Myrrhine: I love, I love him; but he does not wish to.
870
Myrrhine: to be loved by me. But you, do not call me by this name.
Kinesias: Oh dearest Myrrhine, what are you doing?
Kinesias: Come down here.
Myrrhine: By Zeus, I certainly will not.
Kinesias: Won't Myrrhine come down when I summon her?
Myrrhine: For you summon me not, needing nothing.
875
Kinesias: Am I not in need? Indeed, I am sharpened.
Kinesias: No indeed, but at least for the child.
Kinesias: Listen! You do not call the old woman?
Boy of Kinesias: mammy, mammy, mammy.
Kinesias: What is wrong with her? Do you not pity the child?
880
Kinesias: A bath on the sixth day, even though he is anointed and shaved?
Myrrhine: Indeed I pity him, but his father is careless.
Cinesias: Come down, you crazy woman, for the child.
Myrrhine: Just like childbirth—it must be endured. For what else can I do?
Kinesias: For this woman seems to me to be younger as well.
885
Kinesias: "May I be born even softer-looking!"
Kinesias: He is becoming difficult with me and is groaning,
Kinesias: These are indeed the very things that waste me away with longing.
Myrrhine: O dearest little child of an evil father,
Myrrhine: come, I shall kiss you, sweetest of mummies.
890
Cinesias: What are you, wretch, doing these things and to others?
Cinesias: You persuade women, and you make me even feel annoyed.
Kinesias: And she herself is distressed?
Myrrhine: Do not bring your hand to me.
Kinesias: but as for the money that is inside, both mine and yours,
Cinesias: You are in a worse state.
895
Myrrhine: I care little about them.
Kinesias: Do you care a little about the wearing of the tunics?
Kinesias: By the roosters?
Myrrhine: Indeed, by Zeus.
Kinesias: But the priest of Aphrodite is not angry with you.
Cinesias: It is a long time. Won't you walk back again?
Myrrhine: By Zeus, I will not, unless you are at least reconciled.
900
Myrrhine: And cease from the war.
Kinesias: 'Well then, if it seems good to you,'
Kinesias: We will do these things as well.
Myrrhine: then, if it seems so,
Myrrhine: And I too shall go there; but now I have sworn an oath.
Kinesias: But you, lie down with me for a while.
Myrrhine: Certainly not; yet I will not say that I do not love you.
905
Kinesias: Do you love her? Then why did you not recline, Myrrine?
Myrrhine: Oh, laughable in front of the child?
Kinesias: By Zeus, but bring this home, Manes.
Kinesias: Look, here is your child, and he is already out of the way,
Kinesias: But you do not recline.
910
Myrrhine: For where indeed would one find a talent?
Myrrhine: Would she do this?
Kinesias: Where? The beauty of Pan.
Myrrhine: And how could I possibly come to the city in such purity, then?
Kinesias: most beautifully, I suppose, she washed herself with the Clepsydra.
Myrrhine: Then, having sworn, will I certainly commit perjury, will I?
