ARISTOPHANES' FROGS
83
Aeschylus (quoting the first lines of the Choephoroi).
"Guide of the Dead, warding a father's way,
Be thou my light and saviour, where I pray,
In this my fatherland, returned, restored."
Dionysus (to Euripides).
You find some false lines there?
Euripides.
About a dozen!
Dionysus.
Why, altogether there are only three!
Euripides.
But every one has twenty faults in drawing!
[Aeschylus begins to interrupt.
Dionysus.
No, stop, stop, Aeschylus; or perhaps you'll find
Your debts run up to more than three iambics.
Aeschylus (raging).
Stop to let him speak?
Dionysus.
Well, that's my advice.
Euripides.
He's gone straight off some thousand miles astray.
Aeschylus.
Of course it's foolery—but what do I care?
Point out the faults.
