The Dance (1-5)

LYCINUS Well, Crato, this is a truly forceful indictment that you have brought, after long preparation, I take it, against dances and the dancer’s art itself, and besides against us who like to see that sort of show, accusing us of displaying great interest in something unworthy and effeminate ; but now let me tell you how far you have missed the mark and how blind you have been to the fact that you were indicting the greatest of all the good things in life. For that I can excuse you if, having been wedded to a rude creed from the first and considering only what is hard to be good, through unacquaintance with it all you have thought that it deserved indicting.

CRATO Who that is a man at all, a life-long friend of letters, moreover, and moderately conversant with philosophy, abandons his interest, Lycinus, in all that is better and his association with the ancients to sit enthralled by the flute, watching a girlish fellow play the wanton with dainty clothing and bawdy songs and imitate love-sick minxes, the most erotic of all antiquity, such as Phaedra and Parthenope and

“You will need, therefore, to do a great deal of pleading in your own defence, my fine fellow, when you confront the enlightened, if you wish to avoid being eliminated absolutely and expelled from the fold of the serious-minded. And yet the better course for you, I suppose, is to mend the whole matter b pleading not guilty and not admitting at all that you have committed any such misdemeanour. Anyhow, keep an eye to the future and see to it that you do not surprise us by changing from the man that you were of old to a Lyde or a Bacche. That would be a reproach not only to you but to us, unless, follow-

LYCINUS Heavens, Crato, what sharp teeth there are in this dog of yours that you have let loose on us! But as for your parallel, the simile of the Lotus-Eaters and the Sirens, it seems to me quite unlike what I have been through, since in the case of those who tasted the lotus and heard the Sirens, death was the penalty for their eating and listening, while in my case not only is the pleasure more exquisite by a great deal but the outcome is happy; I am not altered into forgetfulness of things at home or ignorance of my own concerns, but—if I may speak my mind without any hesitancy—I have come back to you from the theatre with far more wisdom and more insight into life. Or rather, I may well put it just as Homer does: he who has seen this spectacle

Goes on his way diverted and knowing more than aforetime.

LYCINUS Tell me, Crato, do you pass this censure upon dancing and what goes on in the theatre after having seen it often yourself, or is it that without being acquainted with the spectacle, you nevertheless account it shameful and abominable, as you put it? If you have seen it, you have put yourself on the same footing with us; if not, take care that your censure does not seem unreasonable and overbold when you denounce things of which you know nothing.

CRATO Why, is that what was still in store for me—with beard so long and hair so grey, to sit in the midst of a parcel of hussies and a frantic audience like that, clapping my hands, moreover, and shouting very unbecoming words of praise to a noxious fellow who doubles himself up for no useful purpose ?

LYCINUS This talk is excusable in your case, Crato. But if you would only take my word for it and just for the experiment’s sake submit, with your eyes wide open, T know very well that you could not endure not to get ahead of everyone else in taking up an advantageously placed seat from which you could see well and hear everything.

CRATO May I never reach ripeness of years if I ever endure anything of the kind, as long as my legs are hairy and my beard unplucked! At present I