 | The Birds of Aristophanes |  |
SCENE I.
Euelpides, Pisthetærus.Euelpides
(speaking to his jackdaw).
Bidst thou me go straight onward where the tree is?
Pisthetærus.
Plague on thee; but this bird of mine croaks ‘Back again.’
Euelpides.
Thou miserable fellow, canst resolve me
Wherefore we thus do wander up and down,
Periling ourselves in this wild random search?
Pisthetærus.
Wretch that I am, to have been danced about
More than a hundred stadia in obsequiousness
To a raven's marshaling!
Euelpides.
My fate's no better,
That have been tearing off my nails to scramble
After this jackdaw!
4
Where i'th'world we are
I have no guess!
Euelpides.
And couldst thou find out hence
Where one's own country lies?
Pisthetærus.
By Jupiter, that
Might puzzle Execestides himself.
Euelpides.
Out on it!
Pisthetærus.
Friend, do you go, try that way.
Euelpides.
He has play'd us a pretty trick, no doubt on't,
That fellow with his tray there, mad Philocrates,
Who told us that these two would show us where
We might find Tereus out, the Epops, him
5
Him Tharrelides' jackdaw for an obol,
And me this fowl for three; but devil a thing
They know but how to bite one. And you, sirrah, (to the jackdaw)
You with your mouth agape, what wot you of?
Where wilt thou take us next? into the rock?
For here I see no way.
Pisthetærus.
Nor here, by Jove;
Not a footstep.
Euelpides.
Nor doth not the raven tell thee
Aught of the way?
Pisthetærus.
Nought; but is croaking still
Just as he was erewhile.
Euelpides.
But of the way
What saith he now?
Pisthetærus.
What but that he will gnaw
My fingers till he has eat them off?
Euelpides.
Is't not
A burning shame now, when we have made our minds up
6
Not to be able to find out the way?
For we (I'd have you note us, all that hear)
[To the spectators.
Are in a sore disaster, the opposite
To that of Sacas. He, being no citizen,
Forces himself in; we, by birth and tribe
Distinguish'd, citizens 'mongst citizens,
When not a soul cries ‘whew’ to start us up,
Fly from our country fast as legs can carry us:
Not that we hate the city in herself
For not being naturally great and blessed
And common to all—who'd spend their coin in lawsuits:
The grasshoppers, they, but a month or two
Chirp on the branches, but the Athenians still
On the law-benches sit and chirp their lives out:
And this it is hath made us to set out
This uncouth journey with our little furniture,
A pot, a basket, and these myrtle stakes,
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Where we may settle us down and dwell in peace.
So are we bound to Tereus, we, the Epops,
To ask of him if ever in his flights
He hath visited such a city.
Pisthetærus.
Ho!
Euelpides.
What now?
Pisthetærus.
The raven gives me notice this some time
Of something up aloft.
Euelpides.
Ay, and this daw too
Is gaping upward, as 'twould show me somewhat.
It cannot be but that the birds are here.
We shall know that anon, an we make noise enough.
Dost know what's best to do? Strike with thy foot
Against the rock.
Pisthetærus.
And with thy head strike thou;
So shall the noise be double.
Euelpides.
Take a stone then,
And knock.
Pisthetærus.
That's something like. Here goes.
Euelpides.
Boy! boy!
Pisthetærus.
Hilloah! what sayst thou? call'st the Epops boy?
Thou shouldst have shouted Epops, and not boy.
Euelpides.
Ho! Epops! Must I knock again? Ho! Epops!
| The Birds of Aristophanes | |