LYSISTRATA. You shall not do anything of the kind! I say, you shall not go.
FIRST WOMAN. Must I leave my wool to spoil then?
LYSISTRATA. Yes, if need be.
SECOND WOMAN. Unhappy woman that I am! Alas for my flax! I've left it at home unstript!
LYSISTRATA. So, here's another trying to escape to go home and strip her flax forsooth!
SECOND WOMAN. Oh! I swear by the goddess of light, the instant I have put it in condition I will come straight back.
LYSISTRATA. You shall do nothing of the kind! If once you began, others would want to follow suit.
THIRD WOMAN. Oh! goddess divine, Ilithyia, patroness of women in labour, stay, stay the birth, till I have reached a spot less hallowed than Athene's Mount!
LYSISTRATA. What mean you by these silly tales?
THIRD WOMAN. I am going to have a child--now, this minute.
LYSISTRATA. But you were not pregnant yesterday!
THIRD WOMAN. Well, I am to-day. Oh! let me go in search of the midwife, Lysistrata, quick, quick!
Studies
