Page:Acharnians and two other plays (1909).djvu/65

Rh Dic. And if he'd give me his shield, he should not have it:

Let him wave his plumage over a mess of salt fish.

What's more; if he takes it amiss and makes a riot,

I'll speak to the clerk of the market, you may tell him.

But as for me, with this my precious basket,

Hence I depart, while ortolans and quails

Attend my passage and partake the gales. [Exit.

An attempt has been here made to reproduce in English the peculiar metre of the original, in which (after an irregular beginning) each line is made to consist of four cretic measures, of which it is requisite that the three first should be of the form already described in p. 24 (namely, a crotchet followed by three quavers). The difficulty arising from the great scarcity of short syllables in the English language, as compared with the Greek, has led to some infractions of this rule, in the unequal length of some of the lines, and the substitution of the common cretic measure, in its usual unresolved form; not to mention one or two indefensible but unavoidable false quantities, together with certain hiatuses and semi-hiatuses, which in a less restricted metre it would not have been difficult to avoid.

Epirrema: Ο behold, behold

The serene happy sage,

The profound mighty mind,

Miracle of our age,

Calmly wise, prosperous in enterprise,

Cool, correct, boundless in the compass of his intellect.

Savoury commodities and articles of every kind

Pouring in upon him, and accumulating all around.

Some to be reserved apart, ready for domestic use;

Some again, that require

Quickly to be broiled or roast, hastily devoured and smoused,

On the spot, piping hot.

See there, as a sample of his hospitable elegance,

Feathers and a litter of his offal at the door displayed!

War is my aversion! I detest the very thought of him.

Never in my life will I receive him in my house again;

Positively never; he behaved in such a beastly way.