Page:Aristophanes (Collins).djvu/100

90 sees (and the imagination of the audience is not slow to follow him) the ethereal goddesses descending towards the earth, the Chorus in bodily form enter the orchestra, to the sound of slow music—four-and-twenty nymphs in light cloud-like drapery. They promise, at the request of their great worshipper Socrates, to instruct his pupil in the mysterious science which is to free him from the importunity of his creditors. For these, says the philosopher, are your only true deities—Chaos, and the Clouds, and the Tongue. As to Jupiter, whom Strepsiades just ventures to mention, he is quite an exploded idea in these modern times; the great ruler of the universe is Vortex. The machinery of the world goes on by a perpetual whirl. Socrates will, with the help of the Clouds, instruct him in all these new tenets. There is one point, however, upon which he wishes first to be satisfied—has he a good memory?

Str. 'Tis of two sorts, by Jove! remarkably good,

If a man owes me anything; of my own debts,

I'm shocked to say, I'm terribly forgetful.

Soc. Have you good natural gifts in the way of speaking?

Str. Speaking,—not much; cheating's my strongest point.

He appears to the philosopher not so very unpromising a pupil, and the pair retire into the "Thinking-shop," to begin their studies, while the Chorus make their usual address to the audience in the poet's name,