Racine: Phaedra

THE KNIGHTS 175
To make a dash, but don't be rash, be watchful, bold and
steady.
You've a nimble adversary, shifting, and alert, and wary.
\The scene changes and discovers the Pnyx with Cleon on the
Bema, in an oratorical attitude.^
Look out ! have '•
a care ! behold him there I
He's bearing upon you—be ready, prepare.
Out with the dolphin ! Haul it hard !
Away with it up to the peak of the yard
And out with the pinnace^^ to serve for a guard.
Cleon.—To Minerva the sovereign goddess I call,
Our guide and defender, the hope of us all
With a prayer and a vow, that, even as now,
If I'm truly your friend, unto my life's end,
I may dine in the hall, doing nothing at all
But, if I despise you, or ever advise you,
Against what is best, for your comfort and rest
Or neglect to attend you, defend you, befriend you,
May I perish and pine ; may this carcass of mine
Be withered and dried, and curried beside
And straps for your harness cut out from the hide.
Sausage-Seller.—Then, Demus—if I, tell a word of a lie;
If any man more can dote or adore,
With so tender a care, I make it my prayer,
My prayer and my wish, to be stewed in a dish;
To be sliced and slashed, minced and hashed
And the offal remains that are left by the cook,
Dragged out to the grave, with my own flesh-hook.
Cleon.—O Demus ! has any man shown such a zeal,
Such a passion as I for the general weal ?
Racking and screwing offenders to ruin
With torture and threats extorting your debts
Exhausting all means for enhancing your fortune.
Terror and force and entreaties importune.
With a popular, pure, patriotical aim ;
Unmoved by compassion, or friendship, or shame.
5" Observe that the change of the vessel defending itself against the atscene
is accornpanied by the idea of tack of a ship of war: the pinnace was
naval manoeuvre. interposed to break the shock of the
" The image is that of a merchant enemy's prow.