Racine: Phaedra

THE KNIGHTS 189
Sausage- Seller.— " O son of Egeus, ponder and beware
Of the dog-fox, so crafty, lean, and spare,
Subtle and swift." Do ye understand it ?
Demus.— Yes
Of course the dog-fox ^" means Philostratus.
Sausage- Seller.—That's not the meaning—but the Paphlagonian
Is always urging you to send out ships
Cruising about exacting contributions
A thing that Apollo positively forbids.
Dkiius.—But why are the ships here called dog-foxes?
Sausage-Seller.— Why?
Because the ships are swift, and dogs are swift.
Demus.—But what has a fox to do with it? Why dog-foxes
Sausage- Seller.—The fox is a type of the ship's crew ; marauding
And eating up the vineyards.
Demus.— Well, so be it!
But how are my foxes to get paid their wages ?
Sausage-Seller.—I'll settle it all, and make provision for
them,
Three days' provision, presently. Only now.
This instant, let me remind you of an Oracle
" Beware Cullene."
Demus.— What's the meaning of it?
Sausage-Seller.—Cullene, in the sense I understand,
Implies a kind of a culling, asking hand
The coiled hand of an informing bully,
Culling a bribe from his affrighted cully ,^'^
A hand like his.
Cleon.— No, no! you're quite mistaken.
It alludes to Diopithes's lame hand."^
" But here's a glorious prophecy which sings.
How you shall rule on earth, and rank with kings,
And soar aloft in air on eagle's wings."
"The doR was (in a bad sense) the pose of extortion, had an established
tvpe of impudence- the fox of cunninR; token (the hand hollowed and slipped
I'hilostratus, the compound of the two, out beneath the cloak), indicating tlmt
gained his subsistence by a very in- they were willing to desist for a piece
famous trade. of money.
«> The Scholiast tells us that the com- " As a soothsayer he ought to hav«
mon informer at Athens, when accost- been free from any bodily defect,
ing and threatening persons for the pur-