Its constant chatter fills the house with its squawk.
DICAEOPOLIS It’s an all-purpose vessel for mixing foul acts, a mortar for law suits, a lamp to spy traps, and a cup where one poisons all relevant facts.
And my excellent friend, this vessel won’t wear,
it never will break, if you hang it with care— the feet at the top, the head swinging in air.
CHORUS LEADER [to the Boeotian] You’re all set now—things are looking good!
BOEOTIAN Well, I intend to reap a splendid harvest.
CHORUS LEADER Farewell my fine friend. Take this informer with you and hurl him wherever you wish—
where you pile all the other sycophants.
DICAEOPOLIS Preparing this rascal was bloody hard work. Here, my Boeotian friend, load up your vessel.
BOEOTIAN Hey Ismenias, bend down and take this
on your shoulder. Carry it back like this.
Be sure to carry it the right way up.
DICAEOPOLIS What you’re taking is not worth very much, but this freight will make you a fine profit. Dealing with informers will bring you luck.
A SERVANT OF LAMACHUS [calling out as he enters] Dicaeopolis!
What is it? Why are you calling me?
It’s Lamachus— he wishes to observe the Feast of Cups
Frederick William Hall (1865–1948) was a classical scholar and Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. Together with William Martin Geldart, he produced the Oxford Classical Text of several authors. Hall was a careful editor known for his thorough collation of manuscripts and his conservative approach to textual criticism.
The Hall–Geldart editions in the Oxford Classical Texts series provide reliable critical texts with selective apparatus criticus. The OCT series, established in 1894 as the Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, aims to present the best available Greek and Latin texts in a format suitable for both scholarly use and teaching. Each volume provides a clean text with the most significant manuscript variants recorded at the foot of each page.
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