ANITUS:
If such horrors are allowed to go unpunished, the state is in danger.
Minerva will withhold her aid from us.
DRIXA:
Yes, Minerva without doubt. I heard him make jokes about the owl of
Minerva.
MELITUS: About the owl of Minerva! Oh! Heavens! Aren't you of the opinion he should be put in prison immediately?
JUDGES: (together)
Yes, in prison. Right away. In prison!
MELITUS:
Ushers! Take Socrates to prison immediately.
DRIXA:
And there let him be burned without having been heard.
ONE OF THE JUDGES:
Ah! He must at least be heard! We cannot infringe the law.
ANITUS: What this fine, pious man means is—he must be heard, but one cannot be surprised by what he says. For you know these philosophers are diabolically clever. Where we bring harmony, they disturb all the Estates.
MELITUS:
To prison! to prison!
(Xantippe, Sophronine, Aglaea enter. Then Socrates, enchained.)