The Knights [17]
before
you, yet you are led by the nose. You love to be flattered and fooled;
you listen to the orators with gaping mouth and your mind is led
astray.
DEMOS (singing)
It's rather you who have no brains, if you think me so foolish
as all that; it is with a purpose that I play this idiot's role, for I
love to drink the livelong day, and so it pleases me to keep a thief
for my minister. When he has thoroughly gorged himself, then I
overthrow and crush him.
CHORUS (singing)
What profound wisdom! If it be really so, why! all is for the
best. Your ministers, then, are your victims, whom you nourish and
feed up expressly in the Pnyx, so that, the day your dinner is
ready, you may immolate the fattest and eat him.
DEMOS (singing)
Look, see how I play with them, while all the time they think
themselves such adepts at cheating me. I have my eye on them when they
thieve, but I do not appear to be seeing them; then I thrust a
judgment down their throat as it were a feather, and force them to
vomit up all they have robbed from me.
(Cleon comes out of the house with a bench and a large basket; at
the same moment the SAUSAGE-SELLER arrives with another basket;
the two are placed beside one another.)
CLEON
Get out of here!
SAUSAGE-SELLER
Get out yourself!
CLEON
Demos, all is ready these three hours; I await your orders and I
burn with desire to load you with benefits.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
And I ten, twelve, a thousand hours, a long, long while, an
infinitely long, long, long while.
DEMOS
As for me, it's thirty thousand hours that I have been
impatient; very, long, infinitely long, long, long that I have
cursed you-
SAUSAGE-SELLER
Do you know what you had best do?
DEMOS
I will, if you tell me.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
Declare the lists open and we will contend abreast to
determine-who shall treat you the best.
DEMOS
Splended! Draw back in line!
CLEON
I am ready.
DEMOS
Off you go!
SAUSAGE-SELLER (to CLEON)
I shall not let you get to the tape.
DEMOS
What fervent lovers! If I am not to-day the happiest of men, it
will be because I am the most disgusted.
CLEON (putting down the bench for DEMOS)
Look! I am the first to bring you a seat.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
And I a table.
(He places his sausage-tray in front of DEMOS.)
CLEON
Wait, here is a cake kneaded of Pylos barley.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
Here are crusts, which the ivory hand of the goddess has hallowed.
DEMOS
Oh! Mighty Athene! How large are your fingers!
CLEON
This is pea-soup, as exquisite as it is fine; Pallas the
victorious goddess at Pylos is the one who crushed the peas herself.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
Oh, Demos! the goddess watches over you; she is stretching forth
over your head.... a stew-pan full of broth.
DEMOS
And should we still be dwelling in this city without this
protecting stew-pan?
CLEON
Here are some fish, given to you by her who is the terror of our
foes.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
The daughter of the mightiest of the gods sends you this meat
cooked in its own gravy, along with this dish of tripe and some
paunch.
DEMOS
That's to thank me for the peplus I offered to her; good.
CLEON
The goddess with the terrible plume invites you to eat this long
cake; you will row the harder on it.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
Take this also.
DEMOS
And what shall I do with this tripe?
SAUSAGE-SELLER
She sends it you to belly out your galleys, for she is always
showing her kindly anxiety for our fleet. Now drink this drink
composed of three parts of water to two of wine.
DEMOS
Ah! what delicious wine, and how well it stands the water.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
The goddess who came from the head of Zeus mixed this liquor
with her own hands.
you, yet you are led by the nose. You love to be flattered and fooled;
you listen to the orators with gaping mouth and your mind is led
astray.
DEMOS (singing)
It's rather you who have no brains, if you think me so foolish
as all that; it is with a purpose that I play this idiot's role, for I
love to drink the livelong day, and so it pleases me to keep a thief
for my minister. When he has thoroughly gorged himself, then I
overthrow and crush him.
CHORUS (singing)
What profound wisdom! If it be really so, why! all is for the
best. Your ministers, then, are your victims, whom you nourish and
feed up expressly in the Pnyx, so that, the day your dinner is
ready, you may immolate the fattest and eat him.
DEMOS (singing)
Look, see how I play with them, while all the time they think
themselves such adepts at cheating me. I have my eye on them when they
thieve, but I do not appear to be seeing them; then I thrust a
judgment down their throat as it were a feather, and force them to
vomit up all they have robbed from me.
(Cleon comes out of the house with a bench and a large basket; at
the same moment the SAUSAGE-SELLER arrives with another basket;
the two are placed beside one another.)
CLEON
Get out of here!
SAUSAGE-SELLER
Get out yourself!
CLEON
Demos, all is ready these three hours; I await your orders and I
burn with desire to load you with benefits.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
And I ten, twelve, a thousand hours, a long, long while, an
infinitely long, long, long while.
DEMOS
As for me, it's thirty thousand hours that I have been
impatient; very, long, infinitely long, long, long that I have
cursed you-
SAUSAGE-SELLER
Do you know what you had best do?
DEMOS
I will, if you tell me.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
Declare the lists open and we will contend abreast to
determine-who shall treat you the best.
DEMOS
Splended! Draw back in line!
CLEON
I am ready.
DEMOS
Off you go!
SAUSAGE-SELLER (to CLEON)
I shall not let you get to the tape.
DEMOS
What fervent lovers! If I am not to-day the happiest of men, it
will be because I am the most disgusted.
CLEON (putting down the bench for DEMOS)
Look! I am the first to bring you a seat.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
And I a table.
(He places his sausage-tray in front of DEMOS.)
CLEON
Wait, here is a cake kneaded of Pylos barley.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
Here are crusts, which the ivory hand of the goddess has hallowed.
DEMOS
Oh! Mighty Athene! How large are your fingers!
CLEON
This is pea-soup, as exquisite as it is fine; Pallas the
victorious goddess at Pylos is the one who crushed the peas herself.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
Oh, Demos! the goddess watches over you; she is stretching forth
over your head.... a stew-pan full of broth.
DEMOS
And should we still be dwelling in this city without this
protecting stew-pan?
CLEON
Here are some fish, given to you by her who is the terror of our
foes.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
The daughter of the mightiest of the gods sends you this meat
cooked in its own gravy, along with this dish of tripe and some
paunch.
DEMOS
That's to thank me for the peplus I offered to her; good.
CLEON
The goddess with the terrible plume invites you to eat this long
cake; you will row the harder on it.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
Take this also.
DEMOS
And what shall I do with this tripe?
SAUSAGE-SELLER
She sends it you to belly out your galleys, for she is always
showing her kindly anxiety for our fleet. Now drink this drink
composed of three parts of water to two of wine.
DEMOS
Ah! what delicious wine, and how well it stands the water.
SAUSAGE-SELLER
The goddess who came from the head of Zeus mixed this liquor
with her own hands.