This nest of mine, with its poor twigs and leaves.
And tell me what your names are?
Peis. Certainly;
My name is Peisthetairus.[1]
Hoo. And your friend?
Eu. Euelpides from Thria.645
Hoo. Well, you're welcome—
Both of ye.
Peis. We're obliged.
Hoo. Walk in together.
Peis. Go first then, if you please.
Hoo. No, pray move forward.
Peis. But bless me . . . stop, pray . . . just for a single moment
Let's see . . . do tell me . . . explain . . . how shall we manage
To live with you . . . with a person wearing wings?
Being both of us unfledged?650
Hoo. Perfectly well!
Peis. Yes, but I must observe, that Æsop's fables
Report a case in point; the fox and eagle:
The fox repented of his fellowship;
And with good cause; you recollect the story.[2]
Hoo. Oh! don't be alarmed! we'll give you a certain root
That immediately promotes the growth of wings.655
- ↑ Peisthetairus answers like a man of sense. Euelpides like a simpleton, and we see the effect of it on the king's mind. There is a momentary pause in the invitation, before they are both included in it.
- ↑ Peisthetairus has shown that he is not deficient in valour upon compulsion. But a character of extreme subtlety is always prone to suspicion, and the recollection of an example derived from ancient documents in Æsop's Fables, intimidates him for a moment, and makes him distrustful of the frank invitation of the king. He is then very much ashamed of himself, and, like Bacchus and Master Slender, begins giving orders to his servants, and is importunate and hurried and absurd. Thus the poet, who wanted some lines of strong importunity to mark the entrance of his favourite Musician, has contrived to give them to his principal personage, and at the same time to mark his character itself more distinctly, by this momentary failure of his habitual self-possession, originating in the apprehension of having lowered himself in the estimation of his host.
- ↑ These slaves do not appear elsewhere in the play; it might be doubted whether they appear here and whether Peisthetairus does not call for them in mere nervous absence of mind.
