< Page:Comedies of Aristophanes (Hickie 1853) vol1.djvu
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769—787.

THE CLOUDS.

149

Strep. I do. Come, what would you say, pray, if I were to take this, when the clerk was entering the suit, and were to stand at a distance, in the direction of the sun, thus, and melt out the letters of my suit?

Soc. Cleverly done, by the Graces!

Strep. Oh! how I am delighted, that a suit of five talents has been cancelled!

Soc. Come now, quickly seize upon this.

Strep. What?

Soc. How, when engaged in a lawsuit,[1] you could overturn the suit, when you were about to be cast, because you had no witnesses.

Strep. Most readily and easily.

Soc. Tell me, pray.

Strep. Well now, I tell you. If, while one suit was still pending, before mine was called on, I were to run away and hang myself.

Soc. You talk nonsense.

Strep. By the gods would I! for no one will bring an action against me when I am dead.[2]

Soc. You talk nonsense. Begone; I can't teach you any longer.

Strep. Why so?[3] Yea, by the gods, O Socrates!

Soc. You straightway forget whatever you learn, For, what now was the first thing you were taught? Tell me.

Strep. Come, let me see: nay, what was the first?[4] What [5]

  1. ↑ ἀντιδικῶν. Dindorf. I would prefer ἀντιδίκων.

    ⁠"Wie wahrst im Process du dich gegen Klägers Forderung,
    ⁠Wenn du weisst, du musst verlieren, da aller Beweis dir fehlt?" Droysen.

  2. ↑ "Something appears to have been omitted after this verse." Droysen.
  3. ↑ "ὅτι τι is merely τί, ὅτι; and something must be repeated from the foregoing sentence. Here ὁτιὴ τί = τί, ὁτιὴ οὐκ ἄν με διδάξαις; quid est, quod me docere amplius nolis?" Hermann. Cf. Krüger, Gr. Gr. § 61, 17, obs. 8.
  4. ↑ ⁠"Say'st thou the first? The very first—what was it?
    ⁠Why, let me see; 'twas something, was it not,
    ⁠About the meal.—Out on it! I have forgotten it." Cumberland.
  5. ↑ certainly known among the ancients, perhaps as early as the time of Aristophanes. 'We find mention or burning-glasses as early as the time of Socrates; and a number of lenses, more powerful than those employed by our own engravers, have been found among the ruins of Herculaneum.' St. John's Ancient Greece." Felton.
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