l broad comedy of the Iliad and
the delicate but very bitter satire of the Odyssey than the way in
which the fact that Alcinous is in money difficulties is allowed to
steal upon us, as contrasted with the obvious humour of the quarrels
between Jove and Juno. At any rate we can hardly wonder at Ulysses
having felt that to a monarch of such mixed character the unfastened
box might prove a temptation greater than he could resist. To
return, however, to the story--

"If it please your Majesty," said he, in answer to King Alcinous, "I
should be delighted to stay here for another twelve months, and to
accept from your hands the vast treasures and the escort which you
are go generous as to promise me. I should obviously gain by doing
so, for I should return fuller-handed to my own people and should
thus be both more respected and more loved by my acquaintance.
Still to receive such presents--"

The king perceived his embarrassment, and at once relieved him. "No
one," he exclaimed, "who looks at you can for one moment take you
for a charlatan or a swindler. I know there are many of these
unscrupulous persons going about just now with such plausible
stories that it is very hard to disbelieve them; there is, however,
a finish about your style which convinces me of your good
disposition," and so on for more than I have space to quote; after
which Ulysses again proceeds with his adventures.

When he had finished them Alcinous insists that the leading
Phaeacians should each one of them give Ulysses a still further
present of a large kitchen copper and a three-legged stand to set it
on, "but," he continues, "as the expense of all these presents is
really too heavy for the purse of any private individual, I shall
charge the whole of them on the rates": literally, "We will repay
ourselves by getting it in from among the people, for this is too
heavy a present for the purse of a private individual." And what
this can mean except charging it on the rates I do not know.

Of course everyone else sends up his tripod and his cauldron, but we
hear nothing about any, either tripod or cauldron, from King
Alcinous. He is very fussy next morning stowing them under the
ship's benches, but his time and trouble seem to be the extent of
his contribution. It is hardly necessary to say that Ulysses had to
go away without the 250 pounds, and that we never hear of the
promised goblet being presented. Still he had done pretty well.

I hav