LYS. Now in the market you see them like Corybants, jangling
about with their armour of mail.
Fiercely they stalk in the midst of the crockery,
sternly parade by the cabbage and kail.

MAG. Right, for a soldier should always be soldierly!

LYS. Troth, 'tis a mighty ridiculous jest,
Watching them haggle for shrimps in the market-place,
grimly accoutred with shield and with crest.

* * * * *

STRAT. Comes, like a Tereus, a Thracian irregular,
shaking his dart and his target to boot;
Off runs a shopgirl, appalled at the sight of him,
down he sits soldierly, gobbles her fruit.

MAG. You, I presume, could adroitly and gingerly settle this
intricate, tangled concern:
You in a trice could relieve our perplexities.

LYS. Certainly.

MAG. How? permit me to learn.

LYS. Just as a woman, with nimble dexterity,
thus with her hands disentangles a skein.

* * * * *

MAG. Wonderful, marvellous feats, not a doubt of it,
you with your skeins and your spindles can show;
Fools! do you really expect to unravel a
terrible war like a bundle of tow?

LYS. Ah, if you only could manage your politics
just in the way that we deal with a fleece!

* * * * *

MAG. Heard any ever the like of their impudence,
these who have nothing to do with the war,
Preaching of bobbins, and beatings, and washing-tubs?

LYS. _Nothing to do with it_, wretch that you are?

The women conclude that one who talks thus is no better than a dead
man; and when he sets out on some trusty platitude concerning women's
sphere and the married state with

Truly whoever is able to wed--

Lysistrata takes him up sharply with

Truly, old fellow,'tis time you were dead.

Accordingly they prepare with sacrificial pigs, funeral cakes, fillets
and chaplets to give the walking corpse a decent burial. The magistrate
stumps off, taking Heaven to witness he never was so insulted in h