Lysistrata   

(They begin to build a fire. The CHORUS OF WOMEN


now enters, carrying pots of water.)





LEADER OF CHORUS OF WOMEN


Oh! my dears, methinks I see fire and smoke; can it be a


conflagration? Let us hurry all we can.


FIRST SEMI-CHORUS OF WOMEN (singing)


Fly, fly, Nicodice, ere Calyce and Critylle perish in the fire, or


are stifled in the smoke raised by these accursed old men and their


pitiless laws. But, great gods, can it be I come too late? Rising at


dawn, I had the utmost trouble to fill this vessel at the fountain.


Oh! what a crowd there was, and what a din! What a rattling of


water-pots! Servants and slave-girls pushed and thronged me!


However, here I have it full at last; and I am running to carry the


water to my fellow-townswomen, whom our foes are plotting to burn


alive.


SECOND SEMI-CHORUS OF WOMEN (singing)


News has been brought us that a company of old, doddering


grey-beards, loaded with enormous faggots, as if they wanted to heat a


furnace, have taken the field, vomiting dreadful threats, crying