Cataplus

CLOTHO Stop threatening and get aboard; it is already time for you to make your appearance in court.

MEGAPENTHES And who will dare to pass judgement on a tyrant?

CLOTHO On a tyrant, no one, but on a dead man, Rhadamanthus. You shall soon see him impose on every one of you the sentence that is just and fits the case. No more delay now!

MEGAPENTHES Make me even a common man, Lady of Destiny, one of the poor people; make me evenaslave instead of the king that once I was. Only let me come to life again!

HERMES Come along now, runaway. (Zo cuanon.) Take this fellow, ferryman, and see here—mind you make sure—

CHARON No fear! he shall be lashed to the mast.

MEGAPENTHES But I ought to sit on the quarter-deck !

CLOTHO For what reason ?

MEGAPENTHES Because I was a tyrant, God knows, and had a regiment of guardsmen.

CYNISCUS Then wasn’t Cario justified in pulling your hair, if you were such a lout? But you'll get small joy of your tyranny if I give you a taste of my club!

MEGAPENTHES What, will a Cyniscus make bold to shake his staff at me? Did I not come within an ace of tricing you up to a cross the other day because you were too free-spoken and sharp-tongued and censorious?

CYNISCUS That is why you yourself will stay triced up to the mast.

MICYLLUS Tell me, Clotho, do you people take no account at all of me? Is it because I am poor that I have to get aboard last?

MICYLLUS The cobbler Micyllus.

CLOTHO So you are aggrieved at having to wait? Don’t you see how much the tyrant promises to give us if we will let him go for a little while? Indeed, it surprises me that you are not equally glad of the delay.

MICYLLUS Listen, kind. Lady of Destiny; I have no great liking for such gifts as the famous one of the Cyclops,—to be promised “T’]l eat Noman last of all.”[*](Odyssey 9, 369.) In truth, be it first, be it last, the same teeth are in waiting. Besides, my position is not like that of the rich; our lives are poles apart, as the saying goes. Take the tyrant, considered fortunate his whole life long, feared and admired by everybody ; when he came to leave all his gold and silver and clothing and horses and dinners and handsome favourites and beautiful women, no wonder he was distressed and took it hard to be dragged away from them. Somehow or other the soul is limed, as it were, to things like these and will not come away readily because it has been cleaving to them long; indeed, the ties with which such men have the misfortune to be bound are like unbreakable fetters. Even if they are haled away by force, they lament and entreat, you may be sure, and although they are bold in everything else, they prove to be cowardly in the face of this journey to Hades. At any rate, they turn back and, like unsuccessful lovers, want to

But as for me, having nothing at stake in life, neither farm nor tenement nor gold nor gear nor reputation nor statues, of course I was in marching order, and when Atropos did but sign to me I gladly flung away my knife and my leather (I was working on a sandal) and sprang up at once and followed her, barefooted as I was and without even washing off the blacking. In fact, I led the way, with my eyes to the fore, since there was nothing in the rear to turn me about and call me back. And by Heaven I see already that everything is splendid here with you, for that all should have equal rank and nobody be any better than his neighbour is more than pleasant, to me at least. And I infer that there is no dunning of debtors here and no paying of taxes, and above all no freezing in winter or falling ill or being thrashed by men of greater consequence. All are at peace, and the tables are turned, for we paupers laugh while the rich are distressed and lament.

CLOTHO Indeed, I noticed some time ago that you were laughing, Micyllus. What was it in particular that made you laugh ?

MICYLLUS Listen, goddess whom I honour most. As I lived next door to Sir Tyrant on earth, I used to see quite distinctly what went on at his house, and I then thought him a very god; for I held him happy when I saw the splendour of his purple, the number of his

And he was not the only one that I laughed at. When I saw the usurer Gnipho groaning and regretting that he had not enjoyed his money but had died without sampling it, abandoning his property to that wastrel Rhodochares, who was nextof kin to him and had the first claim on the estate according to law, I could not control my laughter, : especially when I called to mind how pale and unkempt he always was, with a forehead full of worries, feeling his riches only with the fingers with which he reckoned up thousands and tens of thousands ashe gathered in, little by little, what was soon to be poured out by that lucky dog Rhodochares. But why not gonow? We can finish our laughing during: the sail as we see them crying.

CHARON Hi, fellow! Where are you going so fast? The boat is fullalready. Wait there till to-morrow ; we'll set you across first thing in the morning.

MICYLLUS You are committing a misdemeanour, Charon, in leaving behind you a dead man who is already high. No fear, I'll have you up before Rhadamanthus for breaking the law. Oh, Lord! What hard luck! They are sailing already, “and I'll be left behind here all alone.”[*](The words form a trimeter in the Greek, perhaps a line of comedy.) But why not swim across in their wake? I’m not afraid of giving out and drowning, seeing that I’m already dead! Besides, I haven’t an obol to pay my passage.

CLOTHO What’s this? Wait, Micyllus; you mustn’t cross that way.

MICYLLUS See here, perhaps I'll beat you to the shore.

CLOTHO No, no! Come, let’s row up and take him in. Hermes, lend a hand to pull him in.

CHARON Where shall he sit? The boat’s full, as you see.

HERMES On the shoulders of the tyrant, if you like.

CLOTHO A happy thought, that of Hermes !

CYNISCUS Charon, I may as well tell you the truth here and now. I shan’t be able to pay you your obol when we come to land, for I have nothing more than the wallet which you see, and this club here. However, I am ready either to bale, if you like, or to row; you will have no fault to find if you only give me a stout, well-balanced oar. ,

CHARON Pull an oar ; that will be enough to exact of you.

CYNISCUS Shall I strike up a song, too?

CHARON Yes, by all means, if you know any of the sailors’ chanties,

CYNISCUS I know plenty of them, Charon; but as you see, these people are competing with our music by crying, so that we shall be put out of tune in our song.

THE DEAD (one) Alas, my wealth! (anoTuer) Alas, my farms! (aNoTHER) Alackaday, what a house I left behind me! (anotuer) To think of all the thousands my heir will come into and squander! (aNoruer) Ah, my new-born babes! (anorner) Who will get the vintage of the vines I set out last year ?

MICYLLUS Get out with you! I have no reason to lament while the wind is fair.

HERMES Do cry, however, even if only a little, for custom’s sake,

MICYLLUS Well, I'll lament, then, since you wish it, Hermes. —Alas, my scraps of leather! Alas, my old shoes ! Alackaday, my rotten sandals! Unlucky man that I am, never again will I go hungry from morning to night or wander about in winter barefooted and halfnaked, with my teeth chattering for cold! Who is to get my knife and my awl ?

HERMES Enough weeping ; we are almost in now.