Racine: Phaedra

176
ARISTOPHANES
Sausage-Seller.—All this I can do; more handily too;
• With
ease and despatch ; I can pilfer and snatch,
And supply ye with loaves from another man's batch.
But now, to detect his saucy neglect
(In spite of the boast, of his loyalty due,
Is the boiled and the roast, to your table and you.)
You—that in combat at Marathon sped.
And hewed down your enemies hand over head,
The Mede and the Persian, achieving a treasure
Of infinite honor and profit and pleasure.
Rhetorical praises and tragical phrases;
Of rich panegyric a capital stock
He leaves you to rest on a seat of the rock,
Naked and bare, without comfort or care.
Whilst I—look ye there !—have quilted and wadded,
And tufted and padded this cushion so neat
To serve for your seat ! Rise now, let me slip
It there under your hip, that on board of the ship,
With the toil of the oar, was blistered and sore,
Enduring the burden and heat of the day.
At the battle of Salamis working away.
Oh, tell me your name
Demus.—Whence was it you came !
Your name and your birth ; for your kindness and worth
Bespeak you indeed of a patriot breed
Of the race of Harmodius^® sure you must be,
So popular, gracious and friendly to me.
Cleon.—Can he win you with ease, with such trifles as these ?
Sausage-Seller.—With easier trifles you manage to please.
Cleon.—I vow notwithstanding, that never a man
Has acted since first the republic began.
On a more patriotical popular plan
And if any man else can as truly be said
The friend of the people, I'll forfeit my head
I'll make it a wager, and stand to the pledge.
Sausage-Seller.—And what is the token you mean to allege
Of that friendship of yours, or the good it insures ?
Eight seasons are past that he shelters his head
In a barrack, an outhouse, a hovel, a shed,
^ The assassin of Hipparchus, canonized by the democratic fanaticism of
the Athenians.