| Within, and not within. You comprehend me? |
DIKÆOPOLIS
| Within and not within! What do you mean? |
SERVANT
| His outward man |
| Is in the garret writing tragedy; |
| While his essential being is abroad |
| Pursuing whimsies in the world of fancy. |
The visitor now calls aloud upon the poet:
| Euripides, Euripides, come down, |
| If ever you came down in all your life! |
| 'Tis I, Dikæopolis, from Chollidæ. |
This Chollidæ probably corresponded to the Pea Ridge often quoted in our day. Euripides declines to come down, but is presently made visible by some device of the scene-shifter. In the dialogue that follows, Aristophanes ridicules the personages and the costumes brought upon the stage by Euripides, and reflects unhandsomely upon the poet's mother, who was said to have been a vender of vegetables. Dikæopolis does not seek to borrow poetry or eloquence from Euripides, but prays him to lend him "a suit of tatters from a worn-out tragedy."
| For mercy's sake, for I'm obliged to make |
| A speech in my own defence before the chorus, |
| A long pathetic speech, this very day, |
| And if it fails, the doom of death betides me. |
Euripides now asks what especial costume would suit the need of Dikæopolis, and calls over the most pitiful names in his tragedies: "Do you want the dress of Oineos?"—"Oh, no! something much more wretched."—"Phœnix? "—"No; much worse than Phœnix."—"Philocletes?"—"No."—"Lame Bellerophon?" Dikæopolis says: