Seite - 25 - in The Complete Plato

Crito PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates, Crito. THE SETTING: The Prison of Socrates. SOCRATES: Why have you come at this hour, Crito? it must be quite early. CRITO: Yes, certainly. SOCRATES: What is the exact time? CRITO: The dawn is breaking. SOCRATES: I wonder that the keeper of the prison would let you in. CRITO: He knows me because I often come, Socrates; moreover. I have done him a kindness. SOCRATES: And are you only just arrived? CRITO: No, I came some time ago. SOCRATES: Then why did you sit and say nothing, instead of at once awakening me? CRITO: I should not have liked myself, Socrates, to be in such great trouble and unrest as you are—indeed I should not: I have been watching with amazement your peaceful slumbers; and for that reason I did not awake you, because I wished to minimize the pain. I have always thought you to be of a happy disposition; but never did I see anything like the easy, tranquil manner in which you bear this calamity. SOCRATES: Why, Crito, when a man has reached my age he ought not to be repining at the approach of death. CRITO: And yet other old men find themselves in similar misfortunes, and age does not prevent them from repining. SOCRATES: That is true. But you have not told me why you come at this early hour. CRITO: I come to bring you a message which is sad and painful; not, as I believe, to yourself, but to all of us who are your friends, and saddest of all to me. SOCRATES: What? Has the ship come from Delos, on the arrival of which 25