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24 "Oh listen to me, and so shall you be stout-hearted and fresh as a daisy;

Not ready to chatter on every matter, nor bent over books till you're hazy:

No splitter of straws, no dab at the laws, making black seem white so cunning;

But wandering down outside the town, and over the green meadow running,

Ride, wrestle, and play with your fellows so gay, like so many birds of a feather,

All breathing of youth, good-humour, and truth, in the time of the jolly spring-weather,

In the jolly spring-time, when the poplar and lime dishevel their tresses together."

Such were Athens, its people, and its theatre, when Euripides was boy and man: we now proceed to inquire what manner of person he was himself.