Part 23 (1/2)

Hail O my fellow-sufferers, hail Spartans.

SPARTANS

O hinnie darling, what a waefu' thing!

If they had seen us wi' our lunging waddies!

ATHENIANS

Tell us then, Spartans, what has brought you here?

SPARTANS

We come to treat o' Peace.

ATHENIANS

Well spoken there!

And we the same. Let us callout Lysistrata Since she alone can settle the Peace-terms.

SPARTANS

Callout Lysistratus too if ye don't mind.

CHORUS

No indeed. She hears your voices and she comes.

_Enter LYSISTRATA_

Hail, Wonder of all women! Now you must be in turn Hard, s.h.i.+fting, clear, deceitful, n.o.ble, crafty, sweet, and stern.

The foremost men of h.e.l.las, smitten by your fascination, Have brought their tangled quarrels here for your sole arbitration.

LYSISTRATA

An easy task if the love's raging home-sickness Doesn't start trying out how well each other Will serve instead of us. But I'll know at once If they do. O where's that girl, Reconciliation?

Bring first before me the Spartan delegates, And see you lift no rude or violent hands-- None of the churlish ways our husbands used.

But lead them courteously, as women should.

And if they grudge fingers, guide them by other methods, And introduce them with ready tact. The Athenians Draw by whatever offers you a grip.

Now, Spartans, stay here facing me. Here you, Athenians. Both hearken to my words.

I am a woman, but I'm not a fool.

And what of natural intelligence I own Has been filled out with the remembered precepts My father and the city-elders taught me.

First I reproach you both sides equally That when at Pylae and Olympia, At Pytho and the many other shrines That I could name, you sprinkle from one cup The altars common to all h.e.l.lenes, yet You wrack h.e.l.lenic cities, b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.las With deaths of her own sons, while yonder clangs The gathering menace of barbarians.

ATHENIANS

We cannot hold it in much longer now.

LYSISTRATA