DIONYSUS. Let go! let go! Here again our friend Aeschylus' verse drags down the scale; 'tis because he has thrown in Death, the weightiest of all ills.
EURIPIDES. And I Persuasion; my verse is excellent.
DIONYSUS. Persuasion has both little weight and little sense. But hunt again for a big weighty verse and solid withal, that it may assure you the victory.
EURIPIDES. But where am I to find one—where?
DIONYSUS. I'll tell you one: "Achilles has thrown two and four."[525]
Come, recite! 'tis the last trial.
EURIPIDES. "With his arm he seized a mace, studded with iron."[526]
AESCHYLUS. "Chariot upon chariot and corpse upon corpse."[527]
DIONYSUS (to Euripides) There you're foiled again.
EURIPIDES. Why?
DIONYSUS. There are two chariots and two corpses in the verse; why, 'tis a weight a hundred Egyptians could not lift.[528]