Racine: Phaedra

i86
ARISTOPHANES
That the State for household use
Wants a pestle and a mortar;
That Cleon serves to pound and bruise,
Or else our income would run shorter^
But I was told, the boys at school
Observed it as a kind of rule,
That he never could be made
By any means to play the lyre,
Till he was well and truly paid—
I mean with lashes for his hire.
At length his master all at once
Expelled him as an utter dunce
As by nature ill inclined,
And wanting gifts of every kind.
'Re-enter Cleon and the Sausage-Seller—Cleon with a large
packet and the Sausage-Seller staggering under a por-
ter's load.
Cleon [to Demus].—Well, there's a bundle you see, I've
brought of 'em;
But that's not all ; there's more of them to come
Sausage- Seller.—I grunt and sweat, you see, with the load
of 'em
But that's not all ; there's more of 'em to come.
Demus.—But what are these ?—all ?
Cleon.— Oracles.
Demus.— What, all?
Cleon.—Ah, you're surprised, it seems, at the quantity I
That's nothing; I've a trunk full of 'em at home.
Sausage- Seller.—^And I've a garret and out-house both brim-
ful.
Demus.—Let's give 'em a look. Whose oracles are these?
Cleon.—Bakis's mine are.
Demus [to the Sausage-Seller],—Well, and whose are yours?
Sausage- Seller.—Mine are from Glanis, Bakis's elder brother.
Demus.—And what are they all about?
Cleon.— About the Athenians,
About the Island of Pylos—about myself
About yourself—^about all kinds of things.
Demus.—^And what are yours about?