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    The Knights
    The Knights
    The Knights
    Ebook53 pages37 minutes

    The Knights

    By Aristophanes

    ()

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    About this ebook

    "The Knights" is a satire on the social and political life of classical Athens during the Peloponnesian War.

    Aristophanes was a comic playwright of ancient Athens.

     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPasserino
    Release dateNov 2, 2017
    ISBN9788893454551
    The Knights
    Author

    Aristophanes

    Often referred to as the father of comedy, Aristophanes was an ancient Greek comedic playwright who was active in ancient Athens during the fourth century BCE, both during and after the Peloponnesian War. His surviving plays collectively represent most of the extant examples of the genre known as Old Comedy and serve as a foundation for future dramatic comedy in Western dramatic literature. Aristophanes’ works are most notable for their political satire, and he often ridiculed public figures, including, most famously, Socrates, in his play The Clouds. Aristophanes is also recognized for his realistic representations of daily life in Athens, and his works provide an important source to understand the social reality of life in Ancient Greece. Aristophanes died sometime after 386 BCE of unknown causes.

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      Book preview

      The Knights - Aristophanes

      Knights

      The Knights

      Dramatis Personae

      DEMOSTHENES

      NICIAS

      AGORACRITUS, a Sausage-Seller

      CLEON

      DEMOS

      CHORUS OF KNIGHTS

      Scene

      The Orchestra represents the Pnyx at Athens; in the back- ground is the house of DEMOS.

      DEMOSTHENES

      Oh! alas! alas! alas! Oh! woe! oh! woe! Miserable Paphlagonian! may the gods destroy both him and his cursed advice! Since that evil day when this new slave entered the house he has never ceased belabouring us with blows.

      NICIAS

      May the plague seize him, the arch-fiend-him and his lying tales!

      DEMOSTHENES

      Hah! my poor fellow, what is your condition?

      NICIAS

      Very wretched, just like your own.

      DEMOSTHENES

      Then come, let us sing a duet of groans in the style of Olympus.

      DEMOSTHENES AND NICIAS

      Boo, hoo! boo, hoo! boo, hoo! boo, hoo! boo, hoo! boo, hoo!!

      DEMOSTHENES

      Bah! it's lost labour to weep! Enough of groaning! Let us consider now to save our pelts.

      NICIAS

      But how to do it! Can you suggest anything?

      DEMOSTHENES

      No, you begin. I cede you the honour.

      NICIAS

      By Apollo! no, not I. Come, have courage! Speak, and then I will say what I think.

      DEMOSTHENES in tragic style

      "Ah! would you but tell me what I should tell you!

      NICIAS

      I dare not. How could I express my thoughts with the pomp of Euripides?

      DEMOSTHENES

      Oh! please spare me! Do not pelt me with those vegetables, but find some way of leaving our master.

      NICIAS

      Well, then! Say Let-us-bolt, like this, in one breath.

      DEMOSTHENES

      I follow you-'Let-us-bolt."

      NICIAS

      Now after Let-us-bolt say "at-top-speed

      DEMOSTHENES

      "At-top-speed!

      NICIAS

      Splendid! just as if you were masturbating; first slowly, Let-us-bolt; then quick and firmly, at-top-speed!

      DEMOSTHENES

      Let-us-bolt, let-us-bolt-at-top-speed!

      NICIAS

      Hah! does that not please you?

      DEMOSTHENES

      Yes, indeed, yet I fear your omen bodes no good to my hide.

      NICIAS

      How so?

      DEMOSTHENES

      Because masturbation chafes the skin.

      NICIAS

      The best thing we can do for the moment is to throw ourselves at the feet of the statue of some god.

      DEMOSTHENES

      Of which statue? Any statue? Do you then believe there are gods?

      NICIAS

      Certainly.

      DEMOSTHENES

      What proof have you?

      NICIAS

      The proof that they have taken a grudge against me. Is that not enough?

      DEMOSTHENES

      I'm convinced it is. But to pass on. Do you consent to my telling the spectators of our troubles?

      NICIAS

      There's nothing wrong with that, and we might ask them to show us by their manner, whether our facts and actions are to their liking.

      DEMOSTHENES

      I will begin then. We have a very brutal master, a perfect glutton for beans, and most bad-tempered; it's Demos of the Pnyx, an intolerable old man and half deaf. The beginning of last month he bought a slave, a Paphlagonian tanner, an arrant rogue, the incarnation of calumny. This man of leather knows his old master thoroughly; he plays the fawning cur, flatters, cajoles, wheedles, and dupes him at will with little scraps of leavings, which he allows him to get. Dear Demos, he will say, "try a single case and you will have done enough; then take your bath, eat,

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