University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

Pisthetærus, Chorus, and Messenger.
Pisthetærus.
All speeds, ye birds, right fairly with our sacrifice.
But from the walls how chances there is come
No herald to tell us how things there proceed?
But lo! here runneth one, breathing Alphæus!

Messenger.
Where, where, where, where, where, where's he, where; where, where's he, where,
Where is our archon, Pisthetærus?

Pisthetærus.
Here.

Messenger.
Our wall is built.

Pisthetærus.
'Tis well; thou sayest well.

Messenger.
A work most beautiful and most magnificent!
So that Proxenides of Bragland, and
Theagenes, if their cars should meet, with horses
Large as the Wooden, might drive past each other,—
So spacious is the breadth.

Pisthetærus.
O Hercules!

Messenger.
And for the length, I measured it myself,
An hundred cubits.

Pisthetærus.
Neptune! what a size!
And who are they that built it of such bulk?

Messenger.
Birds, not a soul beside: Ægyptian none,
Bricklayer or stone-mason or carpenter;
But the birds with their own hands; that 'twas marvelous!
From Libya came about three myriad cranes,
Who had swallow'd stones for the foundation; these
The cornrails with their beaks did chip and hew.
The storks, another myriad, bare the bricks;
While water to the air from underneath
Was brought by sea-larks and each river-bird.

Pisthetærus.
And who with mortar serv'd them?

Messenger.
Herons with hods.

Pisthetærus.
And how did they the mortar throw therein?

Messenger.
That too was managed, sir, most dexterously;
For by their feet the geese with understroke
As 'twere with trowels cast it in the hods.

Pisthetærus.
O what may not by help of feet be done!

Messenger.
Ay, and the drakes, by Jove, with aprons tuck'd up,
Bare bricks; and after them, like serving lads,
Flew up with cement in their mouths, the swallows.

Pisthetærus.
Who now would pay hired labourers for his work?
But let me see: the timber work o'th'wall,
Who wrought at that?

Messenger.
Those carpenter fowls, the hickwalls,
Who with their beaks did hack the gates out workmanly,
And of their hacking the like sound arose
As in a dock-yard. And now all's complete,
Gates, bars, and bolts; all strictly guarded round;
Watch visited, and larums pass'd; and sentinels
Set every where, and beacons on the towers.
But now must I run off and wash me. Meanwhile
Thyself look to the rest.

Chorus.
Well, sir, how now?
Dost not admire how expeditiously our wall
Hath been erected?

Pisthetærus.
Yea, by the Gods do I,
And most deservedly; for it all, in sooth,
Doth seem like falsehoods to me. But hitherward
A guard, as seems, from thence despatch'd, a messenger,
Comes running towards us, looking fierce defiance.