MICYLLUS
No doubt that is true, cock. But as to myself, I am not ashamed to tell you how I feel. I am not yet able to unlearn the desire of becoming rich that [have had since my boyhood. My dream, too, still stands before my eyes displaying its gold; and above all I am choking with envy of that confounded Simon, who is revelling in so many blessings.
No doubt that is true, cock. But as to myself, I am not ashamed to tell you how I feel. I am not yet able to unlearn the desire of becoming rich that [have had since my boyhood. My dream, too, still stands before my eyes displaying its gold; and above all I am choking with envy of that confounded Simon, who is revelling in so many blessings.
COCK
I will cure you, Micyllus. As it is still night, get up and follow me; I will take you to visit Simon and to the house of the other rich men, so that you may see what their establishments are like.
I will cure you, Micyllus. As it is still night, get up and follow me; I will take you to visit Simon and to the house of the other rich men, so that you may see what their establishments are like.
MICYLLUS
How can you do it when their doors are locked? You aren't going to make me be a burglar?
How can you do it when their doors are locked? You aren't going to make me be a burglar?
COCK
Not by any means. But Hermes, to whom IT am consecrated, gave me this privilege, that if my longest tail feather, the one that is so pliant that it curls—
Not by any means. But Hermes, to whom IT am consecrated, gave me this privilege, that if my longest tail feather, the one that is so pliant that it curls—
MICYLLUS
You have two like that.
You have two like that.
COCK
It is the one on the right, and if I permit any man to pull it out and keep it, that man, as long as I choose, can open every door and see everything without being seen himself.
It is the one on the right, and if I permit any man to pull it out and keep it, that man, as long as I choose, can open every door and see everything without being seen himself.
MICYLLUS
I didn’t realize, cock, that you yourself were a conjurer. Well, if you only let me have it, you shall see all Simon’s possessions brought over here in a jiffy: Pl slip in and bring them over, and he will once more eat his leather as he stretches it.
1
I didn’t realize, cock, that you yourself were a conjurer. Well, if you only let me have it, you shall see all Simon’s possessions brought over here in a jiffy: Pl slip in and bring them over, and he will once more eat his leather as he stretches it.
1
COCK
That is impossible, for Hermes ordered me, if the man who had the feather did anything of that sort, to uplift my voice and expose him.
That is impossible, for Hermes ordered me, if the man who had the feather did anything of that sort, to uplift my voice and expose him.
MICYLLUS
It is hard to believe what you say, that Hermes, himself a thief, begrudges others the same privilege. But let’s be off just the same; I'll keep my hands off the gold if I can.
It is hard to believe what you say, that Hermes, himself a thief, begrudges others the same privilege. But let’s be off just the same; I'll keep my hands off the gold if I can.
COCK
First pluck the feather out, Micyllus . . . What's this? You have pulled them both out!
First pluck the feather out, Micyllus . . . What's this? You have pulled them both out!
MICYLLUS
It is safer to do so, cock, and it will spoil your beauty less, preventing you from being crippled on one side of your tail.
It is safer to do so, cock, and it will spoil your beauty less, preventing you from being crippled on one side of your tail.
Gallus. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.
Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.