LEADER. Friend, friend, I may not be still: My destinies high I must needs fulfil, And the march of creation--despite reprobation Must proceed with--(_To Chor._) my lads, must I make application For a-- _Chorus_. Croak, croak, croak. BACCHUS (_in a minor key._) Nay, nay--take your own way, I've said out my say, And care naught, by my fai', For your croak, croak, croak. LEADER. Care or care not, 'tis the same thing to me, My voice is my own and my actions are free; I have but one note, and I'll chant it with glee, And from morning to night that note it shall be-- _Chorus_. Croak, croak, croak. BACCHUS. Nay then, old rebel, but I'll stop your treble, With a poke, poke, poke: Take this from my rudder--(_dashing at the frogs_)--and that from my oar, And now let us see if you'll trouble us more With your croak, croak, croak. LEADER. You may batter and bore, You may thunder and roar, Yet I'll never give o'er Till I'm hard at death's door, --(This rib's plaguy sore)-- _Semi-chorus_ With my croak, croak, croak. Semi-chorus (_diminuendo_.) With my croak, croak, croak. _Full Chorus_ (_in a dying cadence_.) With my croak--croak--croak. (_The Frogs disappear_) BACCHUS (_looking over the boat's edge_.) Spoke, spoke, spoke. (To _Charon_.) Pull away, my old friend, For at last there's an end To their croak, croak, croak. (_Bacchus pays his two obols, and is landed_) [1] The comic performances of the Athenians were usually brought out at a festival of Bacchus, which lasted for three days. The first of these was devoted to the tapping of their wine-casks; the second to boundless jollity (Plato specifies a town, but not Athens, every single inhabitant of which was found in a state of intoxication on one of these festivals,) and the third to theatrical exhibitions in the temple of the patron of the feast. In this state of excitement it will be easily imagined that some coarser ingredients were required by the clever but licentious rabble of Athens, to whom these representations were more particularly addressed, besides the better commodities of rich poetry and wit; and hence the deformities which have been so much complained of in the writings of Aristophanes. * * * * * NOTES OF A READER. * * * * * LAYING A GHOST. In the Memoirs of J.F. Oberlin, Pastor of a poor Protestant flock, in one of the wildest parts of France, we find the following pleasant recipe for laying a ghost:--