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Cleon
Must you have recourse to such jackanapes' tricks to supplant me? Sausage-Seller
No, it's your own tricks that I am borrowing, just as a drunken guest, when he has to take a crap, seizes some other man's shoes. Cleon
[890] Oh! you shall not outdo me in flattery! I am going to hand Demos this garment; all that remains to you, you rogue, is to go and hang yourself. Demos
as Cleon throws a cloak around his shoulders
Faugh! may the plague seize you! You stink of leather horribly. Sausage-Seller
Why, it's to smother you that he has thrown this cloak around you on top of the other; and it is not the first plot he has planned against you. Do you remember the time [895] when silphium was so cheap? Demos
Aye, to be sure I do! Sausage-Seller
Very well! it was Cleon who had caused the price to fall so low, that all might eat it, and the jurymen in the Courts were almost asphyxiated from farting in each others' faces. Demos
Hah! why, indeed, a Dungtownite told me the same thing. Sausage-Seller
[900] Were you not yourself in those days quite red in the gills with farting? Demos
Why, it was a trick worthy of Pyrrhandrus! Cleon
With what other idle trash will you seek to ruin me, you wretch! Sausage-Seller
Oh! I shall be more brazen than you, for it's the goddess who has commanded me. Cleon
No, on my honor, you will not! [905] Here, Demos, feast on this dish; it is your salary as a dicast, which you gain through me for doing naught. Sausage-Seller
Wait! here is a little box of ointment to rub into the sores on your legs. Cleon
I will pluck out your white hairs and make you young again. Sausage-Seller
Take this hare's tail to wipe the rheum from your eyes. Cleon
[910] When you wipe your nose, clean your fingers on my head.
Aristophanes. Knights. The Complete Greek Drama, vol. 2. Eugene O'Neill, Jr. New York. Random House. 1938.
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