Aristophanes, Knights
Eugene O'Neill, Jr., Ed.

Sausage-Seller
But I offer you an entire cake.

Cleon
But you cannot offer him stewed hare as I do.

Sausage-Seller
aside
Ah! great gods! stewed hare! where shall I find it? Oh! brain of mine, devise some trick!

Cleon
showing him the hare
[1195] Do you see this, you rogue?

Sausage-Seller
pretending to look afar
A fig for that! Here are some people coming to seek me. They are envoys, bearing sacks bulging with money.

Cleon
Hearing money mentioned Cleon turns his head, and the Sausage-Seller seizes the opportunity to snatch away the stewed hare.
Where, where, I say?

Sausage-Seller
Bah! What's that to you? Will you not even now let the strangers alone? Dear Demos, do you see this stewed hare which I bring you?

Cleon
[1200] Ah! rascal! you have shamelessly robbed me.

Sausage-Seller
You have robbed too, you robbed the Laconians at Pylos.

Demos
Please tell me, how did you get the idea to filch it from him?

Sausage-Seller
The idea comes from the goddess; the theft is all my own.

Cleon
And I had taken such trouble to catch this hare and I was the one who had it cooked.

Demos
to Cleon
[1205] Get you gone! My thanks are only for him who served it.

Cleon
Ah! wretch! you have beaten me in impudence!

Sausage-Seller
Well then, Demos, say now, who has treated you best, you and your stomach? Decide!

Demos
How [1210] shall I act here so that the spectators shall approve my judgment?

Sausage-Seller
I will tell you. Without saying anything, go and rummage through my basket, and then through the Paphlagonian's, and see what is in them; that's the best way to judge.

Demos
Let us see then, what is there in yours?

Sausage-Seller
Why, it's empty, [1215] dear little father; I have brought everything to you.

Demos
This is a basket devoted to the people.

Sausage-Seller
Now hunt through the Paphlagonian's. Pause, as Demos does so Well?

Demos
Oh! what a lot of good things! Why it's quite full! Oh! what a huge great part of this cake he kept for himself! [1220] He had only cut off the least little tiny piece for me.

Sausage-Seller
But this is what he has always done. Of everything he took, he only gave you the crumbs, and kept the bulk.

Demos
to Cleon
Oh! rascal! was this the way you robbed me? [1225] And I was loading you with chaplets and gifts!

Cleon
I robbed for the public weal.

Demos
to Cleon
Give me back that crown; I shall give it to him.

Sausage-Seller
Return it quick, quick, you gallows-bird.

Cleon
No, for the Pythian oracle [1230] has revealed to me the name of him who shall overthrow me.