Cleon

To Minerva the sovereign goddess I call,
Our guide and defender, the hope of us all;
With a prayer and a vow, that even as now
If I'm truly your friend, unto my life's end,
I may dine in the hall, doing nothing at all!
But if I despise you, or ever advise you

Against what is best for your comfort and rest;
Or neglect to attend you, defend you, befriend you,
- May I perish and pine; may this carcass of mine
Be withered and dried, and curried beside;
And straps for your harness cut out from the hide.
Sausage Seller-

Then, Demus-if I tell a word of a lie,

If any man more can dote and adore,

With so tender a care, I make it my prayer,

My prayer and my wish - to be stewed in a dish;
To be sliced and slashed, minced and hashed,
And the offal remains that are left by the cook,
Dragged out to the grave with my own flesh hook.
Cleon-

O Demus. Has any man shown such a zeal,
Such a passion as I for the general weal?
Racking and screwing offenders to ruin;
With torture and threats extorting your debts.
Sausage Seller·

All this I can do, and more handily too,

With ease and dispatch; I can pilfer and snatch,

And supply you with loaves from another man's batch, -
But now to detect his saucy neglect

He leaves you to rest on a seat of the rock

Naked and bare, without comfort or care,

Whilst I Look ye there! have quilted and wadded

And tufted and padded this cushion so neat

To serve for your seat! Rise now, let me slip

It there under your hip, that, on board of the ship,
With the toil of the oar, was blistered and sore,
Enduring the burden and heat of the day.

At the battle of Salamis working away.

Demus

Whence was it came? Oh, tell me your name

you

Your name and your birth; for your kindness and worth
Bespeak you indeed of a patriot breed;

Of the race of Harmodius sure you must be,

So popular, gracious, and friendly to me.

Cleon

Can he win you with ease with such trifles as these?
Sausage Seller

Cleon

With easier trifles you manage to please.

This is horrible quite, and his slander and spite
Has no motive in view but my friendship for you,
My zeal-

Demus

There, have done with your slang and your stuff, You've cheated and choused and cajoled me enough. Sausage Seller.

nest.

My dear little Demus! you'll find it is true,

He behaves like a wretch and a villain to you;
He haunts your gardens and there he plies,
Cropping the sprouts of the young supplies,
Munching and crunching enormous rations
Of public sales and confiscations.

The struggle between the rivals now begins in good earIt is a contest of presents to Demus, chiefly of a culinary character, and that everlasting dish, the affair at Pylos, is again served up to the cantankerous old man, whom the poet seems determined to disgust with the only exploit which Cleon ever accomplished. The Sausage Seller has the advantage in presents for some time, until he is alarmed by learning that Cleon has got a fine dish of hare for Demus. He is disconcerted at first, and then has recourse to a stratagem. "Some ambassadors came this way to me," he says, "and their purses seem well filled." "Where are they?" exclaims Cleon eagerly, turning round. The hare flesh is immediately in the hands of his rival, who presents the dainty in his own name to Demus. Cleon is naturally indignant. "I had all the trouble of catching the hare," he cries. "And I had all the trouble of dressing it," retorts the Sausage Seller. "Fools," says the practical Demus, "I care not who caught it, or who dressed it; all I regard is the hand which served it up at table." Cleon loses ground more and more. His rival proposes a new test of affection. "Let our chests be searched," says he. "It will then be seen who is the better man to Demus and his stomach." This is done, and the chest of the new candidate is found empty. "Because," says he, "I have given dear little Demus everything." In Cleon's there is

abundance of all good things, and a tempting cheese cake particularly excites Demus' surprise. "The rogue!" he cries, "to conceal such a prodigious cheese cake as this, and to have cut me off mere morsel of it; and that, too, after I had made him a present of a crown and many other things beside." Cleon has to take off the crown (or garland) and place it on the head of his enemy. The Sausage Seller, who has now adopted the name of Agoracritus, is no sooner in power than he feeds up Demus and treats him to such a regimen that the old man becomes strong and young again. He is once more the manly, splendid fellow he was in the days of Marathon and Salamis. Of course all this has reference to the military and political events of the time.

AGORACRITUS (the SAUSAGE SELLER) and CHORUS.

Chorus

O thou, the protector and hope of the state,

Of the isles and allies of the city, relate
What happy event do you call us to greet,

With bonfire and sacrifice filling the street?

Agoracritus

Old Demus within has molted his skin.

I've cooked him and stewed him to render him stronger,
Many years younger, and shabby no longer.

Chorus

O what a change! How sudden and strange !

But where is he now?

Agoracritus

On the citadel's brow,

In the lofty old town of immortal renown,
With the noble Ionian violet crown.

Chorus

What was his vesture, his figure and gesture?

How did you leave him, and how does he look?

Agoracritus

Joyous and bold, as when feasting of old

When his battles were ended, triumphant and splendid,

With Miltiades sitting carousing at rest,

Or good Aristides, his favorite guest.

You shall see him here straight; for the citadel gate

Is unbarred; and the hinges you hear how they grate?

The scene changes to a view of the Propylaeum.

Give a shout for the sight of the rocky old height!

And the worthy old wight that inhabits within.

Chorus

That glorious old hill! preeminent still

For splendor of empire and honor and worth!
Exhibit him here for the Greeks to revere,

Their patron and master, the monarch of earth!

Demus comes forward in his splendid old-fashioned attire. The features of his mask are changed to those of youth, and he has throughout the scene the characteristics that, in the opinion of the Athenians, should mark youth, warmth, eagerness, with some little bashfulness and embarrassment.

Demus

My dearest Agoracritus, come here-

I'm so obliged to you for your cookery!

I feel an altered man, you've quite transformed me.

Agoracritus

What! I? That's nothing. If you did but know
The state you were in before, you'd worship me.
Demus

What was I doing? How did I behave?
Do tell me inform against me - let me know.
Agoracritus-

Why first then, if an orator in the Assembly Began with saying, "Demus, I'm your friend, Your faithful, zealous friend, your only friend," You used to chuckle, and smirk, and hold your head up. Demus

So he gained his end, and bilked and choused you.

Demus

But did I not perceive? Was I not told?

Agoracritus

By Jove, and you wore those ears of yours continually
Wide open or close shut, like an umbrella.

Demus

Is it possible? Was I indeed so mere a driveler
In my old age, so superannuated?

Agoracritus

Moreover, if a couple of orators

Were pleading in your presence, one proposing

To equip a fleet, his rival arguing

To get the same supplies distributed.

To the jurymen, the patron of the juries

Carried the day - But why do you hang your head so?

Demus

I feel ashamed of myself and my follies.

Agoracritus

'Twas not your fault- don't think of it. Your advisers
Were most to blame. But, for the future, tell me,

Now answer me, in other respects how do you mean
To manage your affairs.

Demus

Why, first of all, I'll have the arrears of seamen's wages paid To a penny the instant they return to port. Agoracritus

There's many a worn-out salt will bless and thank ye.

Demus

Moreover, no man that has been enrolled

Upon the list for military service

Shall have his name erased for fear or favor.

Agoracritus

That gives a bang to Cleonymus' buckler. Demus

I'll not permit those fellows without beards To harangue in our assemblies, boys or men. Agoracritus

It's your own fault; in part you've helped to spoil 'em. But what do you mean to do with them for the future? Demus

I shall send them into the country, all the pack of them,
To learn to hunt, and leave off making laws.

Agoracritus

And what will you say if I give you a glorious peace,
A lusty, strapping truce of thirty years?

Come forward here, my lass, and show yourself.

Demus

By Jove, what a face and figure! I should like
To ratify and conclude incontinently.

Where did you find her?

Agoracritus

Oh, the Paphlagonian,

Of course, had huddled her out of sight, within there.
But now you've got her, take her back with you

Into the country.

Demus

But the Paphlagonian,

What shall we do to punish him? What d'ye think? Agoracritus

Oh, no great matter. He shall have my trade,
With an exclusive sausage-selling patent

To traffic openly at the city gates.