_Pro_. Nay, dread lord, 'tis not life I love, but the bride that I left new wedded in my chamber that day I sailed away—ah me, to be slain by Hector as my foot touched land! My lord, that yearning gives me no peace. I return content, if she might look on me but for an hour. _Pl_. Did you miss your dose of Lethe, man? _Pro_. Nay, lord; but this prevailed against it. _Pl_. Oh, well, wait a little; she will come to you one day; it is so simple; no need for you to be going up. _Pro_. My heart is sick with hope deferred; thou too, O Pluto, hast loved; thou knowest what love is. _Pl_. What good will it do you to come to life for a day, and then renew your pains? _Pro_. I think to win her to come with me, and bring two dead for one. _Pl_. It may not be; it never has been. _Pro_. Bethink thee, Pluto. 'Twas for this same cause that ye gave Orpheus his Eurydice; and Heracles had interest enough to be granted Alcestis; she was of my kin. _Pl_. Would you like to present that bare ugly skull to your fair bride? will she admit you, when she cannot tell you from another man? I know well enough; she will be frightened and run from you, and you will have gone all that way for nothing. _Per_. Husband, doctor that disease yourself: tell Hermes, as soon as Protesilaus reaches the light, to touch him with his wand, and make him young and fair as when he left the bridal chamber. _Pl_. Well, I cannot refuse a lady. Hermes, take him up and turn him into a bridegroom. But mind, you sir, a strictly temporary one. H. XXIV _Diogenes. Mausolus_ _Diog_. Why so proud, Carian? How are you better than the rest of us? _Mau_. Sinopean, to begin with, I was a king; king of all Caria, ruler of many Lydians, subduer of islands, conqueror of well-nigh the whole of Ionia, even to the borders of Miletus. Further, I was comely, and of noble stature, and a mighty warrior. Finally, a vast tomb lies over me in Halicarnassus, of such dimensions, of such exquisite beauty as no other shade can boast. Thereon are the perfect semblances of man and horse, carved in the fairest marble; scarcely may a temple be found to match it. These are the grounds of my pride: are they inadequate? _Diog_. Kingship—beauty—heavy tomb; is that it? _Mau_. It is as you say. _Diog_. But, my handsome Mausolus, the power and the beauty are no longer there. If we were to appoint an umpire now on the question of comeliness, I see no reason why he should prefer your skull to mine. Both are bald, and bare of flesh; our teeth are equally in evidence; each of us has lost his eyes, and each is snub-nosed. Then as to the tomb and the costly marbles, I dare say such a fine erection gives the Halicarnassians something to brag about and show off to strangers: but I don't see, friend, that you are the better for it, unless it is that you claim to carry more weight than the rest of us, with all that marble on the top of you. _Mau_. Then all is to go for nothing? Mausolus and Diogenes are to rank as equals?