CALLIDEMUS. Nicias, poor honest man, might just as well have sate still; his speaking did but little good. The loss of your oration is, doubtless, an irreparable public calamity. SPEUSIPPUs. Why, not so; I intend to introduce it at the next assembly; it will suit any subject. CALLIDEMUS. That is to say, it will suit none. But pray, if it be not too presumptuous a request, indulge me with a specimen. SPEUSIPPUS. Well; suppose the agora crowded; - an important subject under discussion; an ambassador from Argos, or from the great king; the tributes from the islands; -- an impeachment ; — in short, anything you please. The crier makes proclamation. -"Any citizen above fifty years old may speak any citizen not disqualified may speak." Then I rise: a great murmur of curiosity while I am mounting the stand. CALLIDEMUS. Of curiosity! yes, and of something else too. You will infallibly be dragged down by main force, like poor Glancon last year. SPEUSIPPUs. Never fear. I shall begin in this style: "When I consider, Athenians, the importance of our city; when I consider the extent of its power; ́ 1 See Xenophon; Memorabilia, iii. the wisdom of its laws, the elegance of its decorations; -when I consider by what names and by what exploits its annals are adorned; when I think on Harmodius and Aristogiton, on Themistocles and Miltiades, on Cimon and Pericles; when I contemplate our pre-eminence in arts and letters; when I observe so many flourishing states and islands compelled to own the dominion, and purchase the protection, of the City of the Violet Crown 1 - CALLIDEMUS. I shall choke with rage. Oh, all ye gods and goddesses, what sacrilege, what perjury have I ever committed, that I should be singled out from among all the citizens of Athens to be the father of this fool? SPEUSIPPUs. What now? By Bacchus, old man, I would not advise you to give way to such fits of passion in the streets. If Aristophanes were to see you, you would infallibly be in a comedy next spring. CALLIDEMUS. You have more reason to fear Aristophanes than any fool living. Oh, that he could but hear you trying to initate the slang of Straton" and the lisp of Alcibiades ! 3 You would be an inexhaustible subject. You would console him for the loss of Cleon. SPEUSIPPUS No, no. I may perhaps figure at the dramatic repre sentations before long; but in a very different way. 'A favourite epithet of Athens. See Aristophanes; Acharn. 637. 2 See Aristophanes; Equites, 1375. 8 See Aristophanes; Vespa, 44. This is too much. orator, poet. Oh Hercules! Oh Bacchus ! Here is an universal genius; sophist, To what a three-headed monster have I given birth! a perfect Cerberus of intellect ! And pray what may your piece be about? Or will your tragedy, like your speech, serve equally for any subject? You know there is a law which permits any modern poet to retouch a play of Æschylus, and bring it forward as his own composition. And, as there is an absurd prejudice, among the vulgar, in favour of his extravagant pieces, I have selected one of them, and altered it. CALLIDEMUS Which of them? SPEUSIPPUS. Oh that mass of barbarous absurdities, the Prometheus. But I have framed it anew upon the model of Euripides. By Bacchus, I shall make Sophocles and Agathon look about them. You would not know the play again. CALLIDEMUS. By Jupiter, I believe not. SPEUSIPPUs. I have omitted the whole of the absurd dialogue between Vulcan and Strength, at the beginning. CALLIDEMUS. That may be, on the whole, an improvement. The play will then open with that grand soliloquy of Prometheus, when he is chained to the rock. "Oh! ye eternal heavens! Ye rushing winds! Well, I allow that will you capable of that idea. be striking; I did not think SPEUSIPPUS. Do you seriously suppose that one who has studied the plays of that great man, Euripides, would ever begin a tragedy in such a ranting style? 1 See Eschylus; Prometheus, 88. CALLIDEMUS. What, does not your play open with the speech of Prometheus? No doubt. SPEUSIPPUs. CALLIDEMUS. Then what, in the name of Bacchus, do you make him say? SPEUSIPPUs. You shall hear; and, if it be not in the very style of Euripides, call me a fool. CALLIDEMUS. That is a liberty whether it be or no. which I shall venture to take, But go on. SPEUSIPPUS. Prometheus begins thus: "Cœlus begat Saturn and Briareus, CALLIDEMUS. Very beautiful, and very natural; and, as you say, very like Euripides. You are sneering. stand these things. your youth SPEUSIPPUs. Really, father, you do not underYou had not those advantages in CALLIDEMUS. Which I have been fool enough to let you have. No; in my early days, lying had not been dignified into a science, nor politics degraded into a trade. |