_Jup._ Look up, Amphitryon, and behold, above, The impostor god, the rival of thy love; In thy own shape see Jupiter appear, And let that sight secure thy jealous fear. Disgrace, and infamy, are turned to boast; No fame, in Jove's concurrence, can be lost: What he enjoys, he sanctifies from vice, And, by partaking, stamps into a price, 'Tis I who ought to murmur at my fate, Forced by my love my godhead to translate; When on no other terms I could possess, But by thy form, thy features, and thy dress. To thee were given the blessings that I sought, Which else, not all the bribes of heaven had bought, Then take into thy arms thy envied love, And, in his own despite, triumph o'er Jove. _Merc._ Amphitryon and Alcmena both stand mute, and know not how to take it. [_Aside._ _Sos._ Our sovereign lord Jupiter is a sly companion; he knows how to gild a bitter pill. [_Aside._ _Jup._ From this auspicious night shall rise an heir, Great like his sire, and like his mother fair: Wrongs to redress, and tyrants to disseize; Born for a world that wants a Hercules. Monsters, and monster-men he shall engage, And toil, and struggle, through an impious age. Peace to his labours shall at length succeed; } And murmuring men, unwilling to be freed, } Shall be compelled to happiness, by need. } [JUPITER _is carried back to Heaven_. _Omnes._ We all congratulate Amphitryon. _Merc._ Keep your congratulations to yourselves, gentlemen. 'Tis a nice point, let me tell you that; and the less that's said of it the better. Upon the whole matter, if Amphitryon takes the favour of Jupiter in patience, as from a god, he's a good heathen. _Sos._ I must take a little extraordinary pains to-night, that my spouse may come even with her lady, and produce a squire to attend on young Hercules, when he goes out to seek adventures; that, when his master kills a man, he may stand ready to pick his pockets, and piously relieve his aged parents.--Ah, Bromia, Bromia, if thou hadst been as handsome and as young as Phædra!--I say no more, but somebody might have made his fortunes as well as his master, and never the worse man neither. For, let the wicked world say what they please, The fair wife makes her husband live at ease: The lover keeps him too; and but receives, Like Jove, the remnants that Amphitryon leaves. 'Tis true, the lady has enough in store, To satisfy those two, and eke two more: In fine, the man, who weighs the matter fully, Would rather be the cuckold than the cully. [_Exeunt._ EPILOGUE, SPOKEN BY PHÆDRA.