me, I have a very good memory; but if I owe, unhappy man, I am very forgetful.
Soc. Is the power of speaking, pray, implanted in your nature?
Strep. Speaking is not in me, but cheating is.
Soc. How, then, will you be able to learn?
Strep. Excellently, of course.
Soc. Come, then, take care that,[1] whenever I propound any clever dogma about abstruse matters, you catch it up immediately.
Strep. What then? Am I to feed upon wisdom like a dog?
Soc. This man is ignorant and brutish. I fear, old man, lest you win need blows.[2] Come, let me see; what do you do if any one beat you?
Strep. I take the beating;[3] and then, when I have waited a little while, I call witnesses to prove it; then, again, after a short interval, I go to law.
Soc. Come then, lay down your cloak.
Strep. Have I done any wrong?
Soc. No; but it is the rule to enter naked.
Strep. But I do not enter to search for stolen goods.
Soc. Lay it down. Why do you talk nonsense?
Strep. Now tell me this, pray. If I be diligent and learn zealously, to which of your disciples shall I become like?
Soc. You will no way differ from Chærephon in intellect.[4]
Strep. Ah me, unhappy! I shall become half-dead.
Soc. Don't[5] chatter; but quickly follow me hither with smartness.
Strep. Then give me first into my hands a honeyed[6] cake; for I am afraid of descending within, as if into the cave of Trophonius.
- ↑ See note on Lys. 316.
- ↑ "Ich fürchte Graukopf, dass du viele Hiebe brauchst." Droysen. An example of "Anticipation." See Krüger, Gr. Gr. § 61, 6, obs. 2. δέῃ is the second person of the deponent form.
- ↑ "τύπτομαι = patior me verberari." Dindorf.
- ↑ Accusativus respectûs. See Krüger's Gr. Gr. § 46, 4.
- ↑ See note on Ran. 299.
- ↑ "They threw a honeyed cake to the serpents in the cave of Trophonius, in order to pacify them." Bergler.
