At Archedemus poke,

Who has not cut his guildsmen yet, though seven years old;
Yet up among the dead

He is demagogue and head
And contrives the topmost place of the rascaldom to hold?

And Cleisthenes, they say,
Is among the tombs all day,

Bewailing for his lover with a lamentable whine.
And Callias, I'm told,

Has become a sailor bold,
And casts a lion's hide o'er his members feminine.

DIONYSUS
Can any of you tell

Where Pluto here may dwell,
For we, sirs, are two strangers who were never here before?

CHORUS
O, then no further stray,

Nor again inquire the way,
For know that ye have journeyed to his very entrance-door.

DIONYSUS
Take up the wraps, my lad.

XANTHIAS
Now is not this too bad?

Like "Zeus's Corinth," he "the wraps" keeps saying o'er and o'er.
CHORUS

Now wheel your sacred dances through the glade
with flowers bedight,

All ye who are partakers of the holy festal rite;
And I will with the women and the holy maidens go

Where they keep the nightly vigil, an auspicious
light to show.

Now haste we to the roses,
And the meadows full of posies,

Now haste we to the meadows
In our own old way,

In choral dances blending,
In dances never ending,

Which only for the holy
The Destinies array.

O, happy mystic chorus,
The blessedsunshine o'er us

On us alone is smiling,
In its soft sweet light:

On us who strove forever
With holy, pure endeavour,

Alike by friend and stranger
To guide our steps aright.

DIONYSUS
What's the right way to knock? I wonder how

The natives here are wont to knock at doors.
XANTHIAS

No dawdling: taste the door. You've got, remember,
The lion-hide and pride of Heracles.

DIONYSUS (knocking)
Boy! boy!

The door opens. AEACUS appears.
AEACUS

Who's there?
DIONYSUS

I, Heracles the strong!
AEACUS

O, you most shameless desperateruffian, you
O, villain, villain, arrant vilest villain!

Who seized our Cerberus by the throat, and fled,
And ran, and rushed, and bolted, haling of

The dog, my charge! But now I've got thee fast.
So close the Styx's inky-hearted rock,

The blood-bedabbled peak of Acheron
Shall hem thee in: the hell-hounds of Cocytus

Prowl round thee; whilst the hundred-headed Asp
Shall rive thy heart-strings: the Tartesian Lamprey

Prey on thy lungs: and those Tithrasian Gorgons
Mangle and tear thy kidneys, mauling them,

Entrails and all, into one bloody mash.
I'll speed a running foot to fetch them hither.

Exit AEACUS.
XANTHIAS

Hallo! what now?
DIONYSUS

I've done it: call the god.
XANTHIAS

Get up, you laughing-stock; get up directly,
Before you're seen.

DIONYSUS
What, I get up? I'm fainting.

Please dab a sponge of water on my heart.
XANTHIAS

Here! Dab it on.
DIONYSUS

Where is it?
XANTHIAS

Ye golden gods,
Lies your heart there?

DIONYSUS
It got so terrified

It fluttered down into my stomach's pit.
XANTHIAS

Cowardliest of gods and men!
DIONYSUS

The cowardliest? I?
What I, who asked you for a sponge, a thing

A coward never would have done!
XANTHIAS

What then?
DIONYSUS

A coward would have lain there wallowing;
But I stood up, and wiped myself withal.

XANTHIAS
Poseidon! quite heroic.

DIONYSUS
'Deed I think so.

But weren't you frightened at those dreadful threats
And shoutings?

XANTHIAS
Frightened? Not a bit. I cared not.

DIONYSUS
Come then, if you're so very brave a man,

Will you be I, and take the hero's club
And lion's skin, since you're so monstrous plucky?

And I'll be now the slave, and bear the luggage.
XANTHIAS

Hand them across. I cannot choose but take them.
And now observe the Xanthio-heracles

If I'm a coward and a sneak like you.
DIONYSUS

Nay, you're the rogue from Melite's own self.
And I'll pick up and carry on the traps.

Enter a MAID-SERVANT of Persephone, from the door.
MAID

O welcome, Heracles! come in, sweetheart.
My Lidy, when they told her, set to work,

Baked mighty loaves, boiled two or three tureens
Of lentil soup, roasted a prime ox whole,

Made rolls and honey-cakes. So come along.
XANTHIAS (declining)

You are too kind.
MAID

I will not let you go.
I will not let you! Why, she's stewing slices

Of juicy bird's-flesh, and she's making comfits,
And tempering down her richest wine. Come, dear,

Come along in.
XANTHIAS (still declining)

Pray thank her.
MAID

O you're jesting,
I shall not let you off: there's such a lovely

Flute-girl all ready, and we've two or three
Dancing-girls also.

XANTHIAS
Eh! what! Dancing-girls?

MAID
Young budding virgins, freshly tired and trimmed.

Come, dear, come in. The cook was dishing up
The cutlets, and they are bringing in the tables.

XANTHIAS
Then go you in, and tell those dancing-girls

Of whom you spake, I'm coming in Myself.
Exit MAID.

Pick up the traps, my lad, and follow me.
DIONYSUS

Hi! stop! you're not in earnest, just because
I dressed you up, in fun, as Heracles?

Come, don't keep fooling, Xanthias, but lift
And carry in the traps yourself

You are never going to strip me of these togs
You gave me!

DIONYSUS
Going to? No, I'm doing it now.

off with that lion-skin.
XANTHIAS

Bear witness all,
The gods shall judge between us.

DIONYSUS
Gods, indeed!

Why, how could you (the vain and foolish thought I)
A slave, a mortal, act Alemena's son?

XANTHIAS
All right then, take them; maybe, if God will,

You'll soon require my services again.
CHORUS

This is the part of a dexterous clever
Man with his wits about him ever,

One who has travelled the world to see;
Always to shift, and to keep through all

Close to the sunny side of the wall;
Not like a pictured block to be,

Standing always in one position;
Nay but to veer, with expedition,

And ever to catch the favouring breeze,
This is the part of a shrewd tactician,

This is to be a-Theramenes!
DIONYSUS

Truly an exquisite joke 'twould be,
Him with a dancing-girl to see,

Lolling at ease on Milesian rugs;
Me, like a slave, beside him standing,

Aught that he wants to his lordship handing;
Then as the damsel fair he hugs,

Seeing me all on fire to embrace her,
He would perchance (for there's no man baser),

• sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
• sunshine [´sʌnʃain] n.日光，阳光 (初中英语单词)
• desperate [´despərit] a.拼死的；绝望的 (初中英语单词)
• throat [θrəut] n.咽喉；嗓子；出入口 (初中英语单词)
• bloody [´blʌdi] a.(流)血的；血腥的 (初中英语单词)
• running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
• coward [´kauəd] n.胆怯者 a.胆小的 (初中英语单词)
• dreadful [´dredful] a.可怕的；讨厌的 (初中英语单词)
• welcome [´welkəm] a.受欢迎的；可喜的 (初中英语单词)
• earnest [´ə:nist] a.认真的 n.认真；诚恳 (初中英语单词)
• witness [´witnis] n.见证人 vt.目击 (初中英语单词)
• damsel [´dæmzəl] n.姑娘，未婚少女 (初中英语单词)
• embrace [im´breis] vt.&n.拥抱；采纳；信奉 (初中英语单词)
• saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
• strove [strəuv] strive的过去式 (高中英语单词)
• whilst [wailst] conj.当...时候；虽然 (高中英语单词)
• sponge [spʌndʒ] n.海绵(状物) (高中英语单词)
• monstrous [´mɔnstrəs] a.怪异的；庞大的 (高中英语单词)
• mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
• mortal [´mɔ:tl] a.致命的 n.凡人 (高中英语单词)
• shrewd [ʃru:d] a.精明的；狡猾的 (高中英语单词)
• exquisite [ik´skwizit] a.精巧的；敏锐的 (高中英语单词)
• lordship [´lɔ:dʃip] n.贵族权力；阁下 (高中英语单词)
• nightly [´naitli] a.&ad.每夜(的) (英语四级单词)
• blessed [´blesid] a.享福的；神圣的 (英语四级单词)
• villain [´vilən] n.坏人；恶棍；反面角色 (英语四级单词)
• freshly [´freʃli] ad.新近，刚才 (英语四级单词)
• perchance [pə´tʃɑ:ns] ad.偶然；可能 (英语四级单词)
• lamentable [´læməntəbl, lə´mentəbl] a.可悲的 (英语六级单词)
• mystic [´mistik] a.神秘的；难以理解的 (英语六级单词)
• ruffian [´rʌfiən] n.流氓 a.残暴的 (英语六级单词)
• arrant [´ærənt] a.彻头彻尾的；极恶的 (英语六级单词)