University of Virginia Library

LOVE OMNIPOTENT.

A DIALOGUE OF THE GODS.

ACT I.

Scene: Hades.
Pluto, Mercury.
Pluto.
My Furies all are getting old, and fill
Their office, I protest, extremely ill;
Go, Mercury, to Earth, and gather there
A score or so; there 's plenty and to spare,
I warrant me, among the womankind,
By use and disposition well designed
For Fury-service of the active sort.
Examine well, and bring me due report.

Mercury.
I'm off at once! I fancy I can find
Fifty, at least, exactly to your mind;
Sharp-tongued, sour-visaged, malice-loving ladies
Whom others than yourself have wished in Hades!
[Exit Mercury

ACT II.

Scene: Olympus: Juno's boudoir.
Juno, Iris.
Juno.
I'm much annoyed, good Iris, with the airs
Of vaunting Venus,—as if all affairs
In heaven and earth were under her control!
I hear she boasts that scarce a human soul
Is free from her authority; that all
The people in the world are fain to fall
Upon their knees at her command, and own
No equal goddess on the Olympian throne.

Iris.
Is 't possible?

Juno.
Yes, Iris, worse than that,
She and her boy, (a mischief-breeding brat!)
Who aids his mother by his wicked art,
Declare (O shame!) there 's not a female heart
In all the universe—below, above—
Which has not felt the subtle force of love!
An arrant falsehood, spoken just to vex
The Queen of Heaven, and scandalize the sex.
Among the earthly maidens, therefore, go,
And bring me back some evidence to show
That Cytherea says—what is n't so!

Iris.
I fly! and never for a moment doubt
I'll bring you proofs to wipe the slander out.

[Exit Iris.

ACT III.

Scene. same as before. Juno reading.
(Enter Iris.)
Iris.
O gracious Queen, I 've had a precious time!
Well, I must say, if love is such a crime
As well I know it is, (the more 's the pity!)
There 's not a place on earth—hamlet or city—
That is n't full of it! In actual life
'T is the chief topic; fiction, too, is rife
With endless talk about it. On the stage,
In poems, songs, 't is everywhere the rage.
Love, love, was still the theme where'er I went,
In court, cot, castle, and the warrior's tent,
Love-knots, love-plots, love-murders!—such a rush
For love-romances in the papers—

Juno.
Hush!
Do stop your prattle, Iris, and confess
You found some souls as yet untainted—

Iris.
Yes!
That is, I heard of three,—three virgin breasts
That never once had throbbed at Love's behests.

Juno.
Of course you brought them with you. Three will prove
All are not vassals to the Queen of Love!

Iris.
Well—no—unluckily, the day before
A royal messenger from Pluto's shore
Took them away to grace his grimy court,
His stock of Furies being something short.

[Juno faints, and curtain falls.