Oh, dear! our sellers and jobbers are at an end.
Demosthenes

Not yet; there's still another to succeed him,
Of a most uncommon notable occupation.

A sausage seller! marvelous, indeed!

Most wonderful! But where can he be found? Demosthenes—

We must seek him out.

Nicias

But see there, where he comes!

Sent hither providentially, as it were! Demosthenes

O happy man! celestial sausage seller!

Friend, guardian, and protector of us all:

Come forward; save your friends, and save the country. Sausage Seller

Do you call me?

Demosthenes

Yes, we called to you to announce

The high and happy destiny that awaits you.

Nicias

Come now, you should set him free from the incumbrance Of his table and basket; and explain to him

The tenor and the purport of the Oracle,

While I go back to watch the Paphlagonian.

[Exit NICIAS.

Demosthenes [to the SAUSAGE SELLER, gravely]

Set these poor wares aside; and now,― bow down To the ground; and adore the powers of earth and heaven. Sausage Seller

Heyday! Why, what do you mean? Demosthenes—

O happy man!

Unconscious of your glorious destiny,
Now mean and unregarded; but to-morrow,
The mightiest of the mighty, Lord of Athens!
Sausage Seller-

Come, master, what's the use of making game?
Why can't ye let me wash the guts and tripe,
And sell my sausages in peace and quiet?

Demosthenes —

O simple mortal, cast these thoughts aside!

Bid guts and tripe farewell!-Look there! - Behold [Pointing to the audience. The mighty assembled multitude before ye!

Sausage Seller [with a grumble of indifference] —

I see 'em.

Demosthenes - You shall be their lord and master,

The sovereign and ruler of them all,

Of the assemblies and tribunals, fleets and armies.
You shall trample down the Senate underfoot,
Confound and crush the generals and commanders,
Arrest, imprison, and confine in irons.

Sausage Seller

What I?

Demosthenes - Yes, you; because the Oracle

Predestines you to sovereign power and greatness. Sausage Seller

Are there any means of making a great man

Of a sausage-making fellow such as I?

Demosthenes

The very means you have must make ye so,

Low breeding, vulgar birth, and impudence,

These, these must make ye what you're meant to be. Sausage Seller

I can't imagine that I'm good for much.

Demosthenes

Alas! But why do you say so? What's the meaning Of these misgivings? Tell me, are ye allied

To the families of the gentry?

Sausage Seller —

I'm of the lower order.

Demosthenes

Naugh, not I.

What happiness!

What a footing it will give ye! What a groundwork

For confidence and favor at the outset.

Sausage Seller

But bless ye! only consider my education!

I can but barely read-in a kind of way.

Demosthenes

That makes against ye! - the only thing against ye

The being able to read in any way,

For now no lead nor influence is allowed

To liberal arts or learned education,

But to the brutal, base, and underbred.

Sausage Seller·

Still, I'm partly doubtful how I could

Contrive to manage an administration.
Demosthenes —

The easiest thing in nature! - nothing easier!
Stick to your present practice: follow it up
In your new calling. Mangle, mince, and mash,
Confound and hack and jumble things together!
And interlard your rhetoric with lumps

Of mawkish, sweet, and greasy flattery.

Be fulsome, coarse, and bloody! — For the rest,
All qualities combine, all circumstances.
To entitle and equip you for command,

A filthy voice, a villainous countenance,

A vulgar birth and parentage and breeding.
Place then this chaplet on your brow and rouse
Your spirits to meet him.

Sausage Seller·

Ay, but who will help me?
For all our wealthier people are alarmed

And terrified at him; and the meaner sort
In a manner stupefied, grown dull and dumb.
Demosthenes -

Why there's a thousand lusty cavaliers,

Ready to back you, that detest and scorn him;

And every worthy, well-born citizen;

And every candid, critical spectator;

And I myself; and the help of Heaven to boot. —
Nicias [in alarm from behind the scenes] —
Oh dear! oh dear! the Paphlagonian's coming.

Cleon

Enter CLEON with a furious look and voice.

By heaven and earth! you shall abide it dearly,
With your conspiracies and daily plots

Against the sovereign people! Hah! what's this?
Dogs! villains! every soul of ye shall die.

Demosthenes

[The SAUSAGE SELLER runs off in a fright.

Where are ye going? Where are ye running? Stop!

Stand firm, my noble, valiant sausage seller!

Never betray the cause. Your friends are nigh.

[During the last lines the CHORUS OF KNIGHTS are entering.

[To the Chorus]

Cavaliers and noble captains, now's the time! advance in sight!

March in order - make the movement, and outflank him on

the right!

[To the Sausage Seller]

There I see them bustling, hasting!-only turn and make a stand,

Stop but only for a moment, your allies are hard at hand. [The CHORUS, after occupying their position in the orchestra, begin their attack on CLEON.]

Chorus

Close around him and confound him, the confounder of us all. Pelt and pummel him and maul him; rummage, ransack, overhaul him,

Overbear him and out-bawl him; bear him down and bring him under.

Bellow, like a burst of thunder, robber! harpy! sink of plunder!

Rogue and villain! rogue and cheat! rogue and villain I repeat!

Oftener than I can repeat it, has the rogue and villain cheated. Close around him left and right; spit upon him, spurn and

smite :

Spit upon him as you see; spurn and spit at him like me. Cleon

Yes! assault, insult, abuse me! this is the return I find
For the noble testimony, the memorial I designed:
Meaning to propose proposals for a monument of stone,
On the which your late achievements should be carved and
neatly done.

Chorus

Out, away with him! the slave! the pompous, empty, fawning knave!

Pelt him here and bang him there; and here and there and everywhere.

Save me, neighbors! oh, the monsters! O my side, my back, my breast!

Chorus

What! you're forced to call for help? you overbearing, brutal pest!

Sausage Seller [turning back towards CLEON]

I'll astound you with my noise, with my bawling looks and voice.

Chorus

If in bawling you surpass him, you'll achieve a victor's crown; If again you overmatch him in impudence, the day's your own.

Cleon

I denounce this traitor here for sailing on clandestine trips, With supplies of tripe and stuffing to careen the Spartan ships.

Sausage Seller

I denounce then and accuse him for a greater worse abuse: That he steers his empty paunch and anchors at the public board;

Running in without a lading to return completely stored! Chorus

Yes! and smuggles out moreover loaves and luncheons not a few,

More than ever Pericles, in all his pride, presumed to do. Cleon [in a thundering tone]

Dogs and villains, you shall die!

Sausage Seller [in a still louder tone]-
Ay! I can scream ten times as high.
Cleon-

I'll overbear ye and out-bawl ye.
Sausage Seller —

But I'll out-scream ye and out-squall ye.
Cleon-

What! do you venture to invade
My proper calling and my trade?

Chorus to CLEON

Even in your tender years,
And your early disposition,
You betrayed an inward sense

Of the conscious impudence

Which constitutes a politician.

Hence you squeeze and drain alone the rich milch kine of our allies;

Whilst the son of Hippodamus licks his lips with longing

eyes.

But now with eager rapture we behold

A mighty miscreant of baser mold!

A more consummate ruffian!

An energetic, ardent ragamuffin !

Behold him there!. - He stands before your eyes

To bear you down, with a superior frown,

A fiercer stare,

And more incessant and exhaustless lies.

[To the Sausage Seller]

Now then do you that boast a birth from whence you might inherit,