Dionysus.
Of course it was! The sly old dog, to think of how he tricked us!—
Don't (to Aeschylus) ramp and fume!
Euripides (excusing Aeschylus).
We're apt to do so when the facts convict us!
—Then after this tomfoolery, the heroine, feeling calmer,
Would utter some twelve wild-bull words, on mid-way in the drama,
Long ones, with crests and beetling brows, and gorgons round the border,
That no man ever heard on earth.
Aeschylus.
The red plague . . . !
Dionysus.
Order, order!
Euripides.
Intelligible—not one line!
Dionysus (to Aeschylus).
Please! Won't your teeth stop gnashing?
Euripides.
All fosses and Scamander-beds, and bloody targes flashing,
With gryphon-eagles bronze-embossed, and crags, and riders reeling,
Which somehow never quite joined on.
Dionysus.
By Zeus, sir, quite my feeling!
