SCENE II.

JUPITER appears above-thunder and lightning.
Be of good cheer, Amphitryon; I am come
To comfort and assist you and your family.
Nothing you have to fear; then let alone
All soothsayers and diviners: I'll inform you
Of what is past, and what is yet to come,
Much better than they can, since I am Jove.
Know first of all, I have enjoy'd Alcmena,
Whence she was pregnant by me with a son:
You likewise left her pregnant, when you went
To th' army. At one birth, two boys together
She has brought forth: the one, sprung from my
loins,

Shall gain immortal glory by his deeds.
Restore Alcmena to your ancient love:
In nothing does she merit your reproaches:
She was compell'd, by my resistless power,
To what she did.-I now return to heaven.
[JUPITER ascends.

SCENE the Last.

AMPHITRYON alone.

I'll do as you command; and I beseech you
That you would keep your promises.-I'll in
Unto my wife, and think no more of old
Tiresias.-Now, spectators, for the sake
Of highest Jove, give us your loud applause.*

HEGIO.

THE CAPTIVES.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

PHILOCRATES.

TYNDARUS.

ARISTOPHONTES.

PHILOPOLEMUS.
ERGASILUS.

STALAGMUS.

SERVANTS.

Unfit to be remembered; here you'll find
No infamous, abandon'd courtezan,
No rascal pimp, no braggard captain here.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Enter ERGASILUS.

Because I usually attend at feasts,
An invocated guest, our sparks forsooth
Nickname me mistress. This, I know, the

jeerers

Say is absurd.-I say, 'tis right.-The lover
At a carousal, when he throws the dice,
Invokes his mistress. Is she invocated,
Or is she not? Most plain, she is. But yet
To say the truth, we are termed Parasites
For a much plainer reason.-For, like mice,†
Ask'd or not ask'd, we always live upon
Provisions not our own.-In the vacation
When to the country men retire, 'tis also
Vacation with my teeth.-As in hot weather
Snails hide them in their shells, and, if no dew
Should chance to fall, live on their proper mois-
ture,

We Parasites, in times of the vacation,
Keep ourselves snug; and while into the country
Those are retired, on whom we us'd to feed,
Poor we support our natural call of appetite
From our own juices.-We in the vacation
Are thin as hounds;-but when men come to

town,

We are as plump as mastiffs, full as troublesome,
And as detested. What is worst of all,
Except we patiently endure a drubbing,
And let them break their pots upon our heads,
We must submit to sit among the beggars
Without the city gate.-That this will be
My lot, there's not a little danger, since
My patron is a captive with the enemy.
Th' Etolians and the Elians are at war:

SCENE.-Calydon in Etolia, before HEGIO's house. We now are in Ætolia. Philopolemus,

FROM THE PROLOGUE.

*

OUR play is not in the common style, nor yet
Like other plays:-here are no ribald lines

The Romans believed that this play made much for the honour of Jupiter; therefore, afterwards, it was commonly acted in times of public troubles and calamities,

to appease his anger.

There is no doubt but that this play ends happily and

seriously in our author, with the vindication of Alcmena's
honour, entirely to the satisfaction of Amphitryon. Mo-
liere, to accommodate his piece more to the modern taste,
humourously enough makes Sosia conclude it with saying
(when the company present were for congratulating
Amphitryon upon the honour done him by Jupiter,)
Sur telles affaires toujours

Le meilleur est de ne rien dire.
Dryden copies him exactly in this speech; but he gives
it (though not nearly so much in character) to Mercury,
who had already declared his godship.

"All. We all congratulate Amphitryon.

Merc. Keep your congratulations to yourselves, gentlemen.-'Tis a nice point, let me tell you that; and the less that is said of it the better."

Old Hegio's son, whose house is here hard by,
Is prisoner now in Elis.-Sad indeed
This house to me! which, often as I see it,
Brings tears into my eyes. The good old father,
Upon his son's account, not in compliance
With his own inclination, has engaged
In an illiberal traffic, and by purchasing
Of captives hopes, that in some lucky hour
He may find one to barter for his son.-
But the door opens, whence I've sallied forth
Full many a time, drunk with excess of cheer.

* Parasites are by our author often called Mistresses.
This humour of calling parasites by droll names, we may
suppose was common, as we find it again in the Menachmi
or Twins, where the parasite is made to say-
"Our young men call me Dishclout,-for this reason,
Whene'er I dine, I wipe the tables clean.

Diogenes, the Cynic, when he saw mice creeping under a table, used to say, "See there Diogenes' parasites!"-The same allusion we meet with again in the Persa, act i., scene ii.

Quasi mures semper edere alienum cibum.

Like mice, they lived on victuals not their own. Quæstum inhonestum. So in another place it is called quæstum carcerarium. Whence it is plain, that dealing in slaves was accounted irreputable.

Heg. Mind what I say from those two cap- Find his true value, and now feel his want.

Whom yesterday I purchased from the Quæs- So ill can bear his sufferings, what should I,

Heg. Indeed! Beware the cage then, if you Besides whole companies of Fishmongerians.

Erg. (crying.) Heav'ns bless you, Hegio! And the same sentiment is finely touched by Shak

I am at leisure.
Heg.
Go, and hunt a hare:-
I've nothing but an hedge-hog:-you will meet
With rugged fare.
Erg.
Don't think to get the better
Of me by that:-I'll come with teeth well shod.
Heg. To say the truth, my viands are full hard.
Erg. You don't champ brambles?
Heg.
Mine's an earthly supper.
Erg. A fine fat sow, why that's an earthly
animal.

Heg. Plenty of vegetables.
Erg.

The best thing

To cure your sick with.-Have you more to say?
Heg. You'll come in time.
Erg.

Whose memory never fails him.

Are both your debtors.

We on this account

Phil. Farther off, so please you. (to Tynd.)
A little off, that these may not be witnesses
Of what we have to say, and that our plot
Be not discovered.-For not plann'd with art,
Deceit is no deceit, but if discovered,

You need not put in mind, It brings the greatest ill to the contrivers.
If you, my Tyndarus, are to pass for me,
[ERGASILUS goes off. And I for you, my master you, and I
I will in,
Look over my accounts, and see what cash
I have remaining in my banker's hands;
Then to my brother's, where I said I'd go. [Exit.

Heg.

ACT II. SCENE I.

Enter Slaves of HEGIO, with PHILOCRATES and
TYNDARUS.

A Slave. If the immortal gods have so decreed,
That this affliction you should undergo,
It is your duty patiently to bear it;
Which if you do, the trouble will be lighter.
When at your home, you I presume, were free:
But since captivity is now your lot,
Submission would become you, and to make
Your master's rule a mild and gentle one
By your good dispositions.-Should a master
Commit unworthy actions, yet his slaves
Must think them worthy ones.

Your servant, we have need of foresight, cau-
tion,

Wisdom and secrecy, and we must act
With prudence, care, and diligence.-It is
A business of great moment, and we must not
Sleep, or be idle in the execution.

They change their manners, and from just become
Dishonest and deceitful.-I now think you
All that I wish, and what I do advise

I would advise the same unto my father.
Phil. And verily, if I durst. I'd call you father;
For next my father you are nearest to me.
Tynd. I understand.
Phil.
Then what I oft have urg'd,
Remember.-I no longer am your master,
But now your servant.-This I beg then of you,-
Since the immortal gods will have it so,
That I, from being once your master, now
Should be your fellow-slave, I do entreat,
By Prayer, a favour which I could command,
Once as my right.-By our uncertain state,
By all my father's kindness shown unto you.
By our joint fellowship in slavery,
Th' event of war, bear me the same regard,

* Per Precem. According to Homer, who makes Prayer a goddess, and one of the daughters of Jupiter.

But whether he is now alive or no,

You must ask further of the nether regions.
Tynd. (aside.) So-all is right,-he's not con-
tent with lying,

Phil. Chain'd as we are, and wall'd in by our But reasons like a wise man.

Tynd. (aside.) Now is the old man in the bar- When he confess'd the truth to you,—although