When you are staging Satyrs, call me; I will do my best to
help you from behind with standing tool.
help you from behind with standing tool.
Aristophanes
Answer
me. But you keep silent. Oh! just as you choose; your songs display your
character quite sufficiently.
AGATHON. Old man, old man, I hear the shafts of jealousy whistling by my
ears, but they do not hit me. My dress is in harmony with my thoughts. A
poet must adopt the nature of his characters. Thus, if he is placing
women on the stage, he must contract all their habits in his own person.
MNESILOCHUS. Then you ride the high horse[556] when you are composing a
Phaedra.
AGATHON. If the heroes are men, everything in him will be manly. What we
don't possess by nature, we must acquire by imitation.
MNESILOCHUS.
When you are staging Satyrs, call me; I will do my best to
help you from behind with standing tool.
AGATHON. Besides, it is bad taste for a poet to be coarse and hairy. Look
at the famous Ibycus, at Anacreon of Teos, and at Alcaeus,[557] who
handled music so well; they wore headbands and found pleasure in the
lascivious dances of Ionia. And have you not heard what a dandy
Phrynichus was[558] and how careful in his dress? For this reason his
pieces were also beautiful, for the works of a poet are copied from
himself.
MNESILOCHUS. Ah! so it is for this reason that Philocles, who is so
hideous, writes hideous pieces; Xenocles, who is malicious, malicious
ones, and Theognis,[559] who is cold, such cold ones?
AGATHON. Yes, necessarily and unavoidably; and 'tis because I knew this
that I have so well cared for my person.
MNESILOCHUS. How, in the gods' name?
EURIPIDES. Come, leave off badgering him; I was just the same at his age,
when I began to write.
MNESILOCHUS.
me. But you keep silent. Oh! just as you choose; your songs display your
character quite sufficiently.
AGATHON. Old man, old man, I hear the shafts of jealousy whistling by my
ears, but they do not hit me. My dress is in harmony with my thoughts. A
poet must adopt the nature of his characters. Thus, if he is placing
women on the stage, he must contract all their habits in his own person.
MNESILOCHUS. Then you ride the high horse[556] when you are composing a
Phaedra.
AGATHON. If the heroes are men, everything in him will be manly. What we
don't possess by nature, we must acquire by imitation.
MNESILOCHUS.
When you are staging Satyrs, call me; I will do my best to
help you from behind with standing tool.
AGATHON. Besides, it is bad taste for a poet to be coarse and hairy. Look
at the famous Ibycus, at Anacreon of Teos, and at Alcaeus,[557] who
handled music so well; they wore headbands and found pleasure in the
lascivious dances of Ionia. And have you not heard what a dandy
Phrynichus was[558] and how careful in his dress? For this reason his
pieces were also beautiful, for the works of a poet are copied from
himself.
MNESILOCHUS. Ah! so it is for this reason that Philocles, who is so
hideous, writes hideous pieces; Xenocles, who is malicious, malicious
ones, and Theognis,[559] who is cold, such cold ones?
AGATHON. Yes, necessarily and unavoidably; and 'tis because I knew this
that I have so well cared for my person.
MNESILOCHUS. How, in the gods' name?
EURIPIDES. Come, leave off badgering him; I was just the same at his age,
when I began to write.
MNESILOCHUS.
