That is, the baskets of charcoal.

CHORUS
Acharnians, what means this threat? Has he got one of our children
in his house? What gives him such audacity?

DICAEOPOLIS
Stone me, if it please you; I shall avenge myself on this.
(SHOWS A BASKET.) Let us see whether you have any love
for your coals.

CHORUS
Great Gods! this basket is our fellow-citizen. Stop, stop,
in heaven's name!

DICAEOPOLIS
I shall dismember it despite your cries; I will listen to nothing.

CHORUS
How! will you kill this coal-basket, my beloved comrade?

DICAEOPOLIS
Just now, you would not listen to me.

CHORUS
Well, speak now, if you will; tell us, tell us you have a weakness
for the Lacedaemonians. I consent to anything; never will I forsake
this dear little basket.

DICAEOPOLIS
First, throw down your stones.

CHORUS
There! 'tis done. And you, do put away your sword.

DICAEOPOLIS
Let me see that no stones remain concealed in your cloaks.

CHORUS
They are all on the ground; see how we shake our garments. Come,
no haggling, lay down your sword; we threw away everything while
crossing from one side of the stage to the other.(1)

f(1) The stage of the Greek theatre was much broader, and at the same
time shallower, than in a modern playhouse.

DICAEOPOLIS
What cries of anguish you would have uttered had these coals of
Parnes(1) been dismembered, and yet it came very near it; had they
perished, their death would have been due to the folly of their
fellow-citizens. The poor basket was so frightened, look, it has
shed a thick black dust over me, the same as a cuttle-fish does.
What an irritable temper! You shout and throw stones, you will not
hear my arguments--not even when I propose to speak in favour of the
Lacedaemonians with my head on the block; and yet I cling to life.

f(1) A mountain in Attica, in the neighbourhood of Acharnae.

CHORUS
Well then, bring out a block before your door, scoundrel, and
let us hear the good grounds you can give us; I am curious to know
them. Now mind, as you proposed yourself, place your head on the block
and speak.

DICAEOPOLIS
Here is the block; and, though I am but a very sorry speaker, I
wish nevertheless to talk freely of the Lacedaemonians and without the
protection of my buckler. Yet I have many reasons for fear. I know our
rustics; they are delighted if some braggart comes, and rightly or
wrongly, loads both them and the