Page:Acharnians and two other plays (1909).djvu/178

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Screaming, hooting, pelting, shooting,

The fowler sets his traps and nets,

Twigs of bird-lime, loops, and snares,

To catch you kidnapped unawares;

Even within the temple's pale.

They set you forth to public sale,

Pawed and handled most severely:

And not content with roasting merely,

In an insolent device,

Sprinkle you with cheese and spice;

With nothing of respect or favour,

Derogating from your flavour.

Or for a further outrage, have ye

Soused in greasy sauce and gravy.

Hoo. Sad and dismal is the story,

Human stranger which you tell,

Of our fathers' ancient glory,

Ere the fated empire fell,

From the depth of degradation,

A benignant happy fate

Sends you to restore the nation;

To redeem and save the state.

I consign to your protection,

Able to preserve them best,

All my objects of affection,

My wife, my children, and my nest.

If the Reader should be inclined to pass over the next hundred lines, I should feel no wish to detain him. The subject of them has been pretty nearly anticipated, and the whole play is in fact too long.

Hoo. Explain then the method you mean to pursue

To recover our empire and freedom anew.

For thus to remain, in dishonour and scorn,

Our life were a burthen no more to be borne. Peis. Then I move, that the birds shall in common repair

To a centrical point, and encamp in the air;

And intrench and enclose it, and fortify there:

And build up a rampart, impregnably strong,