Scene II
[STRATYLLUS, CHORUS OF OLD MEN, and CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN.]
STRATYLLUS
Cease ho!—what tumult’s this, O wicked wretches?
For good and pious men had ne’er thus acted.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
This deed comes unexpected to our sight.
The female swarm is aiding at the doors.
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
Why fear ye us?—think you that we are many?
And yet ye see not our ten thousandth part.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
O Phaedria, shall we suffer them to prate so?
Must not one beat them till he break his staff?
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
Let us, too, place our pitchers on the ground.
That if a man against us lift his hand
These may be no impediment.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
By Jove,
Had any one struck their jaws twice or thrice,
Like Bupalus’, they would have had no voice. []
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
Lo, here I stand—let any one assault me,
I’ll show myself such that no other dog
Can ever seize you.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
If you won’t be silent.
In killing you I’ll pound my age to grains.
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
Come, and but touch Stratyllis with a finger.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
And what if I should maul her with my fists?
What dreadful evil wilt thou do to me?
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
I’ll bite thy lungs, and tear thine entrails out.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
There is no poet than Euripides
More wise, for there’s no animal so shameless
As woman.
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
Let us, O Rhodippe, take
Our water pitcher.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
But on what account,
O hated by the gods, art thou come hither.
Bearing the water?
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
And why thou the fire,
O neighbour to the tomb, [] as if about
T’ ignite thyself?
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
I, having rear’d a pile,
Would set thy friends on fire.
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
And I would quench
Thy flame with this.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
Wilt thou my fire extinguish?
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
The deed will quickly show you this.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
I know not
Whether to burn them with this lamp I hold.
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
If thou by chance art filthy, I will give
A bath.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
To me a bath, O dirty wretch?
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
And that a nuptial one.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
Hear you her boldness?
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
It is that I am free.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
I will restrain
Thy present noise.
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
But thou wilt be no more
A Heliastic judge.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
Ignite her hair.
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
O Achelous, do thy work.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
O me
Unhappy!
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
Was it warm?
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
How, warm? wilt thou
Not cease? what art thou doing?
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
Watering thee,
That thou may’st spring again.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
But I am now
All dry and trembling.
CHORUS OF OLD WOMEN
Then, since thou hast fire,
It will be in thy power to warm thyself.
[Enter a MAGISTRATE.]
MAGISTRATE
Hath then the women’s wantonness shone out—
Frequent drum-beatings and Sabazian rites; []
And on the roofs this weeping for Adonis,
Which I so late in the assembly heard?
Demostratus [] (ill-fated may he perish!)
Advis’d the armament ’gainst Sicily;
But his wife, dancing, cries—“Ah! for Adonis!”
Demostratus advis’d us to enrol
The heavy-arm’d Zacynthian [] soldiery;
But his inebriate wife upon the roof
ToId them to beat their bosoms for Adonis;
While the god’s hate, that wretch Cholozyges,
Was forc’d to raise his voice to a high strain,
So loud and so indecent were their songs.
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
And what, if you should hear their insolence?
Who with their tongues revile, and from their pitchers
Bathe us with such a stream, that we may shake
Our reeking clothes, as if we’d wet ourselves.
MAGISTRATE
I swear, by Neptune, the marine, ’tis just: []
For when ourselves in evil courses join
With women, and in luxury instruct them,
Counsels like these spring from them—then we speak
After this fashion in the workmen’s shops—
“Goldsmith, that necklace, which thou hast prepar’d.
As my wife frolick’d in the evening dance.
An acorn from its setting fell—for me,
I am obliged to sail for Salamis;
But, if thou art at leisure, by all means
At even come to her and reset the nut.”
Another to a shoemaker will say,
Whose youth with more than boyish vigour glows—
“O shoemaker, my wife’s shoe-latchet pinches
Her little toe, it is so delicate—
Then come thou at mid-day and loosen it,
That it may fit more widely.” Such result
Have I encounter’d from these accidents.
I being then a senator, whose care
Is to supply the rowers with provision; []
Now, when there is necessity for money,
Am by the women shut out from the gates.
But there’s no profit in this standing still—
Bring bars, that I may curb their insolence.
Why gapest thou, O wretch? engag’d in nought,
But, turning toward the liquor-shop thine eyes?
Will y...