_Phæd._ Ay, my lord, I see you are on fire; but the devil a bucket shall be brought to quench it, without my leave. You may go to bed, madam; but you shall see how heaven will bless your night's work, if you forswear yourself:--Some fool, some mere elder-brother, or some blockheadly hero, Jove, I beseech thee, send her! _Jup._ [_Aside._] Now I could call my thunder to revenge me, But that were to confess myself a god, And then I lost my love!----Alcmena, come; By heaven I have a bridegroom's fervour for thee, As I had ne'er enjoyed. _Alc._ She has my oath; [_Sighing._ And sure she may release it, if she pleases. _Phæd._ Why truly, madam, I am not cruel in my nature, to poor distressed lovers; for it may be my own case another day: and therefore, if my lord pleases to consider me---- _Jup._ Any thing, any thing! but name thy wish, and have it. _Phæd._ Ay, now you say, any thing, any thing; but you would tell me another story to-morrow morning. Look you, my lord, here is a hand open to receive; you know the meaning of it; I am for nothing but the ready---- _Jup._ Thou shalt have all the treasury of heaven. _Phæd._ Yes, when you are Jupiter, to dispose of it. _Jup._ [_Aside._] I had forgot, and shewed myself a god: This love can make a fool of Jupiter. _Phæd._ You have forgot some part of the enemies' spoil, I warrant you. I see a little trifling diamond upon your finger; and I am proud enough to think it would become mine too. _Jup._ Here take it.-- [_Taking a Ring off his Finger, and giving it._ This is a very woman; Her sex is avarice, and she, in one, Is all her sex. _Phæd._ Ay, ay, 'tis no matter what you say of us. What, would you have your money out of the treasury, without paying the officers their fees? Go, get you together, you naughty couple, till you are both weary of worrying one another; and then to-morrow morning I shall have another fee for parting you. [PHÆDRA _goes out before_ ALCMENA _with a light_. _Jup._ Why now, I am indeed the lord of all; For what's to be a god, but to enjoy? Let human kind their sovereign's leisure wait; Love is, this night, my great affair of state: Let this one night of providence be void; All Jove, for once, is on himself employ'd. Let unregarded altars smoke in vain; And let my subjects praise me, or complain: Yet if, betwixt my intervals of bliss, Some amorous youth his orisons address, His prayer is in a happy hour preferred; And when Jove loves, a lover shall be heard. [_Exit._ ACT II. SCENE I.--_A Night Scene of a Palace._ SOSIA, _with a Dark-Lanthorn_; MERCURY, _in_ SOSIA'S _shape, with a Dark-Lanthorn also_.