3RD LEADER OF MEN. Why, on the untrodden rock
Of our Acropolis,
With bolt and bar and lock,
Have they done this?
COM. There, plain put, is the question. (_To_ LYSISTRATA.)
Come then, tell--
Why have you seized upon our citadel?
LYS. To save the public fund from ends more fit,
And that ye should not fight because of it.
COM. Think you it is for _money_ that we fight?
LYS. Not that alone: for evil is the plight
Of Athens now! Lo, sunk into the dust
She lies a victim to man’s pride and lust
For power.
ALL THE WOMEN. Aye! true enough! ’tis true, ’tis true!
COM. Dear me! indeed! And pray what would _you_ do
To make things better?
LYS. If fair words avail,
Patience, and you shall hear.
COM. Go, croak your tale!
LYS. Aye, for of former times now would I speak,
And former wars, when women all too meek
Bore and endured; and then, when, sick at heart,
Yet with a smile, we sought to know what part
Ye played for peace, in wrath the answer flew--
“Be silent, woman! What is that to you?”
And I was--silent.
CAL. (_aside_). Not I!
COM. Aye, and you had best
Be silent now!
LYS. Silent I strove to rest
There in the home: till presently again
Came news of further mischief; and when, fain
To learn the cause of it, one dared to ask
“How is it, husband, that ye do this task,
Ye men, so ill?”--quick, with a furtive eye,
Grudging one’s right to question, he would cry,
“Stick to your loom! Leave politics to men,
Lest ye fare worse!”
COM. Aye, he spake rightly then!
LYS. How was it right? Shall it not be our turn
Ever to speak our thoughts, and yours to learn
And profit?
COM. What! must I yield place and give
Woman her way? Then may I cease to live!
Functions performed by one, two cannot share!
LYS. Try then the woman’s part, and leave the care
Of State henceforth to us!
(COMMITTEE-MAN _and_ CHORUS _all laugh_.)
COM. (_contemptuously_). How will you do it?
LYS. That we shall arrange.
COM. What? With my money?
LYS. Why should that seem strange?
Are not your homes, your servants, and your whole
Domestic property in our control?
COM. We want the money to carry on the war!
LYS. Why? To what end? What are you fighting for?
COM. How else shall we be saved, or Greece be freed?
LYS. We’ll save you.
COM. _You_? A sorry plight indeed!
LYS. Trust us--you shall be saved against your will.
COM. Pooh! The idea!
LYS. That makes you angrier still?
COM. It is absurd! Women save men from war!
We don’t want to be saved!
LYS. So much the more
Ye need salvation.
COM. And pray, what concern
Have you in the matter?
LYS. Ah, that you must learn.
COM. Speak, or you’ll get a beating!
LYS. (_sarcastically_). O restrain
That master-hand!
COM. See then, that you refrain
From vexing me!
LYS. Vexing? Why, soon through Greece
We shall be known and named--Makers of Peace!
COM. Pray, on what plan?
LYS. First from the public street
Remove those monuments of male conceit--
The military loungers!
CAL. Aye, good sooth!
Fools who go swaggering from booth to booth,
In time of peace, rigged in full fighting kit!
COM. Well, wherefore not?
LYS. Oh, I am sick of it!
What are they armed for?
COM. It becomes them well.
CAL. Becomes them? What?--to buy a mackerel
Girt with a sword and brandishing a shield.
Ugh!--one I saw last week, back from the field
All plumed and combed--the captain of a troop,
And in his helmet he was carrying soup!
Another with a javelin dancing jigs
To frighten an old woman who sold figs--
Picking out all the ripe ones.
COM. Well, of course,
All government has to depend on force.
How would you manage? Eh?
LYS. Avoiding fuss.
As with a tangled thread: we take it thus,
Singly--one line of wool from all the skein;
Then here and there we draw it without strain,
Finer and smoother. So would we end war
By peaceful embassies, still sending more
If the first failed, still weaving in and out--
Till men forgot the thing they fought about.
COM. And think you, then, that one could extricate
With such wool-gatherings the affairs of State,
You silly woman?
CAL. Had you sense, you’d try!
LYS. Here in our city the same cure would apply.
COM. How, pray?
LYS. Well, first of all you clean the fleece:
That’s sanitation--you wash out the grease,
Pick out the briars: that means segregate
The undesirable--relieve the State
Of rogues and knaves. Then, too, you must untwist
The clotted tufts--the cliques--whose grasping fist
Keeps others out of office. Head from head
Pluck them, and play them out, and let them spread;
Then pile them in one ball as light as down
Using no pressure. So shall every town
Be as one whole. Next to your counsels call
Your colonies as well; then out of all
Shape your material: put no heavier yoke
Or strain on any, and therefrom weave a cloak
Of friendship for the people.
COM. (_obtuse and contemptuous_). Nay, what wit
Is here? “Take wool, and make a ball of it:
Weave it, and wind it, roll it round and round
Till something come of it!” Now is that sound?
And what on earth have women to do with war?
LYS. O purblind fool! our part therein is more
Than any man’s! For women bring forth life
In pain and anguish: then, when ye fall to strife,
And in the field conduct your long campaigns,
The wife deserted in the home remains;
And the maid, robbed of her most precious years,
Grows old before her time, while disappears
The hope of motherhood: her day is brief.
COM. The man grows old as well.
LYS. Oh, past belief
The folly of such words! For, be he grey
When he returns, the man can have his way
And wed a maid. But what man to his side
Will take of his own choice a barren bride?
COM. No, not in wedlock: but a man may range
Outside the bond. Surely a fair exchange--
No robbery. (_Smirks._)
LYS. Now, by the gods, if all exchange is fair,
Take this and crown yourself!
(_Pulls cap over his head._)
Go! wear your hair
In curls and fillets! Carry a market flail
And learn to curb your tongue. Put on this veil,
This girdle, bear a distaff and go clad
In woman’s weeds!
(_The_ WOMEN _set upon him and clothe him_.)
COM. Oh, woman, are ye mad?
Help, help, I say!
(_Exeunt_ CHORUS OF OLD MEN.)
1ST ATHEN. WOMAN. We’ll help you!
2ND ATHEN. WOMAN. There, take this!
3RD ATHEN. WOMAN. And this from me!
4TH ATHEN. WOMAN. Now, go and ask a kiss.
From Clisthenes!
(_They tie him up ridiculously in women’s garments._)
COM. Oh, woe is me! Oh, shame!
Thus to endure deeds that one dare not name!
Nay, I will go, even thus--oh, sorry sight!--
And bid all Athens look upon my plight.
Oh, what a ravel is this!
LYS. You twist in vain!
Be careful that you do not break my skein.
(_Exit_ COMMITTEE-MAN, _followed by his_ SECRETARY.)