TRYGAEUS Come let me see which way to move the stones.
HERMES Rogue! miscreant! what are you up to now?
TRYGAEUS No harm; Everything’s right, as Cillicon observed.
HERMES Wretch! you shall die!
TRYGAEUS When it’s my lot, of course, For being Hermes you’ll use lots, I know.
HERMES O you are doomed! doomed! doomed!
TRYGAEUS Yes? for what day?
HERMES This very instant.
TRYGAEUS But I’m not prepared: I’ve bought no bread and cheese, as if to die.
HERMES Ah, well, you’re absolutely gone!
TRYGAEUS That’s odd
TRYGAEUS To get such famous luck and yet not know it.
HERMES Then don’t you know that death’s denounced by Zeus On all found digging here?
TRYGAEUS And is it so? And must I die indeed?
HERMES You must indeed.
TRYGAEUS O then, I prithee, lend me half a crown. I’ll buy a pig, and get initiate first.
HERMES Ho! Zeus! Zeus! thunder-crasher!
TRYGAEUS O pray don’t. O by the heavenly powers don’t peach upon us.
HERMES No, no, I won’t keep silence.
TRYGAEUS O pray do. O by the heavenly meat I brought you, master.
HERMES Why, bless you, Zeus will quite demolish me If I don’t shout and tell him all about it.
TRYGAEUS O pray don’t shout, my darling dearest. Hermes; Don’t stand gaping there, my comrades; are ye quite deprived of speech? What’s the matter? speak, ye rascals! if you don’t, he’s safe to peach.
CHORUS Do not, do not, mighty Hermes, do not, do not shout, I pray, If you e’er have tasted swine, Tasted sucking-pigs of mine, Which have soothed your throat divine, Think upon it, think upon it, nor despise the deed to-day.
TRYGAEUS King and master, won’t you listen to the coaxing words they say?
CHORUS View us not with wrathful eye, Nor our humble prayers deny, From this dungeon let us hand her, O if you indeed detest, And abhor the sweeping crest And the eyebrows of Peisander, Let us now, O God most gracious! let us carry Peace away. Then we’ll glad processions bring, Then with sacrifices due, We will always, lord and king, We will always honour you.
TRYGAEUS O sir, be pitiful, and heed their cry: They never showed you such respect as now.
HERMES Why, no; they never were such thieves as now.
TRYGAEUS And then I’ll tell you a tremendous secret, A horrid dreadful plot against the Gods,
HERMES Well, tell away: I’m open to conviction,
TRYGAEUS ’Tis that the Moon and vile immoral Sun Have long been plotting to your hurt: and now They’re giving Hellas up to the Barbarians,
HERMES Why are they doing that?
TRYGAEUS Because, by Zeus! We sacrifice to you, but those Barbarians Only to them. So naturally they Are very anxious that we all should perish, And they get all the rites of all the Gods.
HERMES Then that’s the reason why they clipped the days, And nibbled off their rounds, misguiding sinners.
TRYGAEUS It is, it is: come, Hermes, lend a hand, Help us to pull her out. And then for you We’ll celebrate the great Panathenaea, And all the other rites of all the Gods, Demeter, Zeus, Adonis, all for you; And everywhere the cities saved from woe Will sacrifice to you, the Saviour Hermes.
TRYGAEUS Much, much besides you’ll gain: and first of all I give you this (producing a gold cup), a vessel for libations.
HERMES Fie! how I soften at the sight of gold! There, my men, the work’s before you! I’ve got nothing more to say. Quick, take up your spades, and enter, shovelling all the stones away.
CHORUS Gladly, gladly will we do it, wisest of the Gods; and you, Like a skilled superior craftsman, teach us what we ought to do. I warrant, when the way we know, you’ll find us anything but slow.
TRYGAEUS Hold out the vessel, and we’ll launch the work With free libations and with holy prayers.
HERMES Pour libations. Silence! silence! pour libations,
TRYGAEUS And as we pour we’ll pray. O happy morn, Be thou the source of every joy to Hellas! And O may he who labours well to-day Be never forced to bear a shield again!
CHORUS No; may he spend his happy days in peace, Stirring the fire, his mistress at his side.
TRYGAEUS If there be any that delights in war,
CHORUS King Dionysus, may he never cease Picking out spearheads from his funny-bones.
TRYGAEUS If any, seeking to be made a Captain, Hates to see Peace return, O may he ever Fare in his battles like Cleonymus.
TRYGAEUS If any merchant, selling spears or shields, Would fain have battles, to improve his trade, May he be seized by thieves and eat raw barley.
CHORUS If any would-be General won’t assist us, Or any slave preparing to desert, May he be flogged, and broken on the wheel. But on ourselves all joy: hip, hip, hurrah!
TRYGAEUS Don’t talk of being hipped: Hurrah’s the word.
CHORUS Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah’s the word to-day.
TRYGAEUS (Pouring libations.) To Hermes, Love, Desire, the Hours, and Graces.
CHORUS Not Ares?
TRYGAEUS (With disgust.) No!
CHORUS Nor Enyalius?
TRYGAEUS No.
CHORUS Now all set to, and labour at the ropes.
CHORUS
Pull away a little stronger.
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