Racine: Phaedra

THE KNIGHTS 169
Charges and attacks, exploits enacted in the days of yore
These, however, strike me less, as having been performed
ashore.
But the wonder was to see them, when they fairly went
aboard,
With canteens and bread and onions, victualled and
completely stored.
Then they fixed and dipped their oars beginning all to
shout and neigh,
Just the same as human creatures, " Pull away, boys I
"
Pull away !
" Bear a hand there, Roan and Sorrel ! Have a care
there. Black and Bay
Then they leapt ashore at Corinth; and the lustier
younger sort
Strolled about to pick up litter,^^ for their solace and
disport
And devoured the crabs of Corinth, as a substitute for
clover.
So that a poetic Crabbe,^* exclaimed in anguish " All is
over!
What awaits us, mighty Neptune, if we cannot hope to
keep
From pursuit and persecution in the land or in the deep.'*
Chorus [to the Sausage-Seller].— *
O best of men !
thou tightest heartiest fellow
What a terror and alarm had you created
In the hearts of all your friends by this delay.
But since at length in safety you return,
Say what was the result of your attempt,
Sausage-Seller.—The result is; you may call me Nicko-
boulus
For I've nicked the Boule there, the Senate, capitally.
Chorus.— Then we may chant amain
In an exulting strain,
With ecstasy triumphant bold and high,
O thou 1
That not in words alone, or subtle thought,
**'rhe uF^iat licentious excesses of an invading army.
•* The poet Carkinus,