JUP. Rogue! I know you:--Out of my fight.--What business is❜t of your's? Hang-dog!----how dare you chatter ?---If I take A ftick in hand-- chatter?---If ALC. O don't be in a rage. JUP. Do, mutter, firrah. 30 MERC, (Afide,) This my first attempt At wheedling has, I find, but ill fucceeded. 35 JUP. Sweet wife, you ought not to be angry with me For that which you complain of.--I withdrew In fecret from the army, stole this interview, That you might be the first to learn from me, How I fucceeded.---I have told you all.--This, if I had not lov'd you to th' extreme, I had not done. MERC. (Afide.) So-is't not as I faid? See, how this stroking cheers her! JUP. I must now 40 Return from hence in fecret, left the troops Should scent my abfence, when they'll say, that I Prefer'd my wife before the public good. ALC. I cannot chufe but weep for your departure. JUP. Come, come, no more bewailings: do not spoil Those pretty eyes: I fhortly shall return. ALC. Ah me! that fhortly will be all too long. JUP. 'Tis with reluctance I must leave you here, 45 V. 30. Don't be in a rage.] Alemena only fays noli---don't: but it is reasonable to fuppofe, that irafci---be angry---may be underftood. V. 40.] Timidam palpo percutit. And And part thus from you. ALC. Ay, I do perceive it: For on the very night you came to me, 50 On that fame you depart. (Hangs about Jupiter.) JUP. Why do you hold me ? 'Tis time; and I would leave the city ere It waxes light.---Alcmena, with this cup I now prefent you, giv'n me for my valour, The fame king Pterelas drank from, whom I flew 55 With my own hand. ALC. (Taking the cup.) Done like your other actions: As you are always wont to do.---By heavens A noble gift, and worthy him that gave it! MERC. A noble gift indeed, and worthy her To whom 'tis giv'n! JUP. You rafcal! what again? 60 Why don't I put an end to you at once, And your impertinence ? ALC. Nay prithee, love, Do not be angry with him with my fake. MERC. (Afide.) How plaguy crofs His wenching makes him! V. 56.] Alcmena's fatisfaction on receiving the prefent of a gold cup may perhaps be understood as an oblique cenfure upon the ladies. Be this as it will, the character of Alcmena is truly amiable. She is reprefented as a moft affectionate wife, full of innocence and fimplicity; and her diftrefs, on being fufpected - by the real Amphitryon, is highly interefting. There is a great fimilarity of manners between her and Desdemona, labouring under the fame circumftances, in Shakespeare's Othello. JUP. (Going.) Would you ought elfe? 65 ALC. This---that you'd love me, though I am away, Me that am your's ftill, though you're abfent from me, 'MERC. 'Tis almost day, Sir: come, Sir, let's be going. JUP. Go you before: I'll follow you this inftant." [Exit MERCURY. Would you ought elfe? ALC. Yes, one thing--that you would yo Return, and presently. V. 65. Would you ought elfe ?] Numquid vis? It may be proper to obferve once for all, that this was a common mode of expreffion upon taking leave or going away. V. 66--67,] Ut, quom abfim, me ames, me tuam, te absente tamen. "The common reading (fays Cooke) is me tuam abfentem tamen, but te abfente is in the firft printed copy;" and I can but agree with him, that it is "more emphatical." This fentiment is finely amplificated in Terence's Eunuch, towards the end of Act I. where Phadria takes leave of his mistress Thais, who by his confent was to entertain his rival Thrafo. THAIS. Numquid vis aliud ? PHEDRIA. Egone quid velim ? Cum milite ifto præfens abfens ut fies: Meus fac fis poftremò animus, quando ego fum tuus. Phædria. Ought elfe, my Thais? Be with yon foldier prefent, as if abfent: still long for me: Dream, ponder still of me : wish, hope for me: Delight in me: be all in all with me : Give your whole heart, for mine's all your's, to me." VOL. I H COLMAN. Jup JUP. It fhall be so: My prefence shall forerun your expectation. Be of good heart, my love *. SCENE [Exit ALCMENA, IV. JUPITER alone. Now, gentle Night, Who long for me haft tarried, I difmifs thee; And in proportion, Night, as thou waft lengthen'd 5 Betwixt you may be fquar'd, and Day to Night * The impatience of Jupiter (the falfe Amphitryon) to be gore, and the reluctance of the fond, fimple, unfufpecting Alcmena, at parting from him, is finely marked in this fcene. It is worthy obfervation, that our Author has hardly dropt an expreffion throughout their dialogue, which can be wrested into indelicacy. Priùs abis, quàm lecti, ubi cubuifti, concaluit locus, has indeed furnished Dryden with an opportunity of giving fcope to his imagination in the perfon of Alcmena, whofe character he has made the direct reverse of that drawn by our Author. Moliere too is not fatisfied in this fcene with the fimplicity of Plautus; for he makes Jupiter, in his double character, equivocate with Alcmena, in a dialogue about the difference of a lover and an husband. With all the delicacy of the writers of his country, he is at leaft fentimentally grofs: but Dryden, who copies the Frenchman's idea, rapturously explains it, without any fcruple, in the ex÷ preffion of it. The End of the FIRST ACT. ACT Enter AMPHITRYON and SOSIA, at the further End of the Stage. AMPHITRYO N. COME, follow me. Close at your heels. Sos. I do, I'm after you, AMPH. Thou art the verieft rogue,-- Sos. For why? Амрн. Весaufe you tell me what is not, Nor was, nor will be. You ne'er believe Sós. Look ye now,---'tis like you-- your fervants, AMPH. What!---how's that? 5 By heav'ns, thou villain, I'll at once cut out That villainous tongue of thine. V. 6.] Sos. I'm your's, and you Hercle ego tibi iftam Sceleftam, fcelus, linguam abfcindam. Our Author frequently indulges himself in this kind of jingle, without refpect to character: yet we should not haftily condemn him for it, as perhaps it might poffibly have been idiomatic in his time, however difagreeable it may found to the modern ear. So in this fcene, v. 43, Sofia says, Of all grievances This is moft grievous. Miferrima boc eft miferia. |