Phid. Say the same things of me again, and more. Do you know that I take pleasure in being much[1] abused?
Strep. You blackguard!
Phid. Sprinkle me with roses in abundance.
Strep. Do you beat your father?
Phid. And will prove, too, by Jupiter, that I beat you with justice.
Strep. O thou most rascally! Why, how can it be just to beat a father?
Phid. I will demonstrate it, and will overcome you in argument.
Strep. Will you overcome me in this?
Phid. Yea, by much and easily. But choose which of the two Causes you wish to speak.[2]
Strep. Of what two Causes?
Phid. The better, or the worse?
Strep. Marry, I did get you taught to speak against justice, by Jupiter, my friend, if you are going to persuade me of this, that it is just and honourable for a father to be beat by his sons![3]
Phid. I think I shall certainly persuade[4] you; so that, when you have heard, not even you yourself will say any thing against it.
Strep. Well now, I am willing to hear what you have to say.
Cho. It is your business, old man, to consider in what way you shall conquer the man; for, if he were not relying upon something, he would not be so licentious. But he is emboldened by something; the boldness of the man is evident. Now you ought to tell to the Chorus from what the contention first arose. And this you must do by all means.
- ↑ See note on Thesm. 351.
- ↑ "So choose which of the Causes you'll defend." Walsh.
So also Droysen.
"Elige utrum ex duobus sermonibus me velis perorare." Brunck. If so, Aristophanes would have written βούλει λέγειν με.
- ↑ "You have learned the art with a vengeance, if this is the way you are going to apply it." Felton. "Certe te docendum curavi, justitiæ repugnare, si demonstraturus es, justum esse patrem verberari. The commentators are mistaken." Fritzsche. See Hermann Vig. n. 389.
- ↑ "That I'll do
By process clear and categorical,
That you shall fairly own yourself a convert
To a most wholesome cudgelling." Cumberland.
