1ST, 2ND, AND 4TH LEADERS OF MEN. Woman!
3RD LEADER OF MEN. In a majority
Govern the State?
4TH LEADER OF MEN. Never, I will defeat it!
2ND LEADER OF MEN. No, no! a thousand times; and I repeat it--
No, no!
3RD LEADER OF MEN. Never!
1ST LEADER OF MEN. No agricultural labourer am I,
Yet I defy
Woman to wield a spade
As I can.
2ND LEADER OF MEN. Can she summon to her aid
The expletives and the explosives
Needful for moving one’s inferiors,
And modifying by their harsh corrosives
The stubborn and recalcitrant exteriors
Of this hard-crusted world?
1ST AND 4TH LEADERS OF MEN. No, no!
3RD LEADER OF MEN. Shall I be hurled
From power by custom mine?
4TH LEADER OF MEN. Shall I my place resign
To woman----
1ST, 2ND, AND 3RD LEADERS OF MEN. Woman!
4TH LEADER OF MEN. To whose care we give
Our homes, our wealth, our children, and who live
Only by our consent?
ALL THE MEN CHORUS. No!
3RD LEADER OF MEN. Shall we allow the sex war--this attack
Of infamous discontent
Behind our back--
On man’s prerogative?
ALL THE MEN CHORUS. Never!
1ST LEADER OF MEN. For through man’s heart there runs in flood
(Nature’s mysterious and imperious mandate)
A noble and a natural thirst for blood:
2ND LEADER OF MEN. To form a ring and fight!
3RD LEADER OF MEN. To cut off heads at sight!
4TH LEADER OF MEN. It is our right!
Women don’t understand it.
ALL THE MEN CHORUS. No!
1ST LEADER OF MEN. But if we grant to these
Facilities
For doing what man does--
2ND LEADER OF MEN. And what man alone
Has any right to do!
1ST LEADER OF MEN. Aye, even one small handle for their own--
They will go far!
3RD LEADER OF MEN. We shall be overthrown
At our own game!
4TH LEADER OF MEN. And think what scandal then!
And think what shame,
If that should happen!
2ND LEADER OF MEN. Never, no never!
No, I won’t allow it!
4TH LEADER OF MEN (_with action_).
So, take we each a torch,
And, thrusting, let it scorch
The gaping mouth, the giddy, gabbling tongue,
The--
(_The other_ MEN _follow him in dumb show. The_ WOMEN _clang
their weapons; the_ MEN _retreat hastily; through the whole
of the ensuing speech they carry on a continuous business of
getting behind each other till they are all off the stage,
leaving their cloaks behind them._)
1ST LEADER OF WOMEN. Now, by the gods,
I’ll give my wrath its rein!
No more shall ye provoke and I refrain.
2ND LEADER OF WOMEN. Come, then, my comrades,
and put off this yoke
Of woman’s weeds; let not the trailing cloak
Cumber your limbs, nor the loose girdle hang!
We too can strip,
And gird, and curl the lip,
And bare the fang,
And answer stroke for stroke
And blow for blow!
3RD LEADER OF WOMEN. Call ye us rebels? Full soon shall ye know
How Greece is with us! We have Lampito,--
She lives for us, and Corinth by the seas,
And all Bœotia.
1ST LEADER OF WOMEN. Go! Make your decrees,
Pile up your punishments, ye that breed hate
Through kindred cities, hurling state on state
In wasteful bloodshed! But more strong are we,
We women, bound in deathless fealty
To break this war. Our hands shall hold in check
Your armaments, and bow the stubborn neck
Of all your pride!
(_During this speech some of the_ WOMEN
_have descended to the lower stage; they collect the
men’s cloaks and return_.)
(_Enter_ LYSISTRATA.)
2ND LEADER OF WOMEN. O thou, the shaper of this fair event,
Why com’st thou now,
So pale, and sad of brow,
And heavy with discontent?
LYS. (_gloomily_). Woman’s weak will and her lascivious way
O’erload my heart!
1ST LEADER OF WOMEN. Oh! What means that to say?
LYS. The truth, the bitter truth!
3RD LEADER OF WOMEN. Bodes it so ill?
May we not know?
LYS. How shall my tongue be still?
Yet how, unshaméd, may I speak of it?
4TH LEADER OF WOMEN. Nay, do not keep it from us!
... It is fit
That we should know--the worst.
1ST, 2ND, AND 3RD LEADERS OF WOMEN. Nay, tell us then!
LYS. Brief is the truth; we hanker for the men!
ALL THE WOMEN CHORUS. O Zeus!
LYS. Why call on him? Is it not so?
I cannot keep them here. Foresworn they go
By stealth to join their husbands. One I caught
Scraping a cleft of rock: and one had brought
Rope from Poseidon’s well, and down the wall
So sought to creep! Another--chosen of all
To guard the gate--deserted from her trust.
And yet another of them, crazed with lust,
Feathered herself with wings, and light as air
Feigned to go flying. I took her by the hair
And hurled her back to sense! Yet still they come,
Coining excuses to be sent back home.
(_Enter_ 2ND ATHENIAN WOMAN _furtively_.)
There’s one of them. Ho, you! Whither away?
2ND ATHEN. WOMAN. I was but going home--just for the day:--
I fear the moth has got into my fleece.
LYS. What moth? Get back!
2ND ATHEN. WOMAN. By the two goddesses,
I promise you I will return with speed:
A spreading in the sun is all they need.
LYS. Don’t spread them: do not go!
2ND ATHEN. WOMAN (_whimpering_). Must all my toil
Be wasted then?
LYS. Aye, for it will not spoil
So swiftly as will this.
(_Enter_ 3RD ATHENIAN WOMAN.)
3RD ATHEN. WOMAN. My flax, my flax!
Which all unkempt I left at home.
LYS. (_ironically_). There cracks
A careful heart! Here! Come you back again.
3RD ATHEN. WOMAN. Yes, after I have wound it on the skein.
LYS. Don’t wind it; leave it! If one plays that game,
A hundred more will want to do the same.
(_Enter_ CORINTHIAN WOMAN.)
CORINTH. (_she bears something wrapped in her robe_).
Help! A physician! Nay, I prithee, quick,
Quick, let me pass, I say! My child is sick.
LYS. _Your_ child; since when? Yesterday you had none.
CORINTH. ’Twas born last night! (LYSISTRATA _holds her_.)
Oh, loose me! Let me run!
LYS. What ails it? (_Reveals helmet._)
Oh, this was indeed a birth
Miraculous--a thing of wondrous worth.
(_Tosses it away._ CALONICE _gets hold of it and smacks it_.)
Go, get you in!
CORINTH. Nay, here I cannot sleep--
Shut in a shrine where sacred serpents creep.
3RD ATHEN. WOMAN. And I, unhappy, I am sleepless too!
All night the owls go crying “Tuwhit! Tuwhoo!”
“Tuwhit! Tuwhoo!”
ALL THE WOMEN. “Tuwhit! Tuwhoo!”
LYS. O women, cease from juggling tricks and lies!
Is’t love ye long for, that ye waste in sighs
Your widowed hours? Stand firm, and all is well!
Was this not told us by the oracle?
1ST LEADER OF WOMEN. How was it told?
2ND LEADER OF WOMEN. Nay, tell me!
3RD LEADER OF WOMEN. Tell us, how!
(_The_ WOMEN _gather excitedly about her_.)
LYS. Hear, O ye women, and be silent now!
“When the swallow
From the hawk
Flies, and when he seeks to follow,
Close in bower
To one place
Let them cower:
And, for a space,
Let them then--
From love abstain.”
CHORUS OF WOMEN. Ah!
LYS. “But if from the shrine ye fly,
Borne apart by wind or word,
Soon shall every swallow die,
Mocked and marked--a victim bird!”
CHORUS OF WOMEN. Ah!
1ST LEADER OF WOMEN. By Heaven, the voice of the oracle is clear!
Let us not then,
Through any pain or fear
Yield ourselves up into the hands of men!
(_Enter_ STRATYLLIS.)
STRAT. Ho, women, comrades! Ho! Come quickly all!
1ST ATHEN. WOMAN. What is the matter now? Why do you call?