made an end of me.-Let me see-this must be I, in spite of me; but let me view him nearer.

[Walks about MERCURY with his Dark

Lanthorn.

Merc. What are you walking about me for, with your dark lanthorn?

Sos. No harm, friend; I am only surveying a parcel of earth here, that I find we two are about to bargain for :-He's damnable like me, that's certain. Imprimis, there's the patch upon my nose, with a pox to him. Item, A very foolish face, with a long chin at end on't. Item, One pair of shambling legs, with two splay feet belonging to them; and, summa totallis, from head to foot all my bodily apparel. [To MERCURY.] Well, you are Sosia; there's no denying it :-but what am I then? for my mind gives me, I am somebody still, if I knew but who I were. Merc. When I have a mind to be Sosia no more, then thou may'st be Sosia again.

Sos. I have but one request more to thee; that, though not as Sosia, yet as a stranger, I may go into that house, and carry a civil message to my lady.

Merc. No, sirral; not being Sosia, you have no message to deliver, nor no lady in this house.

Sos. Thou canst not be so barbarous, to let me lie in the streets all night, after such a journey, and such a beating; and therefore I am resolved to knock at the door, in my own defence.

Merc. If you come near the door, I recal my word, and break off the truce, and then expect[Holds up his Cudgel. Sos. No, the devil take me if I do expect; I have felt too well what sour fruit that crab-tree bears: I'll rather beat it back upon the hoof to my lord Amphitryon, to see if he will acknowledge me for Sosia; if he does not, then I am no longer his

slave; there's my freedom dearly purchased with a sore drubbing: if he does acknowledge me, then I am Sosia again. So far 'tis tolerably well: but then I shall have a second drubbing for an unfortunate ambassador, as I am; and that's intolerable.

[Exit SOSIA. Merc. [Alone.] I have fobbed off his excellency pretty well. Now let him return, and make the best of his credentials. I think, too, I have given Jupiter sufficient time for his consummation.-Oh, he has taken his cue; and here he comes as leisurely, and as lank, as if he had emptied himself of the best part of his almightyship.

SCENE II.

Enter JUPITER, leading ALCMENA, followed by PHÆDRA. Pages with Torches before them.

Jup. [To the Pages.] Those torches are offensive; stand aloof;

For, though they bless me with thy heavenly sight,

[To her.

They may disclose the secret I would hide.
The Thebans must not know I have been here;
Detracting crowds would blame me, that I robbed
These happy moments from my public charge,
To consecrate to thy desired embrace;
And I could wish no witness but thyself,
For thou thyself art all I wish to please.

Alcm. So long an absence, and so short a stay!
What, but one night! one night of joy and love
Could only pay one night of cares and fears,
And all the rest are an uncancelled sum!-
Curse on this honour, and this public fame;
Would you had less of both, and more of love!
Jup. Alcmena, I must go.
Alcm. Not yet, my lord.
Jup. Indeed I must.

Alcm. Indeed you shall not go.

Jup. Behold the ruddy streaks o'er yonder hill; Those are the blushes of the breaking morn, That kindle day-light to this nether world.

Alcm. No matter for the day; it was but made To number out the hours of busy men. Let them be busy still, and still be wretched, And take their fill of anxious drudging day; But you and I will draw our curtains close, Extinguish day-light, and put out the sun. Come back, my lord; in faith you shall retire; You have not yet lain long enough in bed, To warm your widowed side.

Phaed. [Aside.] I find my lord is an excellent school-master, my lady is so willing to repeat her

lesson.

Merc. [Aside.] That's a plaguy little devil; what a roguish eye she has! I begin to like her strangely. She's the perquisite of my place too; for my lady's waiting-woman is the proper fees of my lord's chief gentleman. I have the privilege of a god too; I can view her naked through all her clothes. Let me see, let me see;-I have discovered something, that pleases me already.

Jup. Let me not live, but thou art all enjoyment! So charming and so sweet,

That not a night, but whole eternity,

Were well employed,

To love thy each perfection as it ought.

Alcm. [Kissing him.] I'll bribe you with this kiss, to stay a while.

Jup. [Kissing her.] A bribe indeed that soon will bring me back;

But, to be just, I must restore your bribe.
How I could dwell for ever on those lips!
O, I could kiss them pale with eagerness!
So soft, by heaven! and such a juicy sweet,

That ripened peaches have not half the flavour. Alem. Ye niggard gods! you make our lives to

long;

You fill them with diseases, wants, and woes,
And only dash them with a little love,
Sprinkled by fits, and with a sparing hand:
Count all our joys, from childhood even to age,
They would but make a day of every year.
Take back your seventy years, the stint of life,
Or else be kind, and cram the quintessence
Of seventy years into sweet seventy days;
For all the rest is flat, insipid being.

Jup. But yet one scruple pains me at my parting: I love so nicely, that I cannot bear

To owe the sweets of love, which I have tasted,
To the submissive duty of a wife.

Tell me, and sooth my passion ere I go,
That, in the kindest moments of the night,
When you gave up yourself to love and me,
You thought not of a husband, but a lover?
Alcm. But tell me first, why you would raise a
blush

Upon my cheeks, by asking such a question?
Jup. I would owe nothing to a name so dull
As husband is, but to a lover all.

Alcm. You should have asked me then, when love and night,

And privacy, had favoured your demand.
Jup. I ask it now, because my tenderness
Surpasses that of husbands for their wives.

O that you loved like me! then you would find
A thousand, thousand niceties in love.

The common love of sex to sex is brutal;
But love refined will fancy to itself

Millions of gentle cares, and sweet disquiets;
The being happy is not half the joy;
The manner of their happiness is all.

In me, my charming mistress, you behold
A lover that disdains a lawful title,

Such as of monarchs to successive thrones;
The generous lover holds by force of arms,
And claims his crown by conquest.

Alcm. Methinks you should be pleased; I give you all

A virtuous and modest wife can give.

Jup. No, no; that very name of wife and marriage

Is poison to the dearest sweets of love:
To please my niceness, you must separate
The lover from his mortal foe-the husband.
Give to the yawning husband your cold virtue;
But all your vigorous warmth, your melting sighs,
Your amorous murmurs, be your lover's part.

Alcm. I comprehend not what you mean, my lord;

But only love me still, and love me thus,
And think me such as best may please your thought.
Jup. There's mystery of love in all I say.—
Farewell; and when you see your husband next,
Think of your lover then.

[Exeunt Jur. and ALCM. severally; PHAD.
follows her.

Merc. [Alone.] Now I should follow him; but love has laid a lime-twig for me, and made a lame god of me. Yet why should I love this Phædra? She's interested, and a jilt into the bargain. Three thousand years hence, there will be a whole nation of such women, in a certain country, that will be called France; and there's a neighbour island, too, where the men of that country will be all interest. O what a precious generation will that be, which the men of the island shall propagate out of the women of the continent!