Messenger, Servant of Lamachus, Lamachus,
Dicæopolis, and Chorus.
The following speech of the Messenger is a burlesque of the tragic speeches in which the arrival of the wounded hero was announced in the last act of a Tragedy.
Messenger. Ye slaves that dwell in Lamachus's mansion,
Prepare hot water instantly in the pipkin;[1]
With embrocations and emollients,
And bandages and plaster for your lord.
His foot is maimed and crippled with a stake,
Which wounded it, as he leaped across a trench.
His ankle-bone is out, his head is broken, 1550
The Gorgon on his shield all smashed and spoiled.
But when the lofty plume of the cock lorrel
That decked his helm, fell downward in the dirt,
He groaned, and spake aloud despairingly:
"Ο glorious light of Heaven. Farewell, Farewell!
For the last time; my destined days are done."
Thus moaning and lamenting, down he fell
Direct into the ditch; jumped up again;
Rushed out afresh; rallied the runaways;
Made the marauders run; ran after them, 1560
With his spear point smiting their hinder parts.
But here he comes himself; set the door open.
Lamachus is brought in, wounded and disabled; his appearance and attendants are caricatures of the exhibition of the wounded heroes, whom it had become the fashion to introduce. The dialogue is a burlesque of the lyrical agonies and lamentations of the same personages.
Lam. Out, out alas!
I'm racked and torn,
With agony scarce to be borne,
From that accursed spear:
But worst of all, I fear,
If Dicæopolis beholds me here,
That he, my foe, will chuckle at my fall.
- ↑ "The pipkin," in allusion to the scantiness of Lamachus's establishment. See p. 28.
