1st Wom. How then, if Neoclides[1] the blear-eyed insults you?
Prax. Him I bid count the hairs on a dog's tail.[2]
1st Wom. How then, if they knock you?
Prax. I'll knock again; since I am not unused to many knocks.
1st Wom. That thing alone is unconsidered, what in the world you will do, if the Policemen try to drag you away.[3]
Prax. (suiting the action to the word). I'll nudge with the elbow in this way; for I will never be caught[4] by the middle.
1st Wom. And if they lift you up, we will bid them let you alone.
2nd Wom. This has been well considered by us. But that we have not thought of, how we shall remember then to hold up our hands; for we are accustomed to hold up our legs.
Prax. The thing is difficult: but nevertheless we must bold up our hands, having bared one arm up to the shoulder. Come then, gird up your tunics;[5] and put on your Laconian shoes as soon as possible, as you always see your husbands do, when they are about to go to the Assembly or out of doors. And then, when all these matters are well, tie on your beards. And when you shall have arranged them precisely, having them fitted on, put on also your husbands' garments, which[6] you stole; and then go, leaning on your staffs, singing
- ↑ See vs. 398, infra, and Plut. 665.
- ↑ "Huic ego dicam, ut in canis culum inspiciat." Brunck.
See Harper, Powers of the Greek Tenses, p. 41 foll., and Bernhardy, W. S. p. 382. Krüger, Gr. Gr. §53, 6, obs. 3. - ↑ "ἕλκωσιν, trahere velint." Brunck. Cf. Harper's Powers of the Greek Tenses, p. 50. Porson and Schäfer on Eur. Phœn. 79, 1231. Monk, Hippol. 592. Dorville, Char. p. 214. Hermann, Vig. n. 161. This usage is more especially frequent in διδόναι and πείθειν. See Krüger, Gr. Gr. §53, 1, obs. 7.
- ↑ Cf. Acharn. 570. Equit. 387. Ran. 469.
- ↑ "τὰ χιτώνια is badly translated vestes. It ought to have been translated tunicas succingite." Brunck. For the construction, see Schäfer, Melet. Crit. p. 88.
- ↑ "Aristophanes never uses the article for οὗτος or αὐτός. This I have remarked on Plut. 44." Brunck. He should have added, unless followed by δέ. See Aves, 492, 530. Thesm. 505, 846. Eccles. 312, 316. Pax, 1182. Plut. 559, 691. Equit. 717. Blomfield on
"Dass er mache schlechte Kannen zwar,
Auf 's Kannegiessern aber vevsteh' er trefflich sich."
