SOCRATES: My dear friend, I ask your pardon for my wife. She's always scolded her husband. She's treating you the same way. I beg you to excuse this little excitement. Give it to me. (taking the bowl) ONE OF THE DISCIPLES: Let it be permitted for us to take this poison, divine Socrates. By what horrible injustice are you ravished from us? Why? The criminals have condemned the just. The fanatics have proscribed the wise man! You are going to die. SOCRATES: No, I am going to live. Here's the brew of immortality. It's not the perishable body that you loved, that instructed you, it's my soul alone that lived with you. And it will love you forever. (wants to drink) SERVANT OF THE ELEVEN: First, I must remove your chains. That's the rule. SOCRATES: If it's the rule, remove them. (he scratches his leg a bit) ONE OF HIS DISCIPLES: What! You are smiling? SOCRATES: I am smiling. Reflecting that pleasure comes from pain. It's in this manner that Eternal Happiness will be born from the miseries of life. (Socrates drinks) CRITO: Alas, what have you done? XANTIPPE: Alas, it's for I don't know how many ridiculous speeches of this sort that they are making this poor man die. Truly, my husband, you break my heart and I will strangle all the judges with my own hands. I scolded you, but I loved you: and these are the polite folk who've poisoned you. Ah! ah! My dear husband, ah! SOCRATES: Calm yourself, my good Xantippe. Don't cry any more my friends. It doesn't become disciples of Socrates to shed tears. CRITO: And can one not pour them out after this frightful sentence, after this judicial poisoning ordered by perverse ignorance, who've bought with fifty thousand drachmas the right to murder their fellow citizens with impunity? SOCRATES: That's the way they often treat the worshippers of a single God, and the enemies of superstition. CRITO: Alas! Must you be one of those victims? SOCRATES: It's beautiful to be the victim of Divinity. I am dying satisfied. It's true I would have liked to join to the consolation of seeing you that of Sophronine and Aglaea as well. I am astonished not to see them. They would have rendered my last moments even sweeter than they are. CRITO: Alas, they are unaware that you have consummated the iniquity of your judges. They are speaking to the people. They are encouraging the magistrates who took your part. Aglaea is revealing the crime of Anitus. His shame is going to be public. Aglaea and Sophronine perhaps would have saved your life. Ah! Dear Socrates, why did you hurry your last moments. AGLAEA: (entering with Sophronine) Divine Socrates, fear nothing. Xantippe console yourself. Worthy disciples don't weep. SOPHRONINE: Your enemies are confounded; all the people are coming to your defense. AGLAEA: We've spoken out. We've revealed the jealousy and intrigue of the impious Anitus. It was up to me to demand justice for his crime since I was the cause of it.