Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/398

 A Satire on Athenian Legal Methods. his shoulders, his delight is to sit all day earning his three oboli, and having his ears tickled with the gross flattery by which litigant parties at Athens sought to concili ate the favor of the judges. His son Bdelycleon, who is much scandalized at his father's neglect of domestic affairs, determines to prevent him from getting out of the house; and the scene of the play represents the door of his mansion carefully guarded by two slaves, who have strict orders not to al low their master to go abroad. A net is stretched over the courtyard, and all avenues of escape seem to be closed. The cunning old dicast, however, whose legal experience has not been thrown away, makes many at tempts, and his head is soon seen peering out of the chimney-pot. When he is dis lodged from this, he tries in vain to burst open the door, against which the slaves place themselves. By and by he pretends that he wants to go out in order that he may sell an ass; but his son tells him that he will attend to that business, and brings out the animal for the purpose. Observing, how ever, that the poor beast can hardly walk, he stops to examine it, and discovers that Philocleon has strapped himself under its belly, and, like another Ulysses, who played the same trick with one of Polyphemus's sheep, is making his escape. He is thrust back into the house, and afterward is seen creeping along the tiles of the roof; but he is there netted like a bird, and fairly baffled. Now, however, up comes, buzzing and swarm ing, a chorus of fellow dicasts, dressed and painted to represent huge wasps, who on their way to the court call upon their learned brother, and express their wonder at not finding him ready to accompany them. This gives rise to some amusing dialogue, in which Philocleon and his friends exhaust the vocabulary of abuse against his gaolers; but at last Bdelycleon proposes an amicable parley, and undertakes to prove that his father has been grossly cozened and de ceived, and that the life of a dicast is noth ing better than miserable slavery. The old

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gentleman stoutly asserts that he reigns like a king, and the chorus is appointed umpire to decide which has the best of the argu ment. The contest then begins, and in the description which Philocleon gives of the sweets of judicial office, Aristophanes ex poses its corruptions with unsparing severity. The following is a sample: — "The dicast leads a jolly life, who is happier than he? Though old in age he knows delight, and fares right daintily; When rising early in the morn to court he takes his way, The great and powerful at the door for him obse quious stay. Then some delinquent softly puts his oily palm in mine, And conscious of his frauds begins with doleful voice to whine, — ' Have pity, if, when you yourself in office were, old fellow, Perchance you happened to commit some trifling peccadillo; ' And yet he never would have known of my exist ence here, Had I not tried the rogue before, and — let him off, I fear. But when I take my seat in court, with coaxing flattery plied, Straightway the promises I break which I have made outside; And listen to the cries of those who loud for mercy pray, Each striving to avert our wrath in some peculiar way. Some plead their wretched poverty, and make a piteous case (Almost as bad as my own plight in this accursed place); Some tell us tales of other times, and quote of vEsop's wit, And crack their jokes to make us smile, and say we will acquit; And if we will not yield, they take their children by the hand, And, bathed in tears, before the court the little suppliants stand, While tremblingly the father sues for grace and pardon then, As though I were a god to grant forgiveness unto men." Bdelycleon, however, when his turn comes, shows that of the princely revenues of Ath