Sausage-Seller
This will strike the buckler of Cleonymus full in the center.
Demos
None shall ascend the rostrum, unless his chin is bearded.
Sausage-Seller
What then will become of Clisthenes and of Strato?
Demos
I wish only to refer to those youths who loll about the perfume shops,
1375
babbling at random, “What a clever fellow is Phaeax! How cleverly he escaped death! how concise and convincing is his style! what phrases! how clear and to the point!
1380
how well he knows how to quell an interruption!”
Sausage-Seller
I thought you were the lover of those fairies.
Demos
The gods forefend it! and I will force all such fellows to go hunting instead of proposing decrees.
Sausage-Seller
In that case, accept this folding-stool,
1385
and, to carry it, this well-grown, big-balled slave lad. Besides, you may put him to any other purpose you please.
Demos
Oh! I am happy indeed to find myself as I was of old!
Sausage-Seller
Aye, you will deem yourself happy, when I have handed you the truce of thirty years. Truce! step forward!
Knights. Aristophanes. ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.. New York. 1938.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.