Racine: Phaedra

THE KNIGHTS 149
Sausage-Seller.—But what's the snake?
Demosthenes.— The snake is clear
and obvious
The snake is long and black, like a black-pudding
The snake is filled with blood, like a black-pudding.
Our Oracle foretells then, that the snake
Shall baffle and overpower the leathern eagle.
Sausage- Seller.—These oracles hit my fancy! Notwith-
standing . . .
I'm partly doubtful, how I could contrive . . .
To manage an administration altogether . . .
Demosthenes.—The easiest thing in nature!—nothing easier 1
Stick to your present practice : follow it up
In your new calling. Mangle, mince and mash,
Confound and hack, and jumble things together!
And interlard your rhetoric with lumps
Of mawkish sweet, and greasy flattery.
Be fulsome, coarse, and bloody ! For the rest,
All qualities combine, all circumstances,
To entitle and equip you for command
A filthy voice, a villainous countenance,
A vulgar birth, and parentage, and breeding.
Nothing is wanting, absolutely nothing.
And the oracles and responses of the gods,
And prophecies, all conspire in your behalf.
Place then this chaplet on your brows !—and worship
The anarchic powers ; and rouse your spirits up
To encounter him.
Sausage-Seller.— But who do ye think will help me?
For all our wealthier people are alarmed,
And terrified at him ; and the meaner sort
In a manner stupefied, grown dull and dumb.
Demosthenes.—Why there's a thousand lusty cavaliers.
Ready to back you, that detest and scorn him
And every worthy well-born citizen
And every candid critical spectator;
And I myself ; and the help of heaven to boot.
And never fear ; his face will not be seen,
For all the manufacturers of masks,
From cowardice, refused to model it.