THE CLOUDS
STREPSIADES.[470] Great gods! will these nights never end? will daylight never come? I heard the cock crow long ago and my slaves are snoring still! Ah! 'twas not so formerly. Curses on the War! has it not done me ills enough? Now I may not even chastise my own slaves.[471] Again there's this brave lad, who never wakes the whole long night, but, wrapped in his five coverlets, farts away to his heart's content. Come! let me nestle in well and snore too, if it be possible … oh! misery, 'tis vain to think of sleep with all these expenses, this stable, these debts, which are devouring me, thanks to this fine cavalier, who only knows how to look after his long locks, to show himself off in his chariot and to dream of horses! And I, I am nearly dead, when I see the moon bringing the third decade in her train[472] and my liability falling due…. Slave! light the lamp and bring me my tablets. Who are all my creditors? Let me see and reckon up the interest. What is it I owe? … Twelve minae to Pasias…. What! twelve minae to Pasias? … Why did I borrow these? Ah! I know! 'Twas to buy that thoroughbred, which cost me so dear.[473] How I should have prized the stone that had blinded him!
PHIDIPPIDES (in his sleep). That's not fair, Philo! Drive your chariot straight,[474] I say.
STREPSIADES. 'Tis this that is destroying me. He raves about horses, even in his sleep.
PHIDIPPIDES (still sleeping). How many times round the track is the race for the chariots of war?[475]
STREPSIADES. 'Tis your own father you are driving to death … to ruin.
Come! what debt comes next, after that of Pasias? … Three minae to
Amynias for a chariot and its two wheels.
PHIDIPPIDES (still asleep). Give the horse a good roll in the dust and lead him home.
STREPSIADES. Ah! wretched boy! 'tis my money that you are making roll. My creditors have distrained on my goods, and here are others again, who demand security for their interest.
PHIDIPPIDES (awaking). What is the matter with you, father, that you groan and turn about the whole night through?
STREPSIADES. I have a bum-bailiff in the bedclothes biting me.