x

190 ARISTOPHANES.

Eur. “Out of sheer impudence. The spectator
was to sit waiting till Niobe, or whoever it was,
should say something. And so the play would get
on.” ae
Bac. “Oh, what a rascal! How he took me in!”
(To Aischylus) “What is the matter with you, twist-
ing about in that fashion?”

fur. “It’s- because I’m finding him out. Then,
after all this rubbish, when the play was about half-
way through, our silent friend would mouth out some
dozen words, each as big as an ox, and ugly as a bug-
bear, that none of the audience could understand.”

Bac. (to ESS who had groaned). “Be quiet
there.”

Eur. “A plain, intelligible word he never used.”

Bac. (to Aeschylus). “Don’t grind your teeth.”

Eur. “Jt was all about ‘Scamander streams’ and
‘embattled trenches,’ and ‘shields embossed with
vulture-eagles wrought in bronze,’ and such neck-
breaking words.”

. Bac. “And I through weary hours of darkness lay,’?

thinking what sort of a bird a ‘tawny cock-horse’
could possibly be.” ‘
Esch. “Tt was the device on a ship, to be sure,
you ignoramus. PCTS Euripides) “And pray, what
were your inventions?” ;
Eur. “Not cock-horses, nor goat-stags, you may
be sure, the sort of creatures you see on Persian

1 A parody of lines in Euripides.