EURIPIDES

That is where Agathon, the celebrated tragic poet, dwells. -

MNESILOCHUS

Who is this Agathon? -

EURIPIDES

He's a certain Agathon... -

MNESILOCHUS

Swarthy, robust of build? -

EURIPIDES

No, another. -

MNESILOCHUS

I have never seen him. He has a big beard? -

EURIPIDES

Have you never seen him? -

MNESILOCHUS

Never, so far as I know. -

EURIPIDES

And yet you have made love to him. Well, it must have been without knowing who he was. (The door of AGATHON'S house opens.) Ah! let us step aside; here is one of his slaves bringing a brazier and some myrtle branches; no doubt he is going to offer a sacrifice and pray for a happy poetical inspiration for Agathon. -

SERVANT OF AGATHON (standing on the threshold; solemnly)

Silence! oh, people! keep your mouths sedately shut! The chorus of the Muses is moulding songs at my master's hearth. Let the winds hold their breath in the silent Aether! Let the azure waves cease murmuring on the shore!... -

MNESILOCHUS

Bombax. -

EURIPIDES

Be still! I want to hear what he is saying. -

SERVANT

...Take your rest, ye winged races, and you, ye savage inhabitants of the woods, cease from your erratic wandering... -

MNESILOCHUS (more loudly)

Bombalobombax. -

SERVANT

...for Agathon, our master, the sweet-voiced poet, is going... -

MNESILOCHUS

...to be made love to? -

SERVANT

Whose voice is that? -

MNESILOCHUS

It's the silent Aether. -

SERVANT

...is going to construct the framework of a drama. He is rounding fresh poetical forms, he is polishing them in the lathe and is welding them; he is hammering out sentences and metaphors; he is working up his subject like soft wax. First he models it and then he casts it in bronze... -

MNESILOCHUS

...and sways his buttocks amorously. -

SERVANT

Who is the rustic that approaches this sacred enclosure? -

MNESILOCHUS

Take care of yourself and of your sweet-voiced poet! I have a strong tool here both well rounded and well polished, which will pierce your enclosure and penetrate you. -

SERVANT

Old man, you must have been a very insolent fellow in your youth! -

EURIPIDES (to the SERVANT)

Let him be, friend, and, quick, go and call Agathon to me. -

SERVANT

It's not worth the trouble, for he will soon be here himself. He has started to compose, and in winter it is never possible to round off strophes without coming to the sun to excite the imagination. -

EURIPIDES

And what am I to do? -

SERVANT

Wait till he gets here.

- (He goes into the house.) -

EURIPIDES

Oh, Zeus! what hast thou in store for me to-day? -

MNESILOCHUS

Great gods, what is the matter now? What are you grumbling and groaning for? Tell me; you must not conceal anything from your father-in-law. -

EURIPIDES

Some great misfortune is brewing against me. -

MNESILOCHUS

What is it? -

EURIPIDES

This day will decide whether it is all over with Euripides or not. -

MNESILOCHUS

But how? Neither the tribunals nor the Senate are sitting, for it is the third day of the Thesmophoria. -