Page:Comedies of Aristophanes (Hickie 1853) vol2.djvu/245

79—101. . By Jupiter the Preserver, he would be a fit person, if there ever was one, to cheat the commonwealth, clothed in the leathern garment of Argus.

. But come! so that we may also transact what is next, whilst the stars are still in the heavens; for the assembly, to which we are prepared to go, will take place with the dawn.

. Yea, by Jove! wherefore you ought to take your seat under the Bema, over against the Prytanes.

. (holding up some wool). By Jove, I brought these here, in order that I might card when the Assembly was full.

. Full, you rogue?

. Yes, by Diana! for how should I hear any worse, if I carded? My children are naked.

. "Carded," quoth 'a! you who ought to exhibit no part of your person to the meeting! [Turning to the others.] Therefore we should be finely off, if the Assembly chanced to be full, and then some of us strode over and took up her dress and exhibited her Phormisius. Now if we take our seats first, we shall escape observation when we have wrapped our garments close round us: and when we let our beards hang down, which we will tie on there, who would not think us men on seeing us? At any rate Agyrrhius' has the