The Eleven Comedies Vol 2 Part 11

BDELYCLEON. Oh! ye G.o.ds! I see nothing but crabs.[169] Here is yet another son of Carcinus.

PHILOCLEON. What is't comes here? A shrimp or a spider?[170]

BDELYCLEON. 'Tis a crab,[171]--a crabkin, the smallest of its kind; he writes tragedies.

PHILOCLEON. Oh! Carcinus, how proud you should be of your brood! What a crowd of kinglets have come swooping down here!

BDELYCLEON. Come, come, my poor father, you will have to measure yourself against them.

PHILOCLEON. Have pickle prepared for seasoning them, if I am bound to prove the victor.

CHORUS. Let us stand out of the way a little, so that they may twirl at their ease. Come, ill.u.s.trious children of this inhabitant of the briny, brothers of the shrimps, skip on the sand and the sh.o.r.e of the barren sea; show us the lightning whirls and twirls of your nimble limbs.

Glorious offspring of Phrynichus,[172] let fly your kicks, so that the spectators may be overjoyed at seeing your legs so high in air. Twist, twirl, tap your bellies, kick your legs to the sky. Here comes your famous father, the ruler of the sea,[173] delighted to see his three lecherous kinglets.[174] Go on with your dancing, if it pleases you, but as for us, we shall not join you. Lead us promptly off the stage, for never a Comedy yet was seen where the Chorus finished off with a dance.

FINIS OF "THE WASPS"

Footnotes:

[1] Meaning, Bdelycleon will thrash you if you do not keep a good watch on his father.

[2] The Corybantes, priests of Cybele, comported themselves like madmen in the celebration of their mysteries and made the air resound with the the noise of their drums.

[3] Cleonymus had shown himself equally cowardly on all occasions; he is frequently referred to by Aristophanes, both in this and other comedies.

[4] The cloak and the staff were the insignia of the dicasts; the poet describes them as sheep, because they were Cleon's servile tools.

[5] An allusion to Cleon, who was a tanner.

[6] In Greek, [Greek: d_emos] ([Greek: d_emos], _fat_; [Greek: d_emos], _people_) means both _fat_ and _people_.

[7] A tool of Cleon's; he had been sent on an emba.s.sy to Persia (_vide_ 'The Acharnians'). The crow is a thief and rapacious, just as Theorus was.

[8] In his life of Alcibiades, Plutarch mentions this defect in his speech; or it may have been a 'fine gentleman' affectation.

[9] Among the Greeks, _going to the crows_ was equivalent to our _going to the devil_.

[10] No doubt the fee generally given to the street diviners who were wont to interpret dreams.

[11] Coa.r.s.e buffoonery was welcomed at Megara, where, by the by, it is said that Comedy had its birth.

[12] To gain the favour of the audience, the Comic poets often caused fruit and cakes to be thrown to them.

[13] The gluttony of Heracles was a constant subject of jest with the Comic poets.

[14] The incident of Pylos (see 'The Knights').

[15] The Greek word for _friend of strangers_ is [Greek: philoxenos], which happened also to be the name of one of the vilest debauchees in Athens.

[16] The tribunal of the Heliasts came next in dignity only to the Areopagus. The dicasts, or jurymen, generally numbered 500; at times it would call in the a.s.sistance of one or two other tribunals, and the number of judges would then rise to 1000 or even 1500.

[17] A water-clock, used in the courts for limiting the time of the pleaders.

[18] The pebble was held between the thumb and two fingers, in the same way as one would hold a pinch of incense.

[19] A young Athenian of great beauty, also mentioned by Plato in his 'Gorgias.' Lovers were font of writing the name of the object of their adoration on the walls (see 'The Acharnians').

[20] [Greek: K_emos], the Greek term for the funnel-shaped top of the voting urn, into which the judges dropped their voting pebbles.

[21] Racine has introduced this incident with some modification into his 'Plaideurs.'

[22] Although called _Heliasts_ ([Greek: H_elios], the sun), the judges sat under cover. One of the columns that supported the roof is here referred to.

[23] The juryman gave his vote for condemnation by tracing a line horizontally across a waxed tablet. This was one method in use; another was by means of pebbles placed in one or other of two voting urns.

[24] Used for the purpose of voting. There were two urns, one for each of the two opinions, and each heliast placed a pebble in one of them.

[25] The Heliast's badge of office.

[26] To prepare him for initiation into the mysteries of the Corybantes.

[27] Who pretended to cure madness; they were priests of Cybele.

[28] The sacred instrument of the Corybantes.

[29] _Friend of Cleon,_ who had raised the daily salary of the Heliasts to three obols.

[30] _Enemy of Cleon._

[31] The smoke of fig-wood is very acrid, like the character of the Heliasts.

[32] Used for closing the chimney, when needed.

[33] Which had been stretched all round the courtyard to prevent his escape.

[34] Market-day.

[35] He enters the courtyard, returning with the a.s.s, under whose belly Philocleon is clinging.

[36] In the Odyssey (Bk. IX) Homer makes his hero, 'the wily' Odysseus, escape from the Cyclops' cave by clinging on under a ram's belly, which slips past its blinded master without noticing the trick played on him.

Odysseus, when asked his name by the Cyclops, replies, _Outis_, n.o.body.

[37] A name formed out of two Greek words, meaning, _running away on a horse_.

[38] The story goes that a traveller who had hired an a.s.s, having placed himself in its shadow to escape the heat of the sun, was sued by the driver, who had pretended that he had let the a.s.s, not but its shadow; hence the Greek proverb, _to quarrel about the shade of an a.s.s_, i.e.

about nothing at all.