TRYGAEUS And dishonoured your family. But let us go in; I am very
certain, that being the son of such a father, you will never forget this
song of the buckler. You, who remain to the feast, 'tis your duty to
devour dish after dish and not to ply empty jaws. Come, put heart into
the work and eat with your mouths full. For, believe me, poor friends,
white teeth are useless furniture, if they chew nothing.
CHORUS Never fear; thanks all the same for your good advice.
TRYGAEUS You, who yesterday were dying of hunger, come, stuff yourselves
with this fine hare-stew; 'tis not every day that we find cakes lying
neglected. Eat, eat, or I predict you will soon regret it.
CHORUS Silence! Keep silence! Here is the bride about to appear! Take
nuptial torches and let all rejoice and join in our songs. Then, when we
have danced, clinked our cups and thrown Hyperbolus through the doorway
we will carry back all our farming tools to the fields and shall pray
the gods to give wealth to the Greeks and to cause us all to gather in
an abundant barley harvest, enjoy a noble vintage, to grant that we may
choke with good figs, that our wives may prove fruitful, that in fact we
may recover all our lost blessings, and that the sparkling fire may be
restored to the hearth.
TRYGAEUS Come, wife, to the fields and seek, my beauty, to brighten and
enliven my nights. Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus!
CHORUS Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus! oh! thrice happy man, who so well
deserve your good fortune!
TRYGAEUS Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus!
CHORUS Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus!
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS What shall we do to her?
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS What shall we do to her?
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS We will gather her kisses.
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS We will gather her kisses.
CHORUS Come, comrades, we who are in the first row, let us pick up
the bridegroom and carry him in triumph. Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus! Oh!
Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus!
TRYGAEUS Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus!
CHORUS You shall have a fine house, no cares and the finest of figs. Oh!
Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus!
TRYGAEUS Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus!
CHORUS The bridegroom's fig is great and thick; the bride's very soft
and tender.
TRYGAEUS While eating and drinking deep draughts of wine, continue to
repeat: Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus!
CHORUS Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus!
TRYGAEUS Farewell, farewell, my friends. All who come with me shall have
cakes galore.