Page:Comedies of Aristophanes (Hickie 1853) vol2.djvu/267

525-^41. THE ECCLESIAZUS^. 643

Blep. How then ? does not a woman intrigue even without perfume ?

Prax. I, unhappy, certainly not.'

Blep. Why'^ then did you go off at day-break in silence with my garment ?

Prax. A woman my companion and friend sent for me in the night, being in the pains of labour.^

Blep. And then was it not possible for you to go when you had told me ?

Prax. And not to care for the woman in child-bed,'* being in such a condition, husband ?

Blep. Yes, if you had told me. But there is some mischief in this.

Prax. Nay, by the two goddesses ! but I went just as I was ; for she who came in quest of ^ me, begged me to set out by all means.

Blep. Then ought you not to have worn your own*^ gar- ment ? But after you had stripped me, and thrown your upper garment over me, you went ofif and left me as if I were laid out^ for burial ; only that you did not crown ^ me, nor yet place a vase ° beside me.

Prax. For it was cold ; while I am thin and weak. So then I put it on, in order that I might be warm.'° But I left you lying in the warmth, and in the bed-clothes, husband.

' "Such is the rule with me." Smith. " Ich wenigstens nie." Droysen.

■ " Warum denn gingst du heute fiiih

In aller Stille fortund nahmst mir den Mantel mit?" Droysen.

' Alciphron I. Epist. 28, wSivovad fie apriwq i'jKtiv wg tavrrji' f) tov ■yeirovog fitTiiTiixi/i yvvi'].

• See Liddell Lex. in voc. Xt^w.

• Imperfect of jUfSjJKw. Cf. Equit. 937. Brunck has translated it

as if his reading had been ixtrtTrifipaTo.

• " Blepyrus had come upon the stage in his wife's dress." Brunck.

' Cf. Aves, 474.. See note on Plut. 69.

' " It was customary to crown the dead. Cf. Meurs. ad Lycoph. 799." Kuster.

' The so-called lachrymatory. Cf. vs. 996, 1032, 1111, infra. " Es fehlte nichts Als dass du 'nen Kranz und ein Thr'anenfliaschen danehen stellst."

Droyse7i. '» " eepiiaivoii.iriv." Suidas. Cf. Bekk. Anecdot. i. p. 14, 24; 381, 25. Mus. Crit. ii. p. 35.

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