The Acharnians Part 12

I die! the foe's lance has struck me! But what would hurt me most would be for Dicaeopolis to see me wounded thus and laugh at my ill-fortune.

DICAEOPOLIS (ENTERS WITH TWO COURTESANS) Oh! my G.o.ds! what bosoms! Hard as a quince! Come, my treasures, give me voluptuous kisses! Glue your lips to mine. Haha! I was the first to empty my cup.

LAMACHUS Oh! cruel fate! how I suffer! accursed wounds!

DICAEOPOLIS Hah! hah! hail! Knight Lamachus! (EMBRACES LAMACHUS.)

LAMACHUS By the hostile G.o.ds! (BITES DICAEOPOLIS.)

DICAEOPOLIS Ah! Great G.o.ds!

LAMACHUS Why do you embrace me?

DICAEOPOLIS And why do you bite me?

LAMACHUS 'Twas a cruel score I was paying back!

DICAEOPOLIS Scores are not evened at the Feast of Cups!

LAMACHUS Oh! Paean, Paean!

DICAEOPOLIS But to-day is not the feast of Paean.

LAMACHUS Oh! support my leg, do; ah! hold it tenderly, my friends!

DICAEOPOLIS And you, my darlings, take hold of this, both of you!

LAMACHUS This blow with the stone makes me dizzy; my sight grows dim.

DICAEOPOLIS For myself, I want to get to bed; I am bursting with l.u.s.tfulness, I want to be bundling in the dark.

LAMACHUS Carry me to the surgeon Pittalus.

DICAEOPOLIS Take me to the judges. Where is the king of the feast?

The wine-skin is mine!

LAMACHUS That spear has pierced my bones; what torture I endure!

DICAEOPOLIS You see this empty cup! I triumph! I triumph!

CHORUS Old man, I come at your bidding! You triumph! you triumph!

DICAEOPOLIS Again I have brimmed my cup with unmixed wine and drained it at a draught!

CHORUS You triumph then, brave champion; thine is the wine-skin!

DICAEOPOLIS Follow me, singing "Triumph! Triumph!"

CHORUS Aye! we will sing of thee, thee and thy sacred wine-skin, and we all, as we follow thee, will repeat in thine honour, "Triumph, Triumph!"