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DICAEOPOLIS
The time has come for me to manifest my courage, so I will go and seek Euripides. Ho! slave, slave! SLAVE
Who's there? DICAEOPOLIS
Is Euripides at home? SLAVE
He is and he isn't; understand that, if you have wit for't. DICAEOPOLIS
How? He is and he isn't!1 SLAVE
Certainly, old man; busy gathering subtle fancies here and there, his mind is not in the house, but he himself is; perched aloft, he is composing a tragedy. DICAEOPOLIS
Oh, Euripides, you are indeed happy to have a slave so quick at repartee! Now, fellow, call your master. SLAVE
Impossible! DICAEOPOLIS
So much the worse. But I will not go. Come, let us knock at the door. Euripides, my little Euripides, my darling Euripides, listen; never had man greater right to your pity. It is Dicaeopolis of the Chollidan Deme who calls you. Do you hear?
1 This whole scene is directed at Euripides; Aristophanes ridicules the subtleties of his poetry and the trickeries of his staging, which, according to him, he only used to attract the less refined among his audience.
Aristophanes. Acharnians. The Eleven Comedies. Anonymous. New York. Liveright. 192?.