his antagonist with future vengeance, and challenging him to meet him straightway before the Senate.[1]
The Chorus fill up the interval of the action by an address to the audience; in which, speaking on the author's behalf, they apologise on the ground of modesty for his not having produced his previous comedies in his own name and on his own responsibility, and make a complaint—common to authors in all ages—of the ingratitude of the public to its popular favourites of the hour. Thence the chant passes into an ode to Neptune, the tutelary god of a nation of seamen, and to Pallas Athene, who gives her name to the city. And between the pauses of the song they rehearse, in a kind of recitative, the praises of the good old days of Athens.
"Let us praise our famous fathers, let their glory be recorded,
On Minerva's mighty mantle consecrated and embroidered.
That with many a naval action, and with infantry by land,
Still contending, never ending, strove for empire and command.
When they met the foe, disdaining to compute a poor account
Of the number of their armies, of their muster and amount:
But whene'er at wrestling matches they were worsted in the fray,
Wiped their shoulders from the dust, denied the fall, and fought away.
Then the generals never claimed precedence, or a separate seat,
- ↑ The Senate was an elective Upper Chamber, in which all "bills" were brought in and discussed, before they were put to the vote in the General Assembly.
