The Birds (cont'd)

INFORMER
I? Why, I am an accuser of the islands,[1] an informer...

[1] His trade was to accuse the rich citizens of the subject islands, and drag them before the Athenian court; he explains later the special advantages of this branch of the informer's business.

PISTHETAERUS
A fine trade, truly!

INFORMER
...a hatcher of lawsuits. Hence I have great need of wings to prowl round the cities and drag them before justice.

PISTHETAERUS
Would you do this better if you had wings?

INFORMER
No, but I should no longer fear the pirates; I should return with the cranes, loaded with a supply of lawsuits by way of ballast.

PISTHETAERUS
So it seems, despite all your youthful vigour, you make it your trade to denounce strangers?

INFORMER
Well, and why not? I don't know how to dig.

PISTHETAERUS
But, by Zeus! there are honest ways of gaining a living at your age without all this infamous trickery.

INFORMER
My friend, I am asking you for wings, not for words.

PISTHETAERUS
'Tis just my words that give you wings.

INFORMER
And how can you give a man wings with your words?

PISTHETAERUS
'Tis thus that all first start.

INFORMER
All?

PISTHETAERUS
Have you not often heard the father say to young men in the barbers' shops, "It's astonishing how Diitrephes' advice has made my son fly to horse-riding." --"Mine," says another, "has flown towards tragic poetry on the wings of his imagination."

INFORMER
So that words give wings?

PISTHETAERUS
Undoubtedly; words give wings to the mind and make a man soar to heaven. Thus I hope that my wise words will give you wings to fly to some less degrading trade.

INFORMER
But I do not want to.

PISTHETAERUS
What do you reckon on doing then?

INFORMER
I won't belie my breeding; from generation to generation we have lived by informing. Quick, therefore, give me quickly some light, swift hawk or kestrel wings, so that I may summon the islanders, sustain the accusation here, and haste back there again on flying pinions.

PISTHETAERUS
I see. In this way the stranger will be condemned even before he appears.

INFORMER
That's just it.

PISTHETAERUS
And while he is on his way here by sea, you will be flying to the islands to despoil him of his property.

INFORMER
You've hit it, precisely; I must whirl hither and thither like a perfect humming-top.

PISTHETAERUS
I catch the idea. Wait, i' faith, I've got some fine Corcyraean wings.[1] How do you like them?

[1] That is, whips--Corcyra being famous for these articles.

INFORMER
Oh! woe is me! Why, 'tis a whip!

PISTHETAERUS
No, no; these are the wings, I tell you, that set the top a-spinning.