By this he showed how his austerity loathed the clatter of the stage; for his ears were stopped with anger and open to no influence of delight.

This reward, befitting an actor, punished an unseemly performance with a shameful wage.

For Starkad excellently judged the man's deserts, and bestowed a shankbone for the piper to pipe on, requiting his soft service with a hard fee.

None could say whether the actor piped or wept the louder; he showed by his bitter flood of tears how little place bravery has in the breasts of the dissolute.

For the fellow was a mere minion of pleasure, and had never learnt to bear the assaults of calamity.