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As ye raced, in hot haste,<br />
and disgraced, from the frayl<br />
Many things we have against you,<br />
many rules we justly blame;<br />
But the one we now will mention<br />
is the most enormous shame.<br />
What, my masters! ought a lady,<br />
who has borne a noble son,<br />
One who in your fleets and armies<br />
great heroic deeds has done,<br />
Ought she to remain unhonoured?<br />
ought she not, I ask you, I,<br />
In our Stenia and our Scira!<br />
still to take precedence high?<br />
Whoso breeds a cowardly soldier,<br />
or a seaman cold and tame.<br />
Crop her hair, and seat her lowly;<br />
brand her with the marks of shame;<br />
Set the nobler dame above her.<br />
Can it, all ye Powers, be right<br />
That Hyperbolus's mother,<br />
flowing-haired, and robed in white,<br />
Should in public places sit by<br />
Lamachus's mother's side,<br />
Hoarding wealth, and lending monies,<br />
gathering profits far and wide?<br />
Sure 'twere better every debtor,<br />
. calm, resolving not to pay,<br />
When she comes exacting money,<br />
with a mild surprise should say,<br />
Keeping principal and income, "You to claim<br />
percentage due I<br />
Sure a son so capital is capital enough for you."<br />
The close of the Parabasis finds the position of<br />
MNESlLOCHUS unaltered. The dispatch of the<br />
. tablets has, so far, produced no result.<br />
Mn. I've strained my eyes with watching; but my<br />
poet,<br />
"He cometh not." Why not? Belike he feels<br />
Ashamed of his old frigid Palamede.<br />
Which is the play to fetch him? 0, I know;<br />
Which but his brand-new Helen? I'll be Helen.<br />
I've got the woman's clothes, at all events.<br />
Cr. What are you plotting? What is that you're<br />
muttering?<br />
I'll Helen you, my master, if you don't<br />
Keep quiet there till the policeman comes.<br />
Mn. (as Helen) "These are the fair-nymphed<br />
waters of the Nile,<br />
Whose floods bedew, in place of heavenly<br />
showers,<br />
Egypt's white plains and black-dosed citizens."<br />
Cr. Sweet-shining Hecate, what a rogue it is.<br />
Mn. "Ah, not unknown my Spartan fatherland,<br />
Nor yet my father Tyndareus."<br />
Cr. My gracious!<br />
Was he your father? Sure, Phrynondas was.<br />
Mn. "And I was Helen."<br />
lWomen's feasts.<br />
ARISTOPHANES<br />
610<br />
Cr. What, again a woman?<br />
You've not been punished for your first freak yet.<br />
Mn. "Full many a soul, by bright Scamander's<br />
stream,<br />
Died for my sake."<br />
Cr. Would yours had died among them!<br />
Mn. "And now I linger here; but Menelaus,<br />
My dear, dear lord, ah wherefore comes he not?<br />
° sluggish crows, to spare my hapless life!<br />
But soft! some hope is busy at my heart,<br />
A laughing hope-O Zeus, deceive me not."<br />
EURIPIDES enters disguised as Menelaus.<br />
Eu. Who is the lord of this stupendous pile?<br />
Will he extend his hospitable care<br />
To some poor storm-tossed, shipwrecked mariners?<br />
Mn. "These are the halls of Proteus."<br />
Eu. Proteus, are they!<br />
Cr. 0, by the Twain, he lies like anything.<br />
I knew old Protteas; he's been dead these ten years.<br />
Eu. "Then whither, whither have we steered our<br />
bark?"<br />
Mn. "To Egypt."<br />
Eu. "0, the weary, weary way!"<br />
Cr. Pray don't believe one single word he says.<br />
This is the holy temple of the Twain.<br />
Eu. "Know you if Proteus be at home or not?"<br />
Cr. Why, don't I tell you, he's been dead these<br />
ten years!<br />
You can't have quite got over your sea-sickness,<br />
Asking if Protteas be at home or not.<br />
Eu. "Woe's mel is Proteus dead? and where's he<br />
buried ?"<br />
Mn. "This is his tomb whereon I'm si tting now."<br />
Cr. 0, hang the rascal; and he shall be hanged!<br />
How dare he say this altar is a tomb?<br />
Eu. "And wherefore sitt'st thou on this monument,<br />
Veiled in thy mantle, lady ?"<br />
Mn. "They compel me,<br />
A weeping bride, to marry Proteus' son."<br />
Cr. Why do you tell the gentleman such fibs?<br />
Good gentleman, he's a bad man; he came<br />
Among the women here, to steal their trinkets.<br />
Mn. "Aye, aye, rail on: revile me as you list."<br />
Eu. "Who is the old woman who reviles you,<br />
lady?"<br />
Mn. "Theonoe, Proteus' daughter."<br />
Cr. What a story!<br />
Why, I'm Critylla, ofGargettus, sir,<br />
A very honest woman.<br />
Mn. "Aye, speak on.<br />
But never will I wed thy brother, no,<br />
I won't be false to absent Menelaus."<br />
Eu. "What, lady, what? 0, raise those orbs to<br />
mine."<br />
Mn. "0 sir, I blush to raise them, with these<br />
cheeks."<br />
Eu. "0 dear, Odear, I cannot speak for trembling.<br />
Ye Gods, is't possible? Who art thou, lady ?"<br />
Mn. "0, who art thou? I feel the same myself."<br />
Eu. "Art thou Hellenic, or a born Egyptian?"<br />
Mn. "Hellenic I: 0, tell me what art thou."
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