Page:Acharnians and two other plays (1909).djvu/161

Rh

Have not you let your Raven go? Peis. Not I. Eu. Where is it then? Peis. Flown off of its own accord. Eu. You did not let it go! you're a brave fellow!

Hoo. Open the door, I say; let me go forth.

Eu. Ο Hercules, what a creature! What a plumage!

And a triple tier of crests; what can it be! Hoo. Who called? who wanted me? Eu. May the heavenly powers

Confound ye, I say. [Aside. Hoo. You mock at me perhaps,

Seeing these plumes. But, stranger, you must know—

That once I was a man. Eu. We did not laugh

At you, Sir. Hoo. What, then, were you laughing at? Eu. Only that beak of yours seemed rather odd. Hoo. It was your poet Sophocles that reduced me

To this condition with his tragedies. Eu. What are you, Tereus? Are you a bird, or what? Hoo. A Bird. Eu. Then where are all your feathers? Hoo. Gone. Eu. In consequence of an illness? Hoo. No, the Birds

At this time of the year leave off their feathers,

But you! What are ye? Tell me. Eu. Mortal men. Hoo. What countrymen? Eu. Of the country of the Triremes. Hoo. Jurymen, I suppose? Eu. Quite the reverse,

We're anti-jurymen. Hoo. Does that breed still