Aristophanes -- Translations into English; Athens (Greece) -- Drama; Comedy plays; Greek drama (Comedy) -- Translations into English
JUST DISCOURSE. And you, you prosper. Yet you were poor when you said, "I
am the Mysian Telephus,"[548] and used to stuff your wallet with maxims
of Pandeletus[549] to nibble at.
UNJUST DISCOURSE. Oh! the beautiful wisdom, of which you are now
boasting!
JUST DISCOURSE. Madman! But yet madder the city that keeps you, you, the
corrupter of its youth!
UNJUST DISCOURSE. 'Tis not you who will teach this young man; you are as
old and out of date as Saturn.
JUST DISCOURSE. Nay, it will certainly be I, if he does not wish to be
lost and to practise verbosity only.
UNJUST DISCOURSE (_to Phidippides_). Come hither and leave him to beat
the air.
JUST DISCOURSE (_to Unjust Discourse_). Evil be unto you, if you touch
him.
CHORUS. A truce to your quarrellings and abuse! But expound, you, what
you taught us formerly, and you, your new doctrine. Thus, after hearing
each of you argue, he will be able to choose betwixt the two schools.
JUST DISCOURSE. I am quite agreeable.
UNJUST DISCOURSE. And I too.
CHORUS. Who is to speak first?
UNJUST DISCOURSE. Let it be my opponent, he has my full consent; then I
will follow upon the very ground he shall have chosen and shall shatter
him with a hail of new ideas and subtle fancies; if after that he dares
to breathe another word, I shall sting him in the face and in the eyes
with our maxims, which are as keen as the sting of a wasp, and he will
die.
CHORUS. Here are two rivals confident in their powers of oratory and in
the thoughts over which they have pondered so long. Let us see which will
come triumphant out of the contest. This wisdom, for which my friends
maintain such a persistent fight, is in great danger. Come then, you, who
crowned men of other days with so many virtues, plead the cause dear to
you, make yourself known to us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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