A large pair of scales is brought forward, while the Chorus sing.
Chorus.
Oh, the workings of genius are keen and laborious!
Here's a new wonder, incredible, glorious!
Who but this twain Have the boldness of brain
To so quaint an invention to run?
Such a marvellous thing, if another had said it had
Happened to him, I should never have credited;
I should have just Thought that he must
Simply be talking for fun!
Dionysus.
Come, take your places by the balance.
Aeschylus and Euripides.
There !
Dionysus.
Now, each take hold of it, and speak your verse,
And don't let go until I say "Cuckoo."
Aeschylus and Euripides
(taking their stand at either side of the balance).
We have it.
Dionysus.
Now, each a verse into the scale!
Euripides (quoting the first verse of his "Medea").
"Would God no Argo e'er had winged the brine."
Aeschylus (quoting his "Philoctetes").
"Spercheios, and ye haunts of grazing kine!
