Racine: Phaedra

THE KNIGHTS 147
Sausage-Seller [with a grumble of indifference].—I see 'em.
Demosthenes.— You shall be their lord and master,
The sovereign and the ruler of them all,
Of the assemblies and tribunals, fleets and armies;
You shall trample down the Senate under foot,
Confound and crush the generals and commanders.
Arrest, imprison, and confine in irons,
And feast and fornicate in the Council House."
Sausage-Seller.—What, I ?
Demosthenes.— Yes, you yourself : there's more
to come.
Mount here ; and from the trestles of your stall
Survey the subject islands circling round.
Sausage-Seller.—I see 'em.
Demosthenes.— And all their ports and merchant vessels?
Sausage-Seller.—Yes, all.
Demosthenes.— Then an't you a fortunate happy man?
An't you content ? Come then for a further prospect
Turn your right eye to Caria, and your left
To Carthage !
"—and contemplate both together.
Sausage-Seller.—Will it do me good, d'ye think, to learn to
squint?
Demosthenes.—Not so ; but everything you see before you
Must be disposed of at your high discretion.
By sale or otherwise ; for the Oracle
Predestines you to sovereign power and greatness.
Sausage-Seller.—Are there any means of making a great man
Of a sausage-selling fellow such as I ?
Demosthenes.—The very means you have, must make ye so,
Low breeding, vulgar birth, and impudence.
These, these must make ye, what you're meant to be.
Sausage-Seller.— I can't imagine that I'm good for much.
Demosthenes.—Alas! But why do ye say so? What's the
meaning
Of these misgivings? I discern within ye
A promise and an inward consciousness
« The Prytaneum, the honor of a seat " " Carthage " must be the true readat
the public table, was sometimes con- ing, the right eye to Cana and the
ferred on persons of extraordinary merit left to " Chalcedon " would not const!in
advanced years. Cleon had obtained tutc a squint,
this privilege for himself, and abused
it insolently, as appears elsewhere.