Page:Acharnians and two other plays (1909).djvu/66

48

There we were assembled at a dinner of the neighbourhood.

Mirth and unanimity prevailed till he reversed it all,

Coming in among us of a sudden, in a haughty style.

Civilly we treated him enough, with a polite request,

"Please ye to be seated, and to join us in a fair carouse."

Nothing of the kind! but unaccountably he began to storm,

Brandishing a torch as if he meant to set the house afire,

Swaggering and hectoring, abusing and assaulting us.

First he smashed the jars, he spoilt and spilt the wines;

Next he burnt the stakes, and ruined all the vines.

Am endeavour to develop with more effect a pretty fanciful allusion in the original has led to another infraction of the metrical rule above described. It is to be hoped, however, that the passage in question (from v. 7 to 14) will not be found to exhibit any marked departure from the general character which belongs to this peculiar form of the cretic metre. The picture, the work of Zeuxis, was an object well known to all the inhabitants of Athens; for the sake of the modern reader, it was necessary to insert a slight sketch of it.

Wherefore are ye gone away,  Whither are ye gone astray, Lovely Peace, Vanishing, eloping, and abandoning unhappy Greece? Love is as a painter ever, doting on a fair design. Zeuxis has illustrated a vision and a wish of mine. Cupid is portrayed Naked, unarrayed, With an amaranthine braid  Waving in his hand; With a lover and a maid Bounded in a band. Cupid is uniting both, Nothing loth. Think then if I saw ye with a Cupid in a tether, dear, Binding and uniting us eternally together here.<br / > Think of the delight of it; in harmony to live at last,<br / > Making it a principle to cancel all offences past. <br / > Really I propose it, and I promise ye to do my best <br / > (Old as you may fancy me), to sacrifice my peace and rest;<br / > Working in my calling as a father of a family,<br / > Labouring and occupied in articles of husbandry.<br / >