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Enter Socrates.
Enter Strepsiades.
Socrates.
By Respiration, and Chaos, and Air, I have not seen any man so boorish, nor so impracticable, nor so stupid, nor so forgetful;
who, while learning some little petty quibbles, forgets them before he has learned them. Nevertheless I will certainly call him out here to the light. Where is Strepsiades? Come forth with your couch.
630
By Respiration, and Chaos, and Air, I have not seen any man so boorish, nor so impracticable, nor so stupid, nor so forgetful;
who, while learning some little petty quibbles, forgets them before he has learned them. Nevertheless I will certainly call him out here to the light. Where is Strepsiades? Come forth with your couch.
630
Strepsiades.
(from within). The bugs do not permit me to bring it forth.
(from within). The bugs do not permit me to bring it forth.
Socrates.
Make haste and lay it down; and give me your attention.
635
Enter Strepsiades.
Make haste and lay it down; and give me your attention.
635
Strepsiades.
Very well.
Very well.
Socrates.
Come now; what do you now wish to learn first of those things in none of which you have ever been instructed? Tell me. About measures, or rhythms, or verses?
Come now; what do you now wish to learn first of those things in none of which you have ever been instructed? Tell me. About measures, or rhythms, or verses?
Strepsiades.
I should prefer to learn about measures; for it is but lately I was cheated out of two choenices by a meal-huckster.
I should prefer to learn about measures; for it is but lately I was cheated out of two choenices by a meal-huckster.
Socrates.
I do not ask you this, but which you account the most beautiful measure; the trimetre or the tetrameter?
I do not ask you this, but which you account the most beautiful measure; the trimetre or the tetrameter?
Strepsiades.
I think nothing superior to the semisextarius.
I think nothing superior to the semisextarius.
Socrates.
You talk nonsense, man.
You talk nonsense, man.
Strepsiades.
Make a wager then with me, if the semisextarius be not a tetrameter.
Make a wager then with me, if the semisextarius be not a tetrameter.
Socrates.
Go to the devil! How boorish you are and dull of learning. Perhaps you may be able to learn about rhythms.
Go to the devil! How boorish you are and dull of learning. Perhaps you may be able to learn about rhythms.
Strepsiades.
But what good will rhythms do me for a living?
But what good will rhythms do me for a living?
Socrates.
In the first place, to be clever at an entertainment, understanding what rhythm is for the war-dance, and what, again, according to the dactyle.
In the first place, to be clever at an entertainment, understanding what rhythm is for the war-dance, and what, again, according to the dactyle.
Strepsiades.
According to the dactyle? By Jove, but I know it!
According to the dactyle? By Jove, but I know it!
Socrates.
Tell me, pray.
Tell me, pray.
Strepsiades.
What else but this finger? Formerly, indeed, when I was yet a boy, this here!
What else but this finger? Formerly, indeed, when I was yet a boy, this here!
Socrates.
You are boorish and stupid.
655
You are boorish and stupid.
655
Strepsiades.
For I do not desire, you wretch, to learn any of these things.
For I do not desire, you wretch, to learn any of these things.
Socrates.
What then?
What then?
Strepsiades.
That, that, the most unjust cause.
That, that, the most unjust cause.
Clouds. Aristophanes. William James Hickie (Translator). London. 1853.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.