Page:Acharnians and two other plays (1909).djvu/30

12

Slingers and smiters. They bawled out and bellowed:

"You dog, you villain! now the vines are ruined,

You're come with treaties, are you?" Then they stopped,

Huddling up handfuls of great slinging stones

In the lappets of their cloaks, and I ran off,

And they curie driving after me pell-mell,

Roaring and shouting. Dic. Aye, why let them roar!

You've brought the treaties? Amph. Aye, three samples of 'em;

This here is a five years' growth, taste it and try. Dic. Don't like it! Amph. Eh? Dic. Don't like it; it won't do;

There's an uncommon ugly twang of pitch,

A touch of naval armament about it. Amph. Well, here's a ten growth, may suit you better. Dic. No, neither of them. There's a sort of sourness

Here is this last, a taste of acid embassies,

And vapid allies turning to vinegar. Amph. But here's a truce of thirty years entire,

Warranted sound. Dic. O Bacchus and the Bacchanals!

This is your sort! here's nectar and ambrosia!

Here's nothing about providing three days' rations;

It says, "Do what you please, go where you will."

I chuse it, and adopt it, and embrace it,

For sacrifice and for my private drinking.

In spite of all the Acharnians, I'm determined

To remove out of the reach of wars and mischief,

And keep the feast of Bacchus in my farm. Amph. And I'll run off to escape from those Acharnians.

Masses of men, when in a state of excitement, whatever may be their collective character or purpose, are apt to separate into two divisions; those of a milder and more reasonable temper taking the one side, and the more ardent and intractable taking the other. This is exemplified in the two Semichoruses. The first are upon the point of abandoning their pursuit, while the second persevere in it with unabated eagerness, indefatigable and (as they afterwards shew themselves) implacable. The first, on the contrary, are by degrees pacified and induced to listen to reason. This difference of feeling finally produces a struggle between them, in which those who are of "milder mood" obtain the advantage; and