Pyrrh. Anything, except catch a runaway slave.
Cust. And why can't you do that?
Pyrrh. Because, you see, I've no faculty of apprehension.[1]
Cust. So I should think—you seem to me quite slow and stupid. And now, what do you consider the main end of knowledge?
Pyrrh. Ignorance—to hear nothing and see nothing.
Cust. You confess yourself blind and deaf then?
Pyrrh. Yea, and void of sense and perception, and in no wise differing from a worm.
Cust. I must buy you. (To Mercury.) What shall we say for him?
Merc. An Attic mina.
Cust. Here 'tis, Now, fellow, have I bought you or not—tell me?
Pyrrh. Well, it's a doubtful question.
Cust. Not at all—at least I've paid for you.
Pyrrh. I reserve my opinion on that point; it requires consideration.
Cust. Follow me, at all events—that's a servant's duty.
Pyrrh. Are you sure you're stating a fact?
Cust. (impatiently). There's the auctioneer, and there's the money, and there are the bystanders to witness.
Pyrrh. Are you sure there are any bystanders?
- ↑ The pun here happens to he the same in English as in Greek. But the Athenians were fonder of such word-play than we are.
