ance of its
decorations;--when I consider by what names and by what exploits its
annals are adorned; when I think on Harmodius and Aristogiton, on
Themistocles and Miltiades, on Cimon and Pericles;--when I contemplate
our pre-eminence in arts and letters;--when I observe so many
flourishing states and islands compelled to own the dominion, and
purchase the protection of the City of the Violet Crown" (A favourite
epithet of Athens. See Aristophanes; Acharn. 637.)--

CALLIDEMUS. I shall choke with rage. Oh, all ye gods and goddesses, what
sacrilege, what perjury have I ever committed, that I should be singled
out from among all the citizens of Athens to be the father of this fool?

SPEUSIPPUS. What now? By Bacchus, old man, I would not advise you to
give way to such fits of passion in the streets. If Aristophanes were to
see you, you would infallibly be in a comedy next spring.

CALLIDEMUS. You have more reason to fear Aristophanes than any fool
living. Oh, that he could but hear you trying to imitate the slang of
Straton (See Aristophanes; Equites, 1375.) and the lisp of Alcibiades!
(See Aristophanes; Vespae, 44.) You would be an inexhaustible subject.
You would console him for the loss of Cleon.

SPEUSIPPUS. No, no. I may perhaps figure at the dramatic representations
before long; but in a very different way.

CALLIDEMUS. What do you mean?

SPEUSIPPUS. What say you to a tragedy?

CALLIDEMUS. A tragedy of yours?

SPEUSIPPUS. Even so.

CALLIDEMUS. Oh Hercules! Oh Bacchus! This is too much. Here is an
universal genius; sophist,--orator,--poet. To what a three-headed
monster have I given birth! a perfect Cerberus of intellect! And pray
what may your piece be about? Or will your tragedy, like your speech,
serve equally for any subject?

SPEUSIPPUS. I thought of several plots;--Oedipus,--Eteocles and
Polynices,--the war of Troy,--the murder of Agamemnon.

CALLIDEMUS. And what have you chosen?

SPEUSIPPUS. You know there is a law which permits any modern poet
to retouch a play of Aeschylus, and bring it forward as his own
composition. And, as there is an absurd prejudice, among the vulgar,
in favour of his extravagant pieces, I have selected one of them, and
altered it.

CALLIDEMUS. Which of them?

SPEUSIPPUS. Oh! that mass of barbarous absurdities, the Prometheus. But
I have framed it anew upon the model of Euripides. By Bacchus, I shall
make Sophocles and Agathon look about them. You would not know the play