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Aristophanes, The Knights In this political comedy, the common people are represented by a cruel but dim-witted fool named “Mister Peepul” (Mr. Deemos). Competing for Mr. Peepul’s favor and loyalty are the various pompous jerks who want to run Athens. Currently the man who rules over Mr. Peepul is “the Paphlagonian,” who is dishonest, mean, and very paranoid. But two clever and mischievous slaves (Demosthenes and Nicias) have hatched a plot to put their own man in power, and thus to run the city, themselves, by using him as their front. To do this, they’ve stolen the Paphlagonian’s horoscope (his “Oracle”), and they will use it to confused and persuade others.
DEMOSTHENES I will begin then. We have a very brutal master, a perfect bean-counter, and most bad-tempered; it's Mister Peepul, an intolerable old man and half deaf. The beginning of last month he bought a slave, a Paphlagonian tanner, an true rascal, the very picture of bad morals. This man of leather knows his old master thoroughly; he acts like his lap-dog, flatters, cajoles, wheedles, and dupes him at will with little scraps of leavings, which he allows him to get. "Dear Mister Peepul," he will say, "just work on a single case and you will have done enough; then take your bath, eat, swallow and devour; here are three coins." Then the Paphlagonian steals from one of us what we have prepared and makes a present of it to our old man. The other day I had just baked a Spartan cake at Pylos, the cunning rogue came behind my back, stole it and offered the cake, which was my invention, in his own name.* He keeps us at a distance and allows none but himself to wait upon the master; when Mister Peepul is dining, he keeps close to his side with a thong in his hand and puts the orators to flight. He keeps telling fortunes to him, so that the old man now thinks of nothing but that. Then, when he sees him thoroughly confused, he uses all his cunning and piles up lies and slander against the household; then we are whipped and the Paphlagonian runs about among the slaves to demand contributions with threats and gathers them in with both hands. He will say, "You see how I have had Hylas beaten! Either content me or die at once!" We are forced to give, for otherwise the old man tramples on us and makes us crap forth all our body contains. There must be an end to it, my friend. Let us see! what can be done? Who will get us out of this mess?
NICIAS The best thing, friend, is just to make a run for it.
DEMOSTHENES But no one can escape the Paphlagonian, his eye is everywhere. And what a stride! He has one leg on Pylos and the other in the Assembly; his asshole gapes exactly over the land of the Chaonians, his hands are with the Aetolians and his mind with the Clopidians.
NICIAS It's best then to die; but let us seek the most heroic death.
DEMOSTHENES Let me think, what is the most heroic?
NICIAS Let us drink the blood of a bull; that's the death Themistocles chose.
DEMOSTHENES No, not that, but a jug of good unmixed wine in honour of the Good Genius; perchance we may stumble on a happy thought.
NICIAS Look at you! "Unmixed wine!" You want to get drunk now? Can a man strike out a brilliant thought when he’s drunk?
DEMOSTHENES Definitely! Go on, you wimp, blow yourself out with water; do you dare to accuse wine of clouding the reason? Quote me more marvellous effects than those of wine. Look! when a man drinks, he is rich, everything he touches succeeds, he wins lawsuits, is happy and helps his friends. Come, bring me quick a jug of wine, that I may soak my brain and get an ingenious idea.
NICIAS Gods! What can your drinking do to help us?
DEMOSTHENES Much. But bring it to me, while I take my seat. Once drunk, I shall strew little ideas, little phrases, little reasonings everywhere.
NICIAS enters the house and returns almost immediately with a bottle.
NICIAS It is lucky I was not caught in the house stealing the wine.
DEMOSTHENES So tell me, what is the Paphlagonian doing now?
NICIAS That jerk has just gobbled up some confiscated cakes; he is drunk and lies at full-length snoring on his bed.
DEMOSTHENES Very well, come along, pour me out wine and plenty of it.
NICIAS Take it and offer a toast to your Good Genius.
DEMOSTHENES to himself Inhale, ah, inhale the spirit of the genius of Pramnium. He drinks. Inspiredly Ah! Good Genius, thine the plan, not mine!
NICIAS So tell me, what is it?
DEMOSTHENES Run indoors quick and steal the oracles of the Paphlagonian, while he is asleep.
NICIAS Oh dear! I fear your Good Genius will be but a very Bad Genius for me. He goes into the house.
DEMOSTHENES And I'll set the bottle near me, so that I may moisten my wit to invent some brilliant notion. NICIAS enters the house and returns at once.
NICIAS How loudly the Paphlagonian farts and snores! I was able to seize the sacred oracle, which he was guarding with the greatest care, without his seeing me.
DEMOSTHENES Oh! clever fellow! Hand it here, that I may read. Come, pour me out some drink, bestir yourself! Let me see what there is in it. Oh! prophecy! Some drink! some drink! Quick!
NICIAS Well! what says the oracle?
DEMOSTHENES Pour me some more wine.
NICIAS Is "Pour me some more wine" in the oracle?
DEMOSTHENES Oh, damn it!
NICIAS But what is in it?
DEMOSTHENES Quick! some drink!
NICIAS ‘Damn it’ is very dry!
DEMOSTHENES Oh! miserable Paphlagonian! This then is why you have so long taken such precautions; your horoscope gave you qualms of terror.
NICIAS What does it say?
DEMOSTHENES It says here how he must end.
NICIAS And how?
DEMOSTHENES How? the oracle announces clearly that a dealer in lumber must first govern the city.
NICIAS That's one tradesman. And after him, who?
DEMOSTHENES After him, a sheep-dealer.
NICIAS Two tradesmen, eh? And what is this one's fate?
DEMOSTHENES To reign until a filthier scoundrel than he arises; then he perishes and in his place the leather-seller appears, the Paphlagonian robber, the bawler, who roars like a torrent.
NICIAS And the leather-seller must destroy the sheep-seller?
DEMOSTHENES Yes.
NICIAS Oh woe is me! Where can another seller be found, is there ever a one left?
DEMOSTHENES There is one more, who has a first-class trade.
NICIAS Tell me, pray, what is that?
DEMOSTHENES You really want to know?
NICIAS Yes!
DEMOSTHENES Well then! it's a sausage-seller who must overthrow him.
NICIAS A sausage-seller! Ah! by Posidon! what a fine trade! But where can this man be found?
DEMOSTHENES Let's seek him. But look! there he is, going towards the market-place; 'tis the gods, the gods who send him! Calling out : This way, this way, oh; lucky sausage-seller, come forward, dear friend, our saviour, the saviour of our city.
Enter AGORACRITUS, a seller of sausages, carrying a basket of his wares.
SAUSAGE-SELLER What is it? Why do you call me?
DEMOSTHENES Come here, come and learn about your good luck, you who are Fortune's favourite!
NICIAS Come! Relieve him of his basket-tray and tell him the oracle of the god; I will go and look after the Paphlagonian. He goes into the house.
DEMOSTHENES First put down all your gear, then worship the earth and the gods.
SAUSAGE-SELLER Done. What is the matter?
DEMOSTHENES Happiness, riches, power; to-day you have nothing, to-morrow you will have all, oh! chief of happy Athens.
SAUSAGE-SELLER Hey, leave me to wash out these intestines and to sell my sausages instead of making fun of me!
DEMOSTHENES Oh! the fool! Your intestines, indeed! Do you see all these people?
SAUSAGE-SELLER Yes.
DEMOSTHENES You shall be master to them all, governor of the market, of the harbours, of the Pnyx; you shall trample the Senate under foot, be able to fire the generals, load them with fetters, throw them into jail, and you will have sex in the Holy Temple.
SAUSAGE-SELLER What! I?
DEMOSTHENES You, without a doubt. But you do not yet see all the glory awaiting you. Stand on your basket and look at all the islands that surround Athens.
SAUSAGE-SELLER I see them. What about them?
DEMOSTHENES Look at the storehouses and the shipping.
SAUSAGE-SELLER Yes, I am looking.
DEMOSTHENES Is there a moral man more blessed than you? Furthermore, turn your right eye towards Caria and your left toward Carthage!
SAUSAGE-SELLER It’s a blessing to be cross-eyed?
DEMOSTHENES No, but you are the one who is going to trade away all this. According to the oracle you must become the greatest of men.
SAUSAGE-SELLER So tell me how a sausage-seller can become a great man.
DEMOSTHENES That is precisely why you will be great, because you are a pathetic rascal without shame, no better than a common market thief.
SAUSAGE-SELLER You’re crazy. Even I don’t think myself worthy of holding power.
DEMOSTHENES Oh! by the gods! Why do you not hold yourself worthy? What, don’t tell me that you have such a good opinion of yourself? Come on, are you from a good family?
SAUSAGE-SELLER By the gods! No! They’re very bad indeed.
DEMOSTHENES Oh, you lucky child of fortune, everything fits together to ensure your greatness!
SAUSAGE-SELLER Look mister, I’m totally uneducated. I only know how to read a little, and I’m damned poor even at that.
DEMOSTHENES Hmm, that is what may stand in your way, almost knowing how to read. A real ruler must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a crook. But I beg of you: don’t throw away this great opportunity the gods have given you!
SAUSAGE-SELLER But what does the oracle say?
DEMOSTHENES I swear to you, it is put together in very fine enigmatical style, as elegant as it is dear. It says: "When the eagle-tanner with the hooked claws shall seize a stupid dragon, a blood-sucker, it will be an end to the hot Paphlagonian pickled garlic. The god grants great glory to the sausage-sellers unless they prefer to sell their wares."
SAUSAGE-SELLER Huh? What the hell does that mean? And what does it have to do with me?
DEMOSTHENES The eagle-tanner is the Paphlagonian.
SAUSAGE-SELLER What do the hooked claws mean?
DEMOSTHENES It means to say, that he robs and pillages us with his claw-like hands.
SAUSAGE-SELLER And the dragon?
DEMOSTHENES That is quite clear. The dragon is long and so also is the sausage; the sausage like the dragon is a drinker of blood. Therefore the oracle says, that the dragon will triumph over the eagle-tanner, if he does not let himself be cajoled with words.
SAUSAGE-SELLER The oracles of the gods flatter me! But still, I don’t have the faintest idea how I could govern the people.
DEMOSTHENES Nothing could be simpler. Continue your trade. Mix and knead together all the state business as you do for your sausages. To win the people, always cook them some savoury tidbit that pleases them. Besides, you possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, cross-grained nature and the foul language of the market-place. In a word, you have all the talents necessary for governing. The oracles are in your favour, even including that of Delphi. Come, take a cup, offer a toast to the god of Stupidity and be sure to fight hard!
------------- * This is a joke that would have made the Athenians roar with laughter. The year before this play was written, two Athenian generals named Cleon and Demosthenes ambushed and captured a force of 100 Spartans at Pylos a remarkable feat. Cleon took all the credit for it, but it was later learned that Demosthenes had led the victory. So here the slave Demosthenes complains that somebody “stole his cake.”
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