You know there is a law which permits any modern poet to retouch a play of Æschylus, and bring it forward as his own composition. And, as there is an absurd prejudice, among the vulgar, in favour of his extravagant pieces, I have selected one of them, and altered it.
CALLIDEMUS.
SPEÜSIPPÜS.
Oh! that mass of barbarous absurdities, the Prometheus. But I have framed it anew upon the model of Euripides. By Bacchus, I shall make Sophocles and Agathon look about them. You would not know the play again.
CALLIDEMUS.
By Jupiter, I believe not.
SPEÜSIPPÜS.
I have omitted the whole of the absurd dialogue between Vulcan and Strength, at the beginning.