Have not you let your Raven go?
Peis. Not I.
Eu. Where is it then?
Peis. Flown off of its own accord. 90
Eu. You did not let it go! you're a brave fellow!
[The Hoopoe from within.]
Hoo. Open the door, I say; let me go forth.
[The Royal Hoopoe appears with a tremendous beak and crest.]
Eu. Ο Hercules, what a creature! What a plumage!
And a triple tier of crests; what can it be!
Hoo. Who called? who wanted me? 95
Eu. May the heavenly powers . . .
. . . Confound ye, I say. [Aside.
Hoo. You mock at me perhaps,
Seeing these plumes. But, stranger, you must know—
That once I was a man.
Eu. We did not laugh
At you, Sir.
Hoo. What, then, were you laughing at?
Eu. Only that beak of yours seemed rather odd.
Hoo. It was your poet Sophocles[1] that reduced me 100
To this condition with his tragedies.
Eu. What are you, Tereus? Are you a bird, or what?
Hoo. A Bird.
Eu. Then where are all your feathers?
Hoo. Gone.
Eu. In consequence of an illness?
Hoo. No, the Birds
At this time of the year leave off their feathers, 105
But you! What are ye? Tell me.
Eu. Mortal men.
Hoo. What countrymen?
Eu. Of the country of the Triremes.[2]
Hoo. Jurymen, I suppose?
Eu. Quite the reverse,
We're anti-jurymen.
