Lysistrata | Page 5

longer till The Peloponnesian girls and the girls of Bocotia Are here to listen.
MYRRHINE
That's the best advice. Ah, there comes Lampito.
Enter LAMPITO.
LYSISTRATA
Welcome Lampito! Dear Spartan girl with a delightful face, Washed with the rosy spring, how fresh you look In the easy stride of your sleek slenderness, Why you could strangle a bull!
LAMPITO
I think I could. It's frae exercise and kicking high behint.
[Footnote: The translator has put the speech of the Spartan characters in Scotch dialect which is related to English about as was the Spartan dialect to the speech of Athens. The Spartans, in their character, anticipated the shrewd, canny, uncouth Scotch highlander of modern times.]
LYSISTRATA
What lovely breasts to own!
LAMPITO
Oo ... your fingers Assess them, ye tickler, wi' such tender chucks I feel as if I were an altar-victim.
LYSISTRATA
Who is this youngster?
LAMPITO
A Boeotian lady.
LYSISTRATA
There never was much undergrowth in Boeotia, Such a smooth place, and this girl takes after it.
CALONICE
Yes, I never saw a skin so primly kept.
LYSISTRATA
This girl?
LAMPITO
A sonsie open-looking jinker! She's a Corinthian.
LYSISTRATA
Yes, isn't she Very open, in some ways particularly.
LAMPITO
But who's garred this Council o' Women to meet here?
LYSISTRATA
I have.
LAMPITO
Propound then what you want o' us.
MYRRHINE
What is the amazing news you have to tell?
LYSISTRATA
I'll tell you, but first answer one small question.
MYRRHINE
As you like.
LYSISTRATA
Are you not sad your children's fathers Go endlessly off soldiering afar In this plodding war? I am willing to wager There's not one here whose husband is at home.
CALONICE
Mine's been in Thrace, keeping an eye on Eucrates For five months past.
MYRRHINE
And mine left me for Pylos Seven months ago at least.
LAMPITO
And as for mine No sooner has he slipped out frae the line He straps his shield and he's snickt off again.
LYSISTRATA
And not the slightest glitter of a lover! And since the Milesians betrayed us, I've not seen The image of a single upright man To be a marble consolation to us. Now will you help me, if I find a means To stamp the war out.
MYRRHINE
By the two Goddesses, Yes! I will though I've to pawn this very dress And drink the barter-money the same day.
CALONICE
And I too though I'm split up like a turbot And half is hackt off as the price of peace.
LAMPITO
And I too! Why, to get a peep at the shy thing I'd clamber up to the tip-top o' Taygetus.
LYSISTRATA
Then I'll expose my mighty mystery. O women, if we would compel the men To bow to Peace, we must refrain--
MYRRHINE
From what? O tell us!
LYSISTRATA
Will you truly do it then?
MYRRHINE
We will, we will, if we must die for it.
LYSISTRATA
We must refrain from every depth of love.... Why do you turn your backs? Where are you going? Why do you bite your lips and shake your heads? Why are your faces blanched? Why do you weep? Will you or won't you, or what do you mean?
MYRRHINE
No, I won't do it. Let the war proceed.
CALONICE
No, I won't do it. Let the war proceed.
LYSISTRATA
You too, dear turbot, you that said just now You didn't mind being split right up in the least?
CALONICE
Anything else? O bid me walk in fire But do not rob us of that darling joy. What else is like it, dearest Lysistrata?
LYSISTRATA
And you?
MYRRHINE
O please give me the fire instead.
LYSISTRATA
Lewd to the least drop in the tiniest vein, Our sex is fitly food for Tragic Poets, Our whole life's but a pile of kisses apd babies. But, hardy Spartan, if you join with me All may be righted yet. O help me, help me.
LAMPITO
It's a sair, sair thing to ask of us, by the Twa, A lass to sleep her lane and never fill Love's lack except wi' makeshifts.... But let it be. Peace maun be thought of first.
LYSISTRATA
My friend, my friend! The only one amid this herd of weaklings.
CALONICE
But if--which heaven forbid--we should refrain As you would have us, how is Peace induced?
LYSISTRATA
By the two Goddesses, now can't you see All we have to do is idly sit indoors With smooth roses powdered on our cheeks, Our bodies burning naked through the folds Of shining Amorgos' silk, and meet the men With our dear Venus-plats plucked trim and neat. Their stirring love will rise up furiously, They'll beg our arms to open. That's our time! We'll disregard their knocking, beat them off-- And they will soon be rabid for a Peace. I'm sure of it.
LAMPITO
Just as Menelaus, they say, Seeing the bosom of his naked Helen Flang down the sword.
CALONICE
But we'll be tearful fools If our husbands take us at our word and leave us.
LYSISTRATA
There's only left then, in Pherecrates' phrase, _To flay a skinned dog_--flay more our flayed desires.
CALONICE
Bah, proverbs will never warm a celibate. But what avail will your scheme be if the men Drag us for all our kicking on to the couch?
LYSISTRATA
Cling to the doorposts.
CALONICE
But if they should force us?
LYSISTRATA
Yield then, but with a