THE FROGS. 185

4. “T can’t contain myself for joy.”

Xan. “Give me your hand, my dear fellow, and
kiss me; you are my own brother. But tell me,
what is all that noise and shouting and abuse about
outside ?”

4%. “Oh! that’s only Aéschylus and Euripides.”

Aan. “What?”

4, “There has been a tremendous disturbance
and dispute among the dead people lately.”

Xan. “What about?”

4, “There is a rule down here that the best man
in any art—I mean arts of the nobler sort — should
have free entertainment in Government-house and a
seat next to Pluto’s own.”

Aan. “T understand.”

4, “But he has this only till some better man
than he arrives. When that happens, he must give
way. Well, Aischylus occupied the seat of honour
among tragedians.”

Xan. “ And who occupies it now?”

4, “When Euripides came down, he showed off
to the robbers, and pick-pockets, and murderers, and
burglars, —and we have a multitude of these gentry
in Hades,—and they, when they heard his equivo-
cations, and evasions, and turns, and twists, were
beside themselves with delight, and declared that he
was the best man that there was in his art. There-
upon he was so puffed up that he actually claimed
“Eschylus’s seat.”