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Contents

CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY

Trygaeus

Two servants of trygaeus

Daughters of trygaeus

Hermes

War

Tumult

Hierocles, a Soothsayer

An armourer

A sickle-Maker

A crest-Maker

Son of lamachus

Son of cleonymus

Chorus of husbandmen

[Scene:-Behind the Orchestra on the right the farmhouse of Trygaeus, in the centre the mouth of a cave closed up with huge boulders, on the left the palace of Zeus. In front of the farmhouse is a stable, the door of wkich is closed. Two of Trygaeus’slaves are seen in front of the stable, one of them kneading cakes of dung, the other taking the finished cakes and throwing them into the stable.]

First servant

Quick, quick, bring the dung-beetle his cake.

Second servant

There it is. Give it to him, and may it kill him! And may he never eat a better.

First servant

Now give him this other one kneaded up with ass’s dung.

Second servant

There! I’ve done that too. And where’s what you gave him just now? Surely he can’t have devoured it yet!

First servant

Indeed he has; he snatched it, rolled it between his feet and bolted it. Come, hurry up, knead up a lot and knead them stiffly.

Second servant

Oh, scavengers, help me in the name of the gods, if you do not wish to see me fall down choked.

First servant

Come, come, another made from the stool of a fairy’s favourite. That will be to the beetle’s taste; he likes it well ground.

Second servant

There! I am free at least from suspicion; none will accuse me of tasting what I mix.

First servant

Faugh! come, now another! keep on mixing with all your might.

Second servant

By god, no. I can stand this awful cesspool stench no longer.

First servant

I shall bring you the whole ill-smelling gear.

Second servant

Pitch it down the sewer sooner, and yourself with it. [To the Audience] Maybe, one of you can tell me where I can buy a stopped-up nose, for there is no work more disgusting than to mix food for a dung-beetle and to carry it to him. A pig or a dog will at least pounce upon our excrement without more ado, but this foul wretch affects the disdainful, the spoilt mistress, and won’t eat unless I offer him a cake that has been kneaded for an entire day.... But let us open the door a bit ajar without his seeing it. Has he done eating? Come, pluck up courage, cram yourself till you burst! The cursed creature! It wallows in its food! It grips it between its claws like a wrestler clutching his opponent, and with head and feet together rolls up its paste like a rope-maker twisting a hawser. What an indecent, stinking, gluttonous beast! I don’t know what angry god let this monster loose upon us, but of a certainty it was neither Aphrodite nor the Graces.

First servant

Who was it then?

Second servant

No doubt Zeus, the God of the Thundercrap.

First servant

But perhaps some spectator, some beardless youth, who thinks himself a sage, will say, “What is this? What does the beetle mean?” And then an Ionian, sitting next him, will add, “I think it’s an allusion to Cleon, who so shamelessly feeds on filth all by himself."-But now I’m going indoors to fetch the beetle a drink.

Second servant

As for me, I will explain the matter to you all, children, youths, grownups and old men, aye, even to the decrepit dotards. My master is mad, not as you are, but with another sort of madness, quite a new kind. The livelong day he looks open-mouthed towards heaven and never stops addressing Zeus. “Ah! Zeus,” he cries, “what are thy intentions? Lay aside thy besom; do not sweep Greece away!” Ah! Hush, hush! I think I hear his voice!

Trygaeus [from within]

Oh! Zeus, what art thou going to do for our people? Dost thou not see this, that our cities will soon be but empty husks?

Second servant

As I told you, that is his form of madness. There you have a sample of his follies. When his trouble first began to seize him, he said to himself, “By what means could I go straight to Zeus? Then he made himself very slender little ladders and so clambered up towards heaven; but he soon came hurtling down again and broke his head. Yesterday, to our misfortune, he went out and brought us back this thoroughbred, but from where I know not, this great beetle, whose groom he has forced me to become. He himself caresses it as though it were a horse, saying, “Oh! my little Pegasus, my noble aerial steed, may your wings soon bear me straight to Zeus!” But what is my master doing? I must stoop down to look through this hole. Oh! great gods! Here! neighbours, run here quick! here is my master flying off mounted on his beetle as if on horseback.

[The Machine brings in Trygaeus astride an enormous figure of a dung beetle with wings spread.]

Trygaeus [intoning]

Gently, gently, go easy, beetle; don’t start off so proudly, or trust at first too greatly to your powers; wait till you have sweated, till the beating of your wings shall make your limb joints supple. Above all things, don’t let off some foul smell. I adjure you; else I would rather have you stay right in the stable.

Second servant [intoning]

Poor master! Is he crazy?

Trygaeus [intoning]

Silence! silence!

Second servant [intoning]

But why start up into the air on chance?

Trygaeus [intoning]

’Tis for the weal of all the Greeks; I am attempting a daring and novel feat.

Second servant [intoning]

But what is your purpose? What useless folly!

Trygaeus [intoning]

No words of ill omen! Give vent to joy and command all men to keep silence, to close down their drains and privies with new tiles and to cork up their own arses.

First servant [speaking]

No, I shall not be silent, unless you tell me where you are going.

Trygaeus

Why, where am I likely to be going across the sky, if it be not to visit Zeus?

First servant

For what purpose?

Trygaeus

I want to ask him what he reckons to do for all the Greeks.

Second servant

And if he doesn’t tell you?

Trygaeus

I shall pursue him at law as a traitor who sells Greece to the Medes.

Second servant

Death seize me, if I let you go.

Trygaeus

It is absolutely necessary.

Second servant [loudly]

Alas! alas! dear little girls, your father is deserting you secretly to go to heaven. Ah! poor orphans, entreat him, beseech him.

[The little daughters of Trygaeus come out.]

Little daughter [singing]

Father! father! what is this I hear? Is it true? What! you would leave me, you would vanish into the sky, you would go to the crows? Impossible! Answer, father, if you love me.

Trygaeus [singing]

Yes, I am going. You hurt me too sorely, my daughters, when you ask me for bread, calling me your daddy, and there is not the ghost of an obolus in the house; if I succeed and come back, you will have a barley loaf every morning-and a punch in the eye for sauce!

Little daughter

But how will you make the journey? There’s no ship that will take you there.

Trygaeus

No, but this winged steed will.

Little daughter

But what an idea, papa, to harness a beetle, to fly to the gods on.

Trygaeus

We see from Aesop’s fables that they alone can fly to the abode of the Immortals.

Little daughter

Father, father, that’s a tale nobody can believe! that such a smelly creature can have gone to the gods.

Trygaeus

It went to have vengeance on the eagle and break its eggs.

Little daughter

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This is a free sample. Please purchase full version of the book to continue.