Отрывок из книги
W. Lucas Collins
Published by Good Press, 2019
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“Black-P.-Seller. Hallo! what is it? Demosth. O thrice blest of mortals! Who art nought to-day, but shall be first to-morrow! Hail, Chief that shall be of our glorious Athens! B.-P.-S. Prithee, good friend, let me go wash my tripes, And sell my sausages—you make a fool of me. Dem. Tripes, quotha! tripes? Ha-ha!—Look yonder, man—(pointing to the audience.) You see these close-packed ranks of heads? B.-P.-S. I see. Dem. Of all these men you shall be sovereign chief, Of the Forum, and the Harbours, and the Courts, Shall trample on the Senate, flout the generals, Bind, chain, imprison, play what pranks you will. B.-P.-S. What—I? Dem. Yes—you. But you’ve not yet seen all; Here—mount upon your dresser there—look out! (Black-Pudding-Seller gets upon the dresser, from which he is supposed to see all the dependencies of Athens, and looks stupidly round him.) You see the islands all in a circle round you? B.-P.-S. I see. Dem. What, all the sea-ports, and the shipping? B.-P.-S. I see, I tell ye. Dem. Then, what luck is yours! But cast your right eye now towards Caria—there— And fix your left on Carthage—both at once. B.-P.-S. Be blest if I shan’t squint—if that’s good luck.”
The Black-pudding-man is modest, and doubts his own qualifications for all this preferment. Demosthenes assures him that he is the very man that is wanted. “A rascal—bred in the forum—and with plenty of brass;” what could they wish for more? Still, the other fears he is “not strong enough for the place.” Demosthenes begins to be alarmed: modesty is a very bad symptom in a candidate for preferment; he is afraid, after all, that the man has some hidden good qualities which will disqualify him for high office. Possibly, he suggests, there is some gentle blood in the family? No, the other assures him: all his ancestors have been born blackguards like himself, so far as he knows. But he has had no education—he can but barely spell. The only objection, Demosthenes declares, is that he has learnt even so much as that.
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