Strep. Why then, since you imitate[1] the cocks in all things, do you not both eat dung and sleep on a perch?
Phid. It is not the same thing, my friend; nor would it appear so to Socrates.
Strep. Therefore do not beat me; otherwise you will one day blame yourself.
Phid. Why, how?
Strep. Since I am justly entitled to chastise you; and you to chastise your son, if you should have one.
Phid. But if I should not have one, I shall have wept for nothing, and you will die laughing at me.
Strep. To me indeed, O comrades, he seems to speak justly; and I think we ought to concede to them what is fitting. For it is proper that we should weep, if we do not act justly.
Phid. Consider still another maxim.
Strep. No; for I shall perish if I do.
Phid. And yet[2] perhaps you will not be vexed at suffering what you now suffer.
Strep. How, pray? for inform me what good you will do me by this.
Phid. I will beat my mother, just as I have you.
Strep. What do you say? what do you say? This other, again, is a greater wickedness.
Phid. But what if, having the worst Cause, I shall conquer you in arguing, proving that it is right to beat one's mother?
- ↑ "If you are thus for pecking at your father
Like a young fightmg-cock, why don't you peck
Your dinner from the dung-hill, and at night
Roost on a perch?" Cumberland. - ↑ "The young ruffian seems to speak ironically and covertly:—'And yet the γνώμη, which I am now about to propose for your consideration, is of such a nature, that, upon hearing it, all your late and present feelings and sufferings will go for nothing;'—implying, that they will be succeeded by feelings so much more painful, that the former will, comparatively, vanish from his mind. Strepsiades, catching only at the open, and not at the covert sense, naturally expresses himself as impatient for any information which is to be of benefit to him in his present condition." Mitch.
"Strep. Nun geht's mir an den Kragen.
Phid. Vieleeicht zum Troste wird 's ihm sein, für das, was er erfahren." Droysen.
