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Sausage-Seller
Ah! ah! here comes the Paphlagonian! One would say it was a hurricane lashing the sea and rolling the waves before it in its fury. He looks as if he wanted to swallow me up alive! Ye gods! what an impudent knave!

Cleon
as he rushes in
To my aid, [695] my beloved lies! I am going to destroy you, or my name is lost.

Sausage-Seller
Oh! how he diverts me with his threats! His bluster makes me laugh! And I dance the mothon for joy, and sing at the top of my voice, cuckoo!

Cleon
Ah! by Demeter! if I do not kill and devour you, may I die!

Sausage-Seller
[700] If you do not devour me? and I, if I do not drink your blood to the last drop, and then burst with indigestion.

Cleon
I, I will strangle you, I swear it by the front seat which Pylos gained me.

Sausage-Seller
By the front seat! Ah! might I see you fall into the hindmost seat!

Cleon
[705] By heaven! I will put you to the torture.

Sausage-Seller
What a lively wit! Come, what's the best to give you to eat? What do you prefer? A purse?

Cleon
I will tear out your insides with my nails.

Sausage-Seller
And I will cut off your victuals at the Prytaneum.

Cleon
[710] I will haul you before Demos, who will mete out justice to you.

Sausage-Seller
And I too will drag you before him and belch forth more calumnies than you.

Cleon
Why, poor fool, he does not believe you, whereas I play with him at will.

Sausage-Seller
Is then Demos your property, your contemptible creature?

Cleon
[715] It's because I know the dishes that please him.

Sausage-Seller
And these are little mouthfuls, which you serve to him like a clever nurse. You chew the pieces and place some in small quantities in his mouth, while you swallow three parts yourself.

Cleon
Thanks to my skill, [720] I know exactly how to enlarge or contract this gullet.

Sausage-Seller
My arse is just as clever.

Cleon
Well, my friend, you tricked me at the Senate, but take care! Let us go before Demos.

Sausage-Seller
That's easily done; come, let's do it right away.

Cleon
Loudly
[725] Oh, Demos! Come out here.

Sausage-Seller
By Zeus, Father, come on out!

Kleon
More loudly
Come, oh, my dear little Demos; come and see how I am insulted.

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