Page:The Eleven Comedies (1912) Vol 1.djvu/239

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It must be something mighty fine and subtle for you to have turned it about so!

So fine, it means just this, Greece saved by the women!

By women! Why, its salvation hangs on a poor thread then!

Our country’s fortunes depend on us—it is with us to undo utterly the Peloponnesians

That would be a noble deed truly!

To exterminate the Bœotians to a man!

But surely you would spare the eels.

For Athens’ sake I will never threaten so fell a doom; trust me for that. However, if the Bœotian and Peloponnesian women join us, Greece is saved.

But how should women perform so wise and glorious an achievement, we women who dwell in the retirement of the household, clad in diaphanous garments of yellow silk and long flowing gowns, decked out with flowers and shod with dainty little slippers?