192 ARISTOPHANES.

Bac. “Yes, now when a master comes in at his door,

He calls to his slaves, and examines his store.

‘Now where is the pitcher? and some one has eaten
The head of the sprat, and has broken the bowl

Only parchased last year. As I live, he'll be beaten.
Half the olive is gone, of the garlic the whole;

So careful a watch of their substance they keep,

Who once were contented to slumber and sleep.’”

Asch. “It makes me angry, it vexes me to the
heart, to have to reply to such a fellow as this; still
I will do it, lest he should say that he had got the
better of me in the debate. Tell me now — What is
most admirable in a poet?”

Eur. “Righteousness and true counsel; the power
of making our fellow-citizens better.”

4iésch, “Then, if this is exactly what you have
not done, if, instead, you found them honest men
and left them villains, what do you deserve?”

Bac. “ Death, of course; don’t ask him.”

sch, “Remember what our citizens were when
they first came into your hands, fine tall fellows, who
shirked no public duty, not cheats and scoundrels as
now, but breathing spears and javelins and white
crested helmets and breasts of seven fold hide.”

Bac. “But, Aeschylus, how did you do it?”

“sch. “By dramas that were full of war.”

Bac. “Which, for instance?”

Aisch, “The Seven against Thebes; no man could
see that and not long to be a warrior.”

Bac. “That’s all very well; but you made the
Thebans dangerously good soldiers.”