文档介绍：Amphitryon
Amphitryon
Translated by . Waller, .
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Amphitryon
PREFACE
Amphitryon was played for the first time in Paris, at the Theatre du
Palais-Royal, January 13, 1668. It was essfully received, holding the
boards until the 18th of March, when Easter intervened. After the re-
opening of the theatre, it was played half a dozen times more the same
year, and continued to please.
The first edition was published in 1668.
Note: It is perhaps hardly necessary to refer the reader to Amphitryon,
by Plautus, edy upon which Moliere's charming play was, in the
main, based. The rendering attempted here can give but a faint reflection
of the original, for hardly edy of Moliere's loses more in the
process of translation.
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Amphitryon
PROLOGUE
MERCURY, on a cloud; NIGHT, in a chariot drawn by two horses
MERC. Wait! Gentle Night; deign to stay awhile: Some help is needed
from you. I have two words to say to you from Jupiter.
NIGHT. Ah! Ah! It is you, Seigneur Mercury! Who would have
thought of you here, in that position?
MERC. Well, feeling tired, and not being able to fulfil the different
duties Jupiter ordered me, I quietly sat down on this cloud to await your
coming.
NIGHT. You jest, Mercury: you do not mean it; does it e the
Gods to say they are tired?
MERC. Are the Gods made of iron?
NIGHT. No; but one must always have a care for divine decorum.
There are certain words the use of which debases this sublime quality, and
it is meet that these should be left to men, because they are unworthy.
MERC. You speak at your ease, fair lady, from a swiftly rolling chariot,
in which, like a dame free from care; you are drawn by two fine horses
wherever you like. But it is not the same with me. Such is my miserable
fate that I cannot bear the poets too great a grudge for their gross
impertinence in having, by an unjust law, which they wish to retain in
force, given a separate conveyance to each God, for his own use, and left
me t