t and trample everything beneath his feet.

CHORUS Well then! LET him confound, let him trample, let him overturn
everything! We cannot help giving vent to our joy.

TRYGAEUS Oh! cruel fate! My friends! in the name of the gods,
what possesses you? Your dancing will wreck the success of a fine
undertaking.

CHORUS 'Tis not I who want to dance; 'tis my legs that bound with
delight.

TRYGAEUS Enough, an you love me, cease your gambols.

CHORUS There! 'Tis over.

TRYGAEUS You say so, and nevertheless you go on.

CHORUS Yet one more figure and 'tis done.

TRYGAEUS Well, just this one; then you must dance no more.

CHORUS No, no more dancing, if we can help you.

TRYGAEUS But look, you are not stopping even now.

CHORUS By Zeus, I am only throwing up my right leg, that's all.

TRYGAEUS Come, I grant you that, but pray, annoy me no further.

CHORUS Ah! the left leg too will have its fling; well, 'tis but its
right. I am so happy, so delighted at not having to carry my buckler
any more. I sing and I laugh more than if I had cast my old age, as a
serpent does its skin.

TRYGAEUS No, 'tis not time for joy yet, for you are not sure of success.
But when you have got the goddess, then rejoice, shout and laugh;
thenceforward you will be able to sail or stay at home, to make love or
sleep, to attend festivals and processions, to play at cottabos,(1) live
like true Sybarites and to shout, Io, io!

f(1) One of the most favourite games with the Greeks. A
stick was set upright in the ground and to this the beam of
a balance was attached by its centre. Two vessels were hung
from the extremities of the beam so as to balance; beneath
these two other and larger dishes were placed and filled
with water, and in the middle of each a brazen figure,
called Manes, was stood. The game consisted in throwing
drops of wine from an agreed distance into one or the other
vessel, so that, dragged downwards by the weight of the
liquor, it bumped against Manes.

CHORUS Ah! God grant we may see the blessed day. I have suffered so
much; have so oft slept with Phormio(1) on hard beds. You will no longer
find me an acid, angry, hard judge as heretofore, but will find me
turned indulgent and grown younger by twenty years through happiness. We
have been killing ourselves long enough, tiring ourselves out with going
to the Lyceum(2) and returning laden with spear and buckler.--But what
can we