLATHANE
I'd like to pitch you in
the
deadman's pit.
HOSTESS
I'd like to get a
reaping-hook and
scoop
That gullet out with which you gorged my tripe.
But I'll to Cleon: he'll soon serve his writs;
He'll twist it out of you to-day, he will.
Exeunt HOSTESS
and PLATHANE.
DIONYSUS
Perdition seize me, if I
don't love
Xanthias.
XANTHIAS
Aye, aye, I know your
drift: stop,
stop that talking
I won't be Heracles.
DIONYSUS
O, don't say so,
Dear, darling Xanthias.
XANTHIAS
Why, how can I,
A slave, a mortal, act Alemena's son!
DIONYSUS
Aye, aye, I know you are
vexed, and
I deserve
And if you pummel me, I won't complain.
But if I strip you of these togs again,
Perdition seize myself, my wife, my children,
And, most of all, that blear-eyed Archedemus.
XANTHIAS
That oath contents me:
on those
terms I take them.
CHORUS
Now that at last you
appear once
more,
Wearing the garb that at first you wore,
Wielding the club and the tawny skin,
Now it is yours to be up and doing,
Glaring like mad, and your youth renewing,
Mindful of him whose guise you are in.
If, when caught in a bit of a scrape, you
Suffer a word of alarm to escape you,
Showing yourself but a feckless knave,
Then will your master at once undrape you,
Then you'll again be the toiling slave.
XANTHIAS
There, I admit, you have
given to
me
Capital hint, and the like idea,
Friends, had occurred to myself before.
Truly if anything good befell
He would be wanting, I know full well,
Wanting to take to the togs once more.
Nevertheless, while in these I'm vested,
Ne'er shall you find me craven-crested,
No, for a dittany look I'll wear,
Aye and methinks it will soon be tested,
Hark! how the portals are rustling there.
Re-enter AEACUS
with assistants.
AEACUS
Seize the dog-stealer,
bind him,
pinion him,
Drag him to justice
DIONYSUS
Somebody's going to
catch
it.
XANTHIAS
striking
out
Hands off! away! stand
back!
AEACUS
Eh? You're for fighting.
Ho! Ditylas, Sceblyas, and Pardocas,
Come hither, quick; fight me this sturdy knave.
DIONYSUS
Now isn't it a shame the
man should
strike
And he a thief besides?
AEACUS
A monstrous shame!
DIONYSUS
A regular burning shame!
XANTHIAS
By the Lord Zeus,
If ever I was here before, if ever
I stole one hair's-worth from you, let me die!
And now I'll make you a right noble offer,
Arrest my lad: torture him as you will,
And if you find I'm guilty, take and kill me.
AEACUS
Torture him, how?
XANTHIAS
In any mode you please.
Pile bricks upon him: stuff his nose with acid:
Flay, rack him, hoist him; flog him with a scourge
Of prickly bristles: only not with this,
A soft-leaved onion, or a tender leek.
AEACUS
A fair proposal. If I
strike too
hard
And maim the boy, I'll make you compensation.
XANTHIAS
I shan't require it.
Take him out
and flog him.
AEACUS
Nay, but I'll do it here
before
your eyes.
Now then, put down the traps, and mind you speak
The truth, young fellow.
DIONYSUS
in
agony
Man' don't torture me!
I am a god. You'll blame yourself hereafter
If you touch me.
AEACUS
Hillo! What's that you
are
saying?
DIONYSUS
I say I'm Bacchus, son
of Zeus, a
god,
And he's the slave.
AEACUS
You hear him?
XANTHIAS
Hear him? Yes.
All the more reason you should flog him well.
For if he is a god, he won't perceive it.
DIONYSUS
Well, but you say that
you're a god
yourself.
So why not you be flogged as well as I?
XANTHIAS
A fair proposal. And be
this the
test,
Whichever of us two you first behold
Flinching or crying out-he's not the god.
AEACUS
Upon my word you're
quite the
gentleman,
You're all for right and justice. Strip then, both.
XANTHIAS
How can you test us
fairly?
AEACUS
Easily. I'll give you
blow for
blow.
XANTHIAS
A good idea.
We're ready now!
AEACUS strikes him
see if you catch me
flinching.
AEACUS
I struck you.
XANTHIAS
incredulously
No!
AEACUS
Well, it seems "no"
indeed.
Now then I'll strike the other.
Strikes DIONYSUS.
DIONYSUS
Tell me when?
AEACUS
I struck you.
DIONYSUS
Struck me? Then why
didn't I
sneeze?
AEACUS
Don't know, I'm sure.
I'll try the
other again.
XANTHIAS
And quickly too. Good
gracious!
AEACUS
Why "good gracious"?
Not hurt you, did I?
XANTHIAS
No, I merely thought of
The Diomeian feast of Heracles.
AEACUS
A holy man! 'Tis now the
other's
turn.
DIONYSUS
Hi! Hi!
AEACUS
Hallo!
DIONYSUS
Look at those horsemen,
look!
AEACUS
But why these tears?
DIONYSUS
There's such a smell of
onions.
AEACUS
Then you don't mind it?
DIONYSUS
cheerfully
Mind it? Not a bit.
AEACUS
Well, I must go to the
other one
again.
XANTHIAS
O! O!
AEACUS
Hallo!
XANTHIAS
Do pray pull out this
thorn.
AEACUS
What does it mean? 'Tis
this one's
turn again.
DIONYSUS
shrieking
Apollo! Lord!
calmly
of Delos and of Pytho.
XANTHIAS
He flinched! You heard
him?
DIONYSUS
Not at all; a jolly
Verse of
Hipponax flashed across my mind.
XANTHIAS
You don't half do it:
cut his
flanks to pieces.
AEACUS
By Zeus, well thought
on. Turn your
belly here.
DIONYSUS
screaming
Poseidon!
XANTHIAS
There! he's flinching.
DIONYSUS
singing
who dost reign
Amongst the Aegean peaks and creeks
And oer the deep blue main.
AEACUS
No, by Demeter, still I
can't find
out
Which is the god, but come ye both indoors;
My lord himself and Persephassa there,
Being gods themselves, will soon find out the truth.
DIONYSUS
Right! right! I only
wish you had
thought of that
Before you gave me those tremendous whacks.
Exeunt DIONYSUS,
XANTHIAS, AEACUS, and
attendants.
CHORUS
Come, Muse,
to
our Mystical Chorus,
O come to the joy of my song,
O see on the benches before us that countless and
wonderful
throng,
Where wits by the thousand abide, with more than a
Cleophon's
pride-
On the lips of that foreigner base, of Athens the bane and
disgrace,
There is shrieking, his kinsman by race,
The garrulous swallow of Thrace;
From that perch of exotic descent,
Rejoicing her sorrow to vent,
She pours to her spirit's content, a nightingale's woful
lament,
That e'en though the voting be equal, his ruin will soon
be the
sequel.
Well it suits the holy Chorus evermore with counsel wise
To exhort and teach the city; this we therefore now
advise-
End the townsmen's apprehensions; equalize the rights of
all;
If by Phrynichus's wrestlings some perchance sustained a
fall,
Yet to these 'tis surely open, having put away their sin,
For their slips and vacillations pardon at your hands to
win.
Give your brethren back their franchise.
Sin and shame it were that slaves,
Who have once with stern devotion fought your battle on
the
waves,
Should be straightway lords and masters, yea Plataeans
fully
blown-
Not that this deserves our censure; there I praise you;
there
alone
Has the city, in her anguish, policy and wisdom shown-
Nay but these, of old accustomed on our ships to fight and
win,
(They, their fathers too before them), these our very kith
and
kin,
You should likewise, when they ask you, pardon for their
single
sin.
O by nature best and wisest,
O relax your jealous ire,
Let us all the world as kinsfolk and as citizens acquire,
All who on our ships will battle well and bravely by our
side.
If we cocker up our city, narrowing her with senseless
pride,
Now when she is rocked and reeling in the cradles of the
sea,
Here again will after ages deem we acted brainlessly.
And O if I'm able to scan the habits and life of a man
Who shall rue his iniquities soon! not long shall that
little
baboon,
That Cleigenes shifty and small, the wickedest bathman of
all
Who are lords of the earth-which is brought from the isle
of Cimolus,
and wrought
With nitre and lye into soap-
Not long shall he vex us, I hope.
And this the unlucky one knows,
Yet ventures a peace to oppose,
And being addicted to blows he carries a stick as he goes,
Lest while he is tipsy and reeling, some robber his cloak
should be
stealing.
Often has it crossed my fancy, that the city loves to deal
With the very best and noblest members of her commonweal,
just as
with our ancient coinage, and the newly-minted gold.
Yea for these, our sterling pieces, all of pure Athenian
mould,
All of perfect die and metal, all the fairest of the fair,
All of workmanship unequalled, proved and valued
everywhere
Both amongst our own Hellenes and Barbarians far away,
These we use not: but the worthles pinchbeck coins of
yesterday,
Vilest die and basest metal, now we always use instead.
Even so, our sterling townsmen, nobly born and nobly bred,
Men of worth and rank and mettle, men of honourable fame,
Trained in every liberal science, choral dance and manly
game,
These we treat with scorn and insult, but the strangers
newliest
come,
Worthless sons of worthless fathers, pinchbeck townsmen,
yellowy
scum,
Whom in earlier days the city hardly would have stooped to
use
Even for her scapegoat victims, these for every task we
choose.
O unwise and foolish people, yet to mend your ways begin;
Use again the good and useful: so hereafter, if ye win
'Twill be due to this your wisdom: if ye fall, at least
'twill be
Not a fall that brings dishonour, falling from a worthy
tree.
Enter AEACUS,
XANTHIAS and two
attendants.
AEACUS
By Zeus the Saviour,
quite the
gentleman
Your master is.
XANTHIAS
Gentleman? I believe you.
He's all for wine and women, is my master.
AEACUS
But not to have flogged
you, when
the truth came out
That you, the slave, were passing off as master!
XANTHIAS
He'd get the worst of
that.
AEACUS
Bravo! that's spoken
Like a true slave: that's what I love myself.
XANTHIAS
You love it, do you?
AEACUS
Love it? I'm entranced
When I can curse my lord behind his back.
XANTHIAS
How about grumbling,
when you have
felt the stick,
And scurry out of doors?
AEACUS
That's jolly too.
XANTHIAS
How about prying?
AEACUS
That beats everything,
XANTHIAS
Great Kin-god Zeus! And
what of
overhearing
Your master's secrets?
AEACUS
What? I'm mad with joy.
XANTHIAS
And blabbing them abroad?
AEACUS
O heaven and earth!
When I do that, I can't contain myself.
XANTHIAS
Phoebus Apollo! clap
your hand in
mine,
Kiss and be kissed: and prithee tell me this,
Tell me by Zeus, our rascaldom's own god,
What's all that noise within? What means this hubbub
And row?
AEACUS
That's Aeschylus and
Euripides.
XANTHIAS
Eh?
AEACUS
Wonderful, wonderful
things are
going on.
The dead are rioting, taking different sides.
XANTHIAS
Why, what's the matter?
AEACUS
There's a custom here
With all the crafts, the good and noble crafts,
That the chief master of art in each
Shall have his dinner in the assembly hall,
And sit by Pluto's side.
XANTHIAS
I understand.
AEACUS
Until another comes,
more wise than
he
In the same art: then must the first give way.
XANTHIAS
And how has this
disturbed our
Aeschylus?
AEACUS
'Twas he that occupied
the tragic
chair,
As, in his craft, the noblest.
XANTHIAS
Who does now?
AEACUS
But when Euripides came
down, he
kept
Flourishing off before the highwaymen,
Thieves, burglars, parricides-these form our mob
In Hades-till with listening to his twists
And turns, and pleas and counterpleas, they went
Mad on the man, and hailed him first and wisest:
Elate with this, he claimed the tragic chair
Where Aeschylus was seated.
XANTHIAS
Wasn't he pelted?
AEACUS
Not he: the populace
clamoured out
to try
Which of the twain was wiser in his art.
XANTHIAS
You mean the rascals?
AEACUS
Aye, as high as heaven!
XANTHIAS
But were there none to
side with
Aeschylus?
AEACUS
Scanty and sparse the
good,
regards the
audience
the same as here.
XANTHIAS
And what does Pluto now
propose to
do?
AEACUS
He means to hold a
tournament, and
bring
Their tragedies to the proof.
XANTHIAS
But Sophocles,
How came not he to claim the tragic chair?
AEACUS
Claim it? Not he! When
he came
down, he kissed
With reverence Aeschylus, and clasped his hand,
And yielded willingly the chair to him.
But now he's going, says Cleidemides,
To sit third-man: and then if Aeschylus win,
He'll stay content: if not, for his art's sake,
He'll fight to the death against Euripides.
XANTHIAS
Will it come off?
AEACUS
O yes, by Zeus, directly.
And then, I hear, will wonderful things be done,
The art poetic will be weighed in scales.
XANTHIAS
What I weigh out
tragedy, like
butcher's meat?
AEACUS
Levels they'll bring,
and
measuring-tapes for words,
And moulded oblongs,
XANTHIAS
Is it bricks they are
making?
AEACUS
Wedges and compasses:
for
Euripides
Vows that he'll test the dramas, word by word.
XANTHIAS
Aeschylus chafes at
this, I
fancy.
AEACUS
Well, He lowered his
brows,
upglaring like a bull.
XANTHIAS
And who's to be the
judge?
AEACUS
There came the rub.
Skilled men were hard to find: for with the Athenians
Aeschylus, somehow, did not hit it off,
XANTHIAS
Too many burglars, I
expect, he
thought.
AEACUS
And all the rest, he
said, were
trash and nonsense
To judge poetic wits. So then at last
They chose your lord, an expert in the art.
But we go in for when our lords are bent
On urgent business, that means blows for us.
CHORUS
O surely with terrible
wrath will
the thunder-voiced monarch be filled,
When he sees his opponent beside him, the tonguester, the
artifice-skilled,
Stand, whetting his tusks for the fight!
O surely, his eyes rolling-fell
Will with terrible madness be fraught I
O then will be charging of plume-waving words with their
wild-floating mane,
And then will be whirling of splinters, and phrases
smoothed down
with the plane,
When the man would the grand-stepping maxims, the language
gigantic,
repel
Of the hero-creator of thought.
There will his shaggy-born crest upbristle for anger and
woe,
Horribly frowning and growling, his fury will launch at
the foe
Huge-clamped masses of words, with exertion Titanic
up-tearing
Great ship-timber planks for the fray.
But here will the tongue be at work, uncoiling,
word-testing,
refining,
Sophist-creator of phrases,
dissecting, detracting,
maligning,
Shaking the envious bits, and with subtle analysis paring
The lung's large labour away.
Here apparently there is a complete change of scene, to
the Hall of
Pluto, with himself sitting on his throne, and DIONYSUS,
AESCHYLUS,
and the foreground.
EURIPIDES
Don't talk to me; I
won't give up
the chair,
I say I am better in the art than he.
DIONYSUS
You hear him, Aeschylus:
why don't
you speak?
EURIPIDES
He'll do the grand at
first, the
juggling trick
He used to play in all his tragedies.
DIONYSUS
Come, my fine fellow,
pray don't
talk to big.
EURIPIDES
I know the man, I've
scanned him
through and through,
A savage-creating stubborn-pulling fellow,
Uncurbed, unfettered, uncontrolled of speech,
Unperiphrastic, bombastiloquent.
AESCHYLUS
Hah! sayest thou so,
child of the
garden quean
And this to me, thou chattery-babble-collector,
Thou pauper-creating rags-and-patches-stitcher?
Thou shalt abye it dearly!
DIONYSUS
Pray, be still;
Nor heat thy soul to fury, Aeschylus.
AESCHYLUS
Not till I've made you
see the sort
of man
This cripple-maker is who crows so loudly.
DIONYSUS
Bring out a ewe, a
black-fleeced
ewe, my boys:
Here's a typhoon about to burst upon us.
AESCHYLUS
Thou picker-up of Cretan
monodies,
Foisting thy tales of incest on the stage-
DIONYSUS
Forbear, forbear, most
honoured
Aeschylus;
And you, my poor Euripides, begone
If you are wise, out of this pitiless hail,
Lest with some heady word he crack your scull
And batter out your brain-less Telephus.
And not with passion, Aeschylus, but calmly
Test and be tested. 'Tis not meet for poets
To scold each other, like two baking-girls.
But you go roaring like an oak on fire.
EURIPIDES
I'm ready, I don't draw
back one
bit.
I'll lash or, if he will, let him lash first
The talk, the lays, the sinews of a play:
Aye and my Peleus, aye and Aeolus.
And Meleager, aye and Telephus.
DIONYSUS
And what do you propose?
Speak,
Aeschylus.
AESCHYLUS
I could have wished to
meet him
otherwhere.
We fight not here on equal terms.
DIONYSUS
Why not?
AESCHYLUS
My poetry survived me:
his died
with him:
He's got it here, all handy to recite.
Howbeit, if so you wish it, so we'll have it.
DIONYSUS
O bring me fire, and
bring me
frankincense.
I'll pray, or e'er the clash of wits begin,
To judge the strife with high poetic skill.
Meanwhile
to the CHORUS
invoke the Muses with a
song.
CHORUS
O Muses,
the daughters divine of Zeus, the immaculate Nine,
Who gaze from your mansions serene on intellects subtle
and keen,
When down to the tournament lists, in bright-polished wit
they
descend,
With wrestling and turnings and twists
in the
battle of words to
contend,
O come and behold what the two antagonist poets
can do,
Whose mouths are the swiftest to teach grand language and
filings of
speech:
For now of their wits is the sternest encounter commencing
in
earnest.
DIONYSUS
Ye two, put up your
prayers before
ye start.
AESCHYLUS
Demeter, mistress,
nourisher of my
soul,
O make me worthy of thy mystic rites!
DIONYSUS
to
EURIPIDES
Now put on incense, you.
EURIPIDES
Excuse me, no;
My vows are paid to other gods than these.
DIONYSUS
What, a new coinage of
your
own?
EURIPIDES
Precisely.
DIONYSUS
Pray then to them, those
private
gods of yours.
EURIPIDES
Ether, my pasture,
volubly-rolling
tongue,
Intelligent wit and critic nostrils keen,
O well and neatly may I trounce his plays!
CHORUS
We also are yearning
from these to
be learning
Some stately measure, some majestic grand
Movement telling of conflicts nigh.
Now for battle arrayed they stand,
Tongues embittered, and anger high.
Each has got a venturesome will,
Each an eager and nimble mind;
One will wield, with artistic skill,
Clearcut phrases, and wit refined;
Then the other, with words defiant,
Stern and strong, like an angry giant
Laying on with uprooted trees,
Soon will scatter a world of these
Superscholastic subtleties.
DIONYSUS
Now then, commence your arguments, and mind you both
display
True wit, not metaphors, nor things which any fool could
say.
EURIPIDES
As for myself, good people all,
I'll tell you by-and-by
My own poetic worth and claims; but first of all
I'll try
To show how this portentous quack beguiled the silly
fools
Whose tastes were nurtured, ere he came, in Phrynichus's
schools.
He'd bring some single mourner on, seated and veiled,
'twould be
Achilles, say, or Niobe
-the face you could not see-
An empty show of tragic woe, who uttered not one thing.
DIONYSUS
'Tis true.
EURIPIDES
Then in the
CHORUS
came, and rattled off a string four
continuous lyric odes: the mourner never stirred.
DIONYSUS
I liked it too. I sometimes think that I those mutes
preferred
To all your chatterers now-a-days.
EURIPIDES
Because, if you must know,
You were an ass.
DIONYSUS
An ass, no doubt; what made him do it though?
EURIPIDES
That was his quackery, don't you
see, to set the
audience guessing
When Niobe would speak; meanwhile, the drama was
progressing.
DIONYSUS
The rascal, how he took me in!
'Twas shameful, was it not? (To
AESCHYLUS
) What makes you stamp
and fidget so?
EURIPIDES
He's catching it so hot.
So when he had humbugged thus awhile, and now his wretched
play
Was halfway through, a dozen words, great wild-bull words,
he'd
say,
Fierce Bugaboos, with bristling crests, and shaggy eyebrows
too,
Which not a soul could understand.
AESCHYLUS
O heavens!
DIONYSUS
Be quiet, do.
EURIPIDES
But not one single word was clear.
DIONYSUS
St! don't your teeth be gnashing.
EURIPIDES
'Twas all Scamanders, moated camps, and
griffin-eagles
flashing
In burnished copper on the shields, chivalric-precipice-high
Expressions, hard to comprehend.
DIONYSUS
Aye, by the Powers, and
Full many a sleepless night have spent in anxious thought,
because
I'd find the tawny cock-horse out, what sort of bird it was!
AESCHYLUS
It was a sign, you stupid dolt, engraved the ships
upon.
DIONYSUS
Eryxis I supposed it was,
Philoxenus's son.
EURIPIDES
Now really should a cock be brought into a tragic play?
AESCHYLUS
You enemy gods and men, what was your practice, pray?
EURIPIDES
No cock-horse in my plays, by Zeus, no goat-stag there
you'll
see,
Such figures as are blazoned forth in Median tapestry.
When first I took the art from you, bloated and swoln, poor
thing,
With turgid gasconading words and heavy dieting,
First I reduced and toned her down, and made her slim and neat
With wordlets and with exercise and poultices of beet,
And next a dose of chatterjuice, distilled from
books, I gave
her,
And monodies she took, with sharp Cephisophon
for
flavour.
I never used haphazard words, or plunged abruptly in;
Who entered first explained at large the drama's origin
And source.
AESCHYLUS
Its source, I really trust, was better than your own.
EURIPIDES
Then from the very opening lines no idleness was shown;
The mistress talked with all her might, the servant talked as
much,
The master talked, the maiden talked, the beldame talked.
An outrage was not death your due?
EURIPIDES
No, by Apollo, no:
That was my democratic way.
DIONYSUS
Ah, let that topic go.
Your record is not there, my friend, particularly good.
EURIPIDES
Then next I taught all these to speak.
AESCHYLUS
You did so, and I would
That ere such mischief you had wrought, your very rungs had
split.
EURIPIDES
Canons of verse I introduced, and neatly chiselled wit;
To look, to scan: to plot, to plan: to twist, to turn, to woo:
On all to spy; in all to pry.
AESCHYLUS
You did: I say so too.
EURIPIDES
I showed them scenes of common life, the things we know
and
see,
Where any blunder would at once by all detected be.
I never blustered on, or took their breath and wits away
By Cycnuses or Memnons clad in terrible array,
With bells upon their horses' heads, the audience to dismay.
Look at his pupils, look at mine: and there the contrast view.
Uncouth Megaenetus is his, and rough Phormisius too;
Great long-beard-lance-and-trumpet-men, flesh-tearers with the
pine:
But natty smart Theramenes, and Cleitophon are mine.
DIONYSUS
Theramenes? a clever man and wonderfully sly:
Immerse him in a flood of ills, he'll soon be high and dry,
"A Kian with a kappa, sir, not Chian with a chi."
EURIPIDES
I taught them all these knowing ways
By chopping logic in my plays,
And making all my speakers try
To reason out the How and Why.
So now the people trace the springs,
The sources and the roots of things,
And manage all their households to
Far better than they used to do,
Scanning and searching "What's amiss?"
And, "Why was that?" And, "How is this?"
DIONYSUS
Ay, truly, never now a man
Comes home, but he begins to scan;
And to his household loudly cries,
"Why, where's my pitcher? What's the matter?
'Tis dead and my last year's platter.
Who gnawed these olives? Bless the sprat,
Who nibbled off the head of that?
And where's the garlic vanished, pray,
I purchased only yesterday?"
-Whereas, of old, our stupid youths
Would sit, with open mouths and eyes,
Like any dull-brained Mammacouths.
CHORUS
"All this thou beholdest, Achilles our boldest."
And what wilt thou reply? Draw tight the rein
Lest that fiery soul of thine
Whirl thee out of the listed plain,
Past the olives, and o'er the line.
Dire and grievous the charge he brings.
See thou answer him, noble heart,
Not with passionate bickerings.
Shape thy course with a sailor's art,
Reef the canvas, shorten the sails,
Shift them edgewise to shun the gales.
When the breezes are soft and low,
Then, well under control, you'll go
Quick and quicker to strike the foe.
O first of all the Hellenic bards high loftily-towering verse
to
rear,
And tragic phrase from the dust to raise, pour forth thy
fountain
with right good cheer.
AESCHYLUS
My wrath is hot at this vile mischance, and my spirit
revolts
at the thought that
Must bandy words with a fellow like him: but lest he should
vaunt
that I can't reply-
Come, tell me what are the points for which a noble poet our
praise
obtains.
EURIPIDES
For his ready wit, and his counsels sage, and because the
citizen folk he trains
To be better townsmen and worthier men.
AESCHYLUS
If then you have done the very reverse,
Found noble-hearted and virtuous men, and altered them, each
and
all,
for the worse,
Pray what is the meed you deserve to get?
DIONYSUS
Nay, ask not him. He deserves to die.
AESCHYLUS
For just consider what style of men he received from me,
great six-foot-high
Heroical souls, who never would blench from a townsman's
duties
in
peace or war;
Not idle loafers, or low buffoons, or rascally
scamps such as
now
they are.
But men who were breathing spears and helms, and the
snow-white
plume
in its crested pride,
The greave, and the dart, and the warrior's heart in its
sevenfold
casing of tough bull-hide.
DIONYSUS
He'll stun me, I know, with his armoury-work; this business
is going from bad to worse.
EURIPIDES
And how did you manage to make them so grand, exalted,
and brave with your wonderful verse?
DIONYSUS
Come,
AESCHYLUS
, answer, and don't stand mute in your self-willed
pride and arrogant spleen.
AESCHYLUS
A drama I wrote with the War-god filled.
DIONYSUS
Its name?
AESCHYLUS
'Tis the Seven against Thebes that I mean.
Which whoso beheld, with eagerness swelled to rush to the
battlefield
there and then.
DIONYSUS
O that was a scandalous thing you did!
You have made the Thebans mightier men,
More eager by far for the business of war.
Now, therefore, receive this punch on the head.
AESCHYLUS
Ah, ye might have practised the same yourselves, but ye
turned to other pursuits instead.
Then next the Persians I wrote, in praise of the noblest deed
that
the world can show,
And each man longed for the victor's wreath, to fight and to
vanquish
his country's foe.
DIONYSUS
I was pleased, I own, when I heard their moan for old
Darius,
their great king, dead;
When they smote together their hands, like this, and "Evir
alake"
the
CHORUS
said.
AESCHYLUS
Aye, such are the poet's appropriate works: and just
consider
how all along
From the very first they have wrought you good, the noble
bards,
the
masters of song.
First, Orpheus taught you religious rites, and from bloody
murder
to stay your hands:
Musaeus healing and oracle lore; and Hesiod all the culture of
lands,
The time to gather, the time to plough.
And gat not Homer his glory divine
By singing of valour, and honour, and right, and the sheen of
the
battle-extended line,
The ranging of troops and the arming of men?
DIONYSUS
O ay, but he didn't teach that, I opine,
To Pantacles; when he was leading the show
I couldn't imagine what he was at,
He had fastened his helm on the top of his head, he was trying
to
fasten his plume upon that.
AESCHYLUS
But others, many and brave, he taught, of whom was
Lamachus,
hero true;
And thence my spirit the impress took, and many a lion-heart
chief
I drew,
Patrocluses, Teucers, illustrious names; for I fain the
citizen-folk
would spur
To stretch themselves to their measure and height, whenever
the
trumpet
of war they hear.
But Phaedras and Stheneboeas? No! no harlotry business
deformed
my
plays.
And none can say that ever I drew a love-sick woman in all my
days.
EURIPIDES
For you no lot or portion had got in Queen Aphrodite.
AESCHYLUS
Thank Heaven for that.
But ever on you and yours, my friend, the mighty goddess
mightily
sat;
Yourself she cast to the ground at last.
DIONYSUS
O ay, that uncommonly pat.
You showed how cuckolds are made, and lo, you were struck
yourself
by the very same fate.
EURIPIDES
But say, you cross-grained censor of mine, how my
Stheneboeas
could harm the state.
AESCHYLUS
Full many a noble dame, the wife of a noble citizen,
hemlock
took,
And died, unable the shame and sin of your Bellerophon-scenes
to
brook.
EURIPIDES
Was then, I wonder, the tale I told of Phaedra's passionate
love untrue?
AESCHYLUS
Not so: but tales of incestuous vice the sacred poet should
hide from view,
Nor ever exhibit and blazon forth on the public stage to the
public
ken.
For boys a teacher at school is found, but we, the poets, are
teachers
of men.
We are hound things honest and pure to speak.
EURIPIDES
And to speak great Lycabettuses, pray,
And massive blocks of Parnassian rocks, is that things honest
and
pure to say?
In human fashion we ought to speak.
AESCHYLUS
Alas, poor witling, and can't you see
That for mighty thoughts and heroic aims, the words themselves
must
appropriate be?
And grander belike on the ear should strike the speech of
heroes
and
godlike powers,
Since even the robes that invest their limbs are statelier,
grander
robes than ours.
Such was my plan: but when you began, you spoilt and degraded
it
all.
AESCHYLUS
Your kings in tatters and rags you dressed, and brought
them on, a beggarly show,
To move, forsooth, our pity and ruth.
EURIPIDES
And what was the harm, I should like to know.
AESCHYLUS
No more will a wealthy citizen now equip for the state
a galley of war.
He wraps his limbs in tatters and rags, and whines he is
"poor,
too
poor by far."
DIONYSUS
But under his rags he is wearing a vest, as woolly and soft
as a man could wish.
Let him gull the state, and he's off to the mart; an eager,
extravagant
buyer of fish.
AESCHYLUS
Moreover to prate, to harangue, to debate, is now the
ambition
of all in the state.
Each exercise-ground is in consequence found deserted and
empty:
to
evil repute
Your lessons have brought our youngsters, and taught our
sailors
to
challenge, discuss, and refute
The orders they get from their captains and yet, when I was
alive,
I protest that the knaves
Knew nothing at all, save for rations to call, and to sing
"Rhyppapae"
as they pulled through the waves.
DIONYSUS
And bedad to let fly from their sterns in the eye of the
fellow who tugged at the undermost oar,
And a jolly young messmate with filth to besmirch, and to land
for
a filching adventure ashore;
But now they harangue, and dispute, and won't row
And idly and aimlessly float to and fro.
AESCHYLUS
Of what ills is lie not the creator and cause?
Consider the scandalous scenes that he draws,
His bawds, and his panders, his women who give
Give birth in the sacredest shrine,
Whilst others with brothers are wedded and bedded,
And others opine
That "not to be living" is truly "to live."
And therefore our city is swarming to-day
With clerks and with demagogue-monkeys, who play
Their jackanape tricks at all times, in all places,
Deluding the people of Athens; but none
Has training enough in athletics to run
With the torch in his hand at the races.
DIONYSUS
By the Powers, you are right! At the Panathenaea
I laughed till I felt like a potsherd to see
Pale, paunchy young gentleman pounding along,
With his head butting forward, the last of the throng,
In the direst of straits; and behold at the gates,
The Ceramites flapped him, and smacked him, and slapped him,
In the ribs, and the loin, and the flank, and the groin,
And still, as they spanked him, he puffed and he panted,
Till at one mighty cuff, he discharged such a puff
That he blew out his torch and levanted.
CHORUS
Dread the battle, and stout the combat, mighty and manifold
looms the war.
Hard to decide is the fight they're waging,
One like a stormy tempest raging,
One alert in the rally and skirmish, clever to parry and foin
and
spar.
Nay but don't be content to sit
Always in one position only: many the fields for your
keen-edged
wit.
On then, wrangle in every way,
Argue, battle, be flayed and flay,
Old and new from your stores display,
Yea, and strive with venturesome daring something subtle and
neat
to say.
Fear ye this, that to-day's spectators lack the grace of
artistic
lore,
Lack the knowledge they need for taking
All the points ye will soon be making?
Fear it not: the alarm is groundless: that, be sure, is the
case
no
more.
All have fought the campaign ere this:
Each a book of the words is holding; never a single point
they'll
miss.
Bright their natures, and now, I ween,
Newly whetted, and sharp, and keen.
Dread not any defect of wit,
Battle away without misgiving, sure that the audience, at
least,
are
fit.
EURIPIDES
Well then I'll turn me to your prologues now,
Beginning first to test the first beginning
Of this fine poet's plays. Why he's obscure
Even in the enunciation of the facts.
DIONYSUS
Which of them will you test?
EURIPIDES
Many: but first
Give us that famous one from the Oresteia.
DIONYSUS
St! Silence all! Now,
AESCHYLUS
, begin.
AESCHYLUS
"Grave Hermes, witnessing a father's power,
Be thou my saviour and mine aid to-day,
For here I come and hither I return."
DIONYSUS
Any fault there?
EURIPIDES
A dozen faults and more.
DIONYSUS
Eh! why the lines are only three in all.
EURIPIDES
But every one contains a score of faults.
DIONYSUS
Now
AESCHYLUS
, keep silent; if you don't
You won't get off with three iambic lines.
AESCHYLUS
Silent for him!
DIONYSUS
If my advice you'll take.
EURIPIDES
Why, at first starting here's a fault skyhigh.
AESCHYLUS
(to
DIONYSUS
) You see your folly?
DIONYSUS
Have your way; I care not.
AESCHYLUS
(to
EURIPIDES
) What is my fault?
EURIPIDES
Begin the lines again.
AESCHYLUS
"Grave Hermes, witnessing a father's power-"
EURIPIDES
And this beside his murdered father's grave
Orestes speaks?
AESCHYLUS
I say not otherwise.
EURIPIDES
Then does he mean that when his father fell
By craft and violence at a woman's hand,
The god of craft was witnessing the deed?
AESCHYLUS
It was not he: it was the Helper Hermes
He called the grave: and this he showed by adding
It was his sire's prerogative he held.
EURIPIDES
Why this is worse than all. If from his father
He held this office grave, why then-
DIONYSUS
He was
A graveyard rifler on his father's side.
AESCHYLUS
Bacchus, the wine you drink is stale and fusty.
DIONYSUS
Give him another: (to
EURIPIDES
) you, look out for faults.
AESCHYLUS
"Be thou my saviour and mine aid to-day,
For here I come, and hither I return."
EURIPIDES
The same thing twice says clever
AESCHYLUS
.
DIONYSUS
How twice?
EURIPIDES
Why, just consider: I'll explain.
"I come, says he; and "I return," says he:
It's the same thing, to "come" and to "return."
DIONYSUS
Aye, just as if you said, "Good fellow, tend me
A kneading trough: likewise, a trough to knead in."
AESCHYLUS
It is not so, you everlasting talker,
They're not the same, the words are right enough.
DIONYSUS
How so? inform me how you use the words.
AESCHYLUS
A man, not banished from his home, may "come"
To any land, with no especial chance.
A home-bound exile both "returns" and "comes."
DIONYSUS
O good, by Apollo!
What do you say,
EURIPIDES
, to that?
EURIPIDES
I say Orestes never did "return."
He came in secret: nobody recalled him.
DIONYSUS
O good, by Hermes I (Aside) I've not the least suspicion
what he means.
EURIPIDES
Repeat another line.
DIONYSUS
Ay,
AESCHYLUS
,
Repeat one instantly: you, mark what's wrong.
AESCHYLUS
"Now on this funeral mound I call my rather
To hear, to hearken.
EURIPIDES
There he is again.
To "hear," to "hearken"; the same thing, exactly.
DIONYSUS
Aye, but he's speaking to the dead, you knave,
Who cannot hear us though we call them thrice.
AESCHYLUS
And how do you make your prologues?
EURIPIDES
You shall hear;
And if you find one single thing said twice,
Or any useless padding, spit upon me.
DIONYSUS
Well, fire away: I'm all agog to hear
Your very accurate and faultless prologues.
EURIPIDES
"A happy man was Oedipus at first-
AESCHYLUS
Not so, by Zeus; a most unhappy man.
Who, not yet born nor yet conceived, Apollo
Foretold would be his father's murderer.
How could he be a happy man at first?
EURIPIDES
"Then he became the wretchedest of men."
AESCHYLUS
Not so, by Zeus; he never ceased to be.
No sooner born, than they exposed the babe,
(And that in winter), in an earthen crock,
Lest he should grow a man, and slay his father.
Then with both ankles pierced and swoln, he limped
Away to Polybus: still young, he married
An ancient crone, and her his mother too.
Then scratched out both his eyes.
DIONYSUS
Happy indeed
Had he been Erasinides's colleague!
EURIPIDES
Nonsense; I say my prologues are firstrate.
AESCHYLUS
Nay then, by Zeus, no longer line by line
I'll maul your phrases: but with heaven to aid
I'll smash your prologues with a bottle of oil.
EURIPIDES
You mine with a bottle of oil?
AESCHYLUS
With only one.
You frame your prologues so that each and all
Fit in with a "bottle of oil," or "coverlet-skin,"
Or "reticule-bag." I'll prove it here, and now.
EURIPIDES
You'll prove it? You?
AESCHYLUS
I will.
DIONYSUS
Well then, begin.
EURIPIDES
"Aegyptus, sailing with his fifty sons,
As ancient legends mostly tell the tale,
Touching at Argos"
AESCHYLUS
Lost his bottle of oil.
EURIPIDES
Hang it, what's that? Confound that bottle of oil!
Give him another: let him try again.
EURIPIDES
"Bacchus, who, clad in fawnskins, leaps and bounds torch
and thyrsus in the choral dance along Parnassus"
AESCHYLUS
Lost his bottle of oil.
DIONYSUS
Ah me, we are stricken-with that bottle again!
Pooh, pooh, that's nothing. I've a prologue
He'll never tack his bottle of oil to this:
"No man is blest in every single thing.
One is of noble birth, but lacking means.
Another, baseborn,"
AESCHYLUS
Lost his bottle of oil.
DIONYSUS
EURIPIDES
!
EURIPIDES
Well?
DIONYSUS
Lower your sails, my boy;
This bottle of is going to blow a gale.
EURIPIDES
O, by Demeter, I care one bit;
Now from his hands I'll strike that bottle of oil.
DIONYSUS
Go on then, go: but ware the bottle of oil.
EURIPIDES
"Once Cadmus, quitting the Sidonian town, Agenor's
offspring"
AESCHYLUS
Lost his bottle of oil.
DIONYSUS
O pray, my man, buy off that bottle of oil,
Or else he'll smash our prologues all to bits.
EURIPIDES
I buy of him?
DIONYSUS
If my advice you'll take.
EURIPIDES
No, no, I've many a prologue yet to say,
To which he can't tack on his bottle of oil.
"Pelops, the son of Tantalus, while driving
His mares to Pisa"
AESCHYLUS
Lost his bottle of oil.
DIONYSUS
There! he tacked on the bottle of oil again.
O for heaven's sake, pay him its price, dear boy;
You'll get it for an obol, spick and span.
EURIPIDES
Not yet, by Zeus; I've plenty of prologues left.
"Oeneus once reaping"
AESCHYLUS
Lost his bottle of oil.
EURIPIDES
Pray let me finish one entire line first.
"Oeneus once reaping an abundant harvest,
Offering the firstfruits"
AESCHYLUS
Lost his bottle of oil.
DIONYSUS
What, in the act of offering? Fie! Who stole it?
EURIPIDES
O don't keep bothering! Let him try with
"Zeus, as by Truth's own voice the tale is told,"
DIONYSUS
No, he'll cut in with "Lost his bottle of oil" bottle
Those bottles of oil on all your prologues seem
To gather and grow, like styes upon the eye.
Turn to his melodies now for goodness' sake.
EURIPIDES
O I can easily show that he's a poor
Melody-maker; makes all alike.
CHORUS
What, O what will be done!
Strange to think that he dare
Blame the bard who has won,
More than all in our days,
Fame and praise for his lays,
Lays so many and fair.
Much I marvel to hear
What the charge he will bring
'Gainst our tragedy king;
Yea for himself do fear.
EURIPIDES
Wonderful lays! O yes, you'll see directly.
I'll cut down all his metrical strains to one.
DIONYSUS
And I, I'll take some pebbles, and keep count. (A slight
pause, during which the music of a flute is heard. The music
continues
to the end of line (
EURIPIDES
-Hush! the bee...) as an accompaniment
to the recitative.)
EURIPIDES
"Lord of Phthia, Achilles, why hearing the voice of the
hero-dividing
Hah! smiting! approachest thou not to the rescue?
We, by the lake who abide, are adoring our ancestor Hermes.
Hah! smiting! approachest thou not to the rescue?"
DIONYSUS
O
AESCHYLUS
, twice art thou smitten I
EURIPIDES
"Hearken to me, great king; yea, hearken
Atreides, thou noblest of the Achaeans.
Hah! smiting! approachest thou not to the rescue?
DIONYSUS
Thrice,
AESCHYLUS
, thrice art thou smitten!
EURIPIDES
"Hush! the bee-wardens are here: they will quickly the
Temple of Artemis open.
Hah! smiting! approachest thou not to the rescue?
I will expound (for I know it) the omen the chieftains
encountered.
Hah! smiting! approachest thou not to the rescue?"
DIONYSUS
O Zeus and King, the terrible lot of smittings!
I'll to the bath: I'm very sure my kidneys
Are quite inflamed and swoln with all these smitings.
EURIPIDES
Wait till you've heard another batch of lays
Culled from his lyre-accompanied melodies.
DIONYSUS
Go on then, go: but no more smitings, please.
EURIPIDES
"How the twin-throned powers of Achaea, the lords of the
mighty Hellenes.
O phlattothrattophlattothrat!
Sendeth the Sphinx, the unchancy, the chieftainness
bloodhound.
O phlattothrattophlattothratt launcheth fierce with brand and
hand
the avengers the terrible eagle.
O phlattothrattophlattothrat!
So for the swift-winged hounds of the air he provided a booty.
O phlattothrattophlattothrat!
The throng down-bearing on Aias.
O phlattothrattophlattotbrat!"
DIONYSUS
Whence comes that phlattothrat?
From Marathon, or
Where picked you up these cable-twister's strains?
AESCHYLUS
From noblest source for noblest ends brought them,
Unwilling in the Muses' holy field
The self-same flowers as Phrynichus to cull.
But he from all things rotten draws his lays,
From Carian flutings, catches of Meletus,
Dance-music, dirges. You shall hear directly.
Bring me the lyre. Yet wherefore need a lyre
For songs like these? Where's she that bangs and jangles
Her castanets?
EURIPIDES
's Muse,
Present yourself: fit goddess for fit verse.
DIONYSUS
The Muse herself can't be a wanton? No!
AESCHYLUS
Halycons, who by the ever-rippling
Waves of the sea are babbling,
Dewing your plumes with the drops that fall
From wings in the salt spray dabbling.
Spiders, ever with twir-r-r-r-r-rling fingers
Weaving the warp and the woof,
Little, brittle, network, fretwork,
Under the coigns of the roof.
The minstrel shuttle's care.
Where in the front of the dark-prowed ships
Yarely the flute-loving dolphin skips.
Races here and oracles there.
And the joy of the young vines smiling,
And the tendril of grapes, care-beguiling.
O embrace me, my child, O embrace me. (To
DIONYSUS
) You see this
foot?
DIONYSUS
I do.
AESCHYLUS
And this?
DIONYSUS
And that one too.
AESCHYLUS
(to
EURIPIDES
You, such stuff who compile,
Dare my songs to upbraid;
You, whose songs in the style
Of Cyrene's embraces are made.
So much for them: but still I'd like to show
The way in which your monodies are framed
"O darkly-light mysterious Night,
What may this Vision mean,
Sent from the world unseen
With baleful omens rife;
A thing of lifeless life,
A child of sable night,
A ghastly curdlinisight,
In black funereal veils,
With murder, murder in its eyes,
And great enormous nails?
Light ye the lanterns, my maidens, and dipping your jugs in
the
stream,
Draw me the dew of the water, and heat it to boiling and
steam;
So will I wash me away the ill effects of my dream.
God of the sea!
My dream's come true.
Ho, lodgers, ho,
This portent view.
Glyce has vanished, carrying off my cock,
My cock that crew!
O Mania, help! O Oreads of the rock
Pursue! pursue!
For I, poor girl, was working within,
Holding my distaff heavy and full,
Twir-r-r-r-r-rling my hand as the threads I spin,
Weaving an excellent bobbin of wool;
Thinking 'To-morrow I'll go to the fair,
In the dusk of the morn, and be selling it there.'
But he to the blue up flew, up flew, on the lightliest tips of
his
wings outspread;
To me he bequeathed but woe, but woe,
And tears, sad tears, from my eyes o'erflow,
Which I, the bereaved, must shed, must shed.
O children of Ida, sons of Crete,
Grasping your bows to the rescue come;
Twinkle about on your restless feet,
Stand in a circle around her home.
O Artemis, thou maid divine,
Dictynna, huntress, fair to see,
O bring that keen-nosed pack of thine,
And hunt through all the house with me.
O Hecate, with flameful brands,
O Zeus's daughter, arm thine hands,
Those swiftliest hands, both right and left;
Thy rays on Glyce's cottage throw
That I serenely there may go,
And search by moonlight for the theft."
DIONYSUS
Enough of both your odes.
AESCHYLUS
Enough for me.
Now would I bring the fellow to the scales.
That, that alone, shall test our poetry now,
And prove whose words are weightiest, his or mine.
DIONYSUS
Then both come hither, since I needs must weigh
The art poetic like a pound of cheese.
Here a large balance is brought out and placed upon the stage.
CHORUS
O the labour these wits go through I
O the wild, extravagant, new,
Wonderful things they are going to do!
Who but they would ever have thought of it?
Why, if a man had happened to meet me
Out in the street, and intelligence brought of it,
I should have thought he was trying to cheat me;
Thought that his story was false and deceiving.
That were a tale I could never believe in.
DIONYSUS
Each of you stand beside his scale.
AESCHYLUS
AND
EURIPIDES
We're here.
DIONYSUS
And grasp it firmly whilst ye speak your lines,
Each holds his own scale steady while he speaks his line into
it.
And don't let go until I cry "Cuckoo."
AESCHYLUS
AND
EURIPIDES
Ready!
DIONYSUS
Now speak your lines into the scale.
EURIPIDES
"O that the Argo had not winged her way-"
AESCHYLUS
"River Spercheius, cattle-grazing haunts-"
DIONYSUS
Cuckoo! let go. O look, by far the lowest
His scale sinks down.
EURIPIDES
Why, how came that about?
DIONYSUS
He threw a river in, like some wool-seller
Wetting his wool, to make it weigh the more.
But threw in a light and winged word.
EURIPIDES
Come, let him match another verse with mine.
DIONYSUS
Each to his scale.
AESCHYLUS
AND
EURIPIDES
We're ready.
DIONYSUS
Speak your lines.
EURIPIDES
"Persuasion's only shrine is eloquent speech."
AESCHYLUS
"Death loves not gifts, alone amongst the gods."
DIONYSUS
Let go, let go. Down goes his scale again.
He threw in Death, the heaviest ill of all.
EURIPIDES
And I Persuasion, the most lovely word.
DIONYSUS
A vain and empty sound, devoid of sense.
Think of some heavier-weighted line of yours,
To drag your scale down: something strong and big.
EURIPIDES
Where have I got one? Where? Let's see.
DIONYSUS
I'll tell you.
"Achilles threw two singles and a four."
Come, speak your lines: this is your last set-to.
EURIPIDES
"In his right hand he grasped an iron-clamped mace."
AESCHYLUS
"Chariot on chariot, corpse on corpse was hurled."
DIONYSUS
There now! again he has done you.
EURIPIDES
Done me? How?
DIONYSUS
He threw two chariots and two corpses in;
Five-score Egyptians could not lift that weight.
AESCHYLUS
No more of "line for line"; let him-himself,
His children, wife, Cephisophon-get in,
With all his books collected in his arms,
Two lines of mine shall overweigh the lot.
DIONYSUS
Both are my friends; I can't decide between them:
I don't desire to be at odds with either:
One is so clever, one delights me so.
PLUTO
(coming forward) Then you'll effect nothing for which you
came?
DIONYSUS
And how, if I decide?
PLUTO
Then take the winner;
So will your journey not be made in vain.
DIONYSUS
Heaven bless your Highness! Listen, I came down
After a poet.
EURIPIDES
To what end?
The city, saved, may keep her choral games.
Now then, whichever of you two shall best
Advise the city, he shall come with me.
And first of Alcibiades, let each
Say what he thinks; the city travails sore.
DIONYSUS
What does she think herself about him?
She loves, and hates, and longs to have him back.
But give me your advice about the man.
EURIPIDES
I loathe a townsman who is slow to aid,
And swift to hurt, his town: who ways and means
Finds for himself, but finds not for the state.
DIONYSUS
Poseidon, but that's smart! (to
AESCHYLUS
) And what say
you?
AESCHYLUS
'Twere best to rear no lion in the state:
But having reared, 'tis best to humour him.
DIONYSUS
By Zeus the Saviour, still I can't decide.
One is so clever, and so clear the other.
But once again. Let each in turn declare
What plan of safety for the state ye've got.
EURIPIDES
(First with Cinesias wing Cleocritus,
Then zephyrs waft them o'er the watery plain.
DIONYSUS
A funny sight, I own: but where's the sense?
EURIPIDES
If, when the fleets engage, they holding cruets
Should rain down vinegar in the foemen's eyes,)
I know, and I can tell you.
DIONYSUS
Tell away.
EURIPIDES
When things, mistrusted now, shall trusted be,
And trusted things, mistrusted.
DIONYSUS
How! I don't
Quite comprehend. Be clear, and not so clever.
EURIPIDES
If we mistrust those citizens of ours
Whom now we trust, and those employ whom now
We don't employ, the city will be saved.
If on our present tack we fail, we surely
Shall find salvation in the opposite course.
DIONYSUS
Good, O Palamedes! Good, you genius you.
Is this your cleverness or Cephisophon's?
EURIPIDES
This is my own: the cruet-plan was his.
DIONYSUS
(to
AESCHYLUS
) Now, you.
AESCHYLUS
But tell me whom the city uses.
The good and useful?
DIONYSUS
What are you dreaming of?
She hates and loathes them.
AESCHYLUS
Does she love the bad?
DIONYSUS
Not love them, no: she uses them perforce.
AESCHYLUS
How can one save a city such as this,
Whom neither frieze nor woollen tunic suits?
DIONYSUS
O, if to earth you rise, find out some way.
AESCHYLUS
There will I speak: I cannot answer here.
DIONYSUS
Nay, nay; send up your guerdon from below.
AESCHYLUS
When they shall count the enemy's soil their
And theirs the enemy's: when they know that ships
Are their true wealth, their so-called wealth delusion.
DIONYSUS
Aye, but the justices suck that down, you know.
PLUTO
Now then, decide.
DIONYSUS
I will; and thus I'll do it.
I'll choose the man in whom my soul delights.
EURIPIDES
O, recollect the gods by whom you swore
You'd take me home again; and choose your friends.
DIONYSUS
'Twas my tongue swore; my choice is-
AESCHYLUS
.
EURIPIDES
Hah! what have you done?
DIONYSUS
Done? Given the victor's prize
To
AESCHYLUS
; why not?
EURIPIDES
And do you dare
Look in my face, after that shameful deed?
DIONYSUS
What's shameful, if the audience think not so? Have you
no heart? Wretch, would you leave me dead?
DIONYSUS
Who knows if death be life, and life be death,
And breath be mutton broth, and sleep a sheepskin?
PLUTO
Now,
DIONYSUS
come ye in,
DIONYSUS
What for?
PLUTO
And sup before ye go.
DIONYSUS
A bright idea.
I'faith, I'm nowise indisposed for that. (Exeunt
AESCHYLUS
,
EURIPIDES
,
PLUTO
, and
DIONYSUS
.)
CHORUS
Blest the man who possesses
Keen intelligent mind.
This full often we find.
He, the bard of renown,
Now to earth reascends,
Goes, a joy to his town,
Goes, a joy to his friends,
Just because he possesses
Keen intelligent mind.
Right it is and befitting,
Not, by Socrates sitting,
Idle talk to pursue,
Stripping tragedy-art of
All things noble and true.
Surely the mind to school
Fine-drawn quibbles to seek,
Fine-set phrases to speak,
Is but the part of a fool (Re-enter
<b>PLUTO</b>
and
AESCHYLUS
.)
PLUTO
Farewell then
AESCHYLUS
, great and wise,
Go, save our state by the maxims rare
Of thy noble thought; and the fools chastise,
For many a fool dwells there.
And this (handing him a rope) to Cleophon give, my friend,
And this to the revenue-raising crew,
Nichomachus, Myrmex, next I send,
And this to Archenomus too.
And bid them all that without delay,
To my realm of the dead they hasten away.
For if they loiter above, I swear
I'll come myself and arrest them there.
And branded and fettered the
slaves shall
With the vilest rascal in all the town,
Adeimantus, son of Leucolophus, down,
Down, down to the darkness below.
AESCHYLUS
I take the mission. This chair of mine
Meanwhile to Sophocles here commit, (For I count him next in
our
craft divine,) Till I come once more by thy side to sit.
But as for that rascally scoundrel there,
That low buffoon, that worker of ill,
O let him not sit in my vacant chair,
Not even against his will.
PLUTO
(to the
CHORUS
Escort him up with your mystic throngs,
While the holy torches quiver and blaze.
Escort him up with his own sweet gongs,
And his noble festival lays.
CHORUS
First, as the poet triumphant is passing away to the light,
Grant him success on his journey, ye powers that are ruling
below.
Grant that he find for the city good counsels to guide her
aright;
So we at last shall be freed from the anguish, the fear, and
the
woe,
Freed from the onsets of war.
Let Cleophon now and his band
Battle, if battle they must, far away in their own fatherland.
THE END
2.20.07
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