Page:Comedies of Aristophanes (Hickie 1853) vol1.djvu/205

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150—175.
THE WASPS.
189

device. But I am wretched, as no other man is, who shall now be called the son of father[1] Capnius.

Sos. Push against the door; now press against it very vigorously, and like a man, for I am coming there. And take care of the lock and of the bar. Watch that he do not gnaw through the peg.

Phil. (from within). What are you going to do? Will you not let me out, O most abominable, to judicate, but shall Dracontides escape?

Bdel. Would you be vexed at this?

Phil. Yes, for the god at Delphi once upon a time responded to me, consulting him,[2] that I should then pine away, when any one shall have escaped me.

Bdel. O Apollo, averter of ill, what an oracle!

Phil. Come, I entreat you, let me out, lest I burst.

Bdel. Never, O Philocleon, by Neptune!

Phil. Then I will gnaw through your net with my teeth.

Bdel. But you have no teeth.

Phil. Ah me, miserable man! Would I could kill you! would I could! Give me a sword as quick as possible, or a tablet of assessment.[3]

Bdel. This man desires to do some great mischief.

Phil. No, by Jove, certainly not; but I wish to take and sell my ass together with his panniers, for it is the New Moon.[4]

Bdel. Pray, could not I then sell it as well?

Phil. Not as I could.

Bdel. No, by Jove, better. Come, bring forth the ass.

Xan. What a pretext he has put forward! how dissemblingly! that you might let him out.

Bdel. Yes. but he did not draw up his hook[5] in this way;

    and again, "I nunc, et sævas, curre per Alpes," &c. See note on Thesm. 1001.

  1. "So Σταμνίον, Ran. 22, Στρούθιος, Av. 1077, and numerous other places, where an imaginary δῆμος grows out of the circumstances." Mitch. Cf. Eccles. 356. Ran. 427. Aves, 1126.
  2. Vide Elmsl. Præf. ad Œd. Tyr. p. viii.
  3. Relates to the Attic divisions of actions at law into τιμητοὶ and ἀτίμητοι.
  4. Vide Equit. vs. 43, οὗτος τῇ προτέρᾳ νουμηνίᾳ
    ἐπρίατο δοῦλον.
  5. The proverb occurs in full, Thesmoph. 928,

    αὕτη μὲν ἡ μήρινθος οὑδὲν ἔσπασεν.