The Birds of Aristophanes |
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Page 177 - Twas thine own genius gave the final blow, And helped to plant the wound that laid thee low : So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart, And...
Page 177 - That eagle's fate and mine are one, Which, on the shaft that made him die, Espied a feather of his own, Wherewith he wont to soar so high.
Page 201 - But who is this, what thing of sea or land ? Female of sex it seems, That, so bedeck'd, ornate, and gay, Comes this way, sailing Like a stately ship Of Tarsus, bound for the isles Of Javan or Gadire, With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, Sails fill'd, and streamers waving, Courted by all the winds that hold them play...
Page xii - The herald, who had been despatched to the lower world, returns with an account that all Athens was gone bird-mad ; that it was grown a fashion to imitate them in their names and manners ; and that shortly they might expect to see a whole convoy arrive, in order to settle among them. The Chorus run to fetch a vast cargo of feathers and wings to equip their new citizens, when they come.
Page 211 - Hence the term avKofyavrelv, which originally signified to lay an information against another for exporting figs, came to be applied to all illnatured, malicious, groundless, and vexatious accusations. Sycophantes in the time of Aristophanes and Demosthenes designated a person of a peculiar class, not capable of being described by any single word in our language, but well understood and appreciated by an Athenian. He had not much in common with our sycophant, but was a happy compound of the common...
Page iii - ... colleges. It is true there are some passages in this play also too freely executed; but it has been decided, on mature reflection, to let them stand, so as to offer the drama entire, on the principles which guided my decision in editing the Clouds. The text of this edition is reprinted from the...
Page viii - Trochilus, a bird that waits upon Epops, appears above ; he is frighted at the sight of two men, and they are much more so at the length of his beak and the fierceness of his aspect. He takes them for fowlers ; and they insist upon it, that they are not men, but birds. In their confusion, their guides, whom they held in a string, escape and fly away. Epops, during this, within is asleep, after having dined upon a dish of beetles and berries : their noise wakens him, and he comes out of the grove....
Page iv - I have been permitted to avail myself in attempting to determine the species of gome of the birds not hitherto identified; and I have come to the conclusion that, in all cases, the character and habits of the birds are exactly and curiously adapted to the parts they perform in the comedy, showing Aristophanes to have been a careful observer of nature as well as a consummate poet Great care has been taken to illustrate the political...