Page:Comedies of Aristophanes (Hickie 1853) vol1.djvu/212

196

some evil. O Zeus, Zeus, thunder greatly, and either suddenly make me smoke, or Proxenides, or the son of Sellus, this false tree-vine. Have the heart, O king, to grant me this favour, having pitied my sufferings; or with a red-hot thunderbolt quickly reduce me to ashes; and then take me up and blow me away and cast me into hot pickle; or make me, pray, the stone, upon which they count the shells.

. Why, who is he that confines you thus, and shuts the doors? Tell us, for you will speak to well-inclined persons.

. My son; but do not bawl, for he is sleeping here in the front of the house. Lower the tone of your voice.

. As a pretext for what, O foolish fellow, does he wish to treat you thus?

. He suffers me not, my friends, to act the dicast, nor to do any ill, but he is ready to feast me. But I am not willing.

. Has the wretch, the haranguing Cleon, dared to utter this? For this man would never have dared to say this, if he were not a conspirator. But in consequence of this, it is