Amphitryon

Name: Amphitryon
Author: Molière

by Molière

Pages: about 56
Category: Literature & Fiction
Language: English
Reading time: 61 min at 250 wpm

Start readingThe whole book, as cards or one word at a time. 34 min at 450 wpm in Read mode.

From the opening

Note: It is perhaps hardly necessary to refer the reader to Amphitryon, by Plautus, the comedy 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 any comedy of Moliere's loses more in the process of translation.
MERCURY. NIGHT. JUPITER, under the form of Amphitryon. AMPHITRYON, general of the Thebans. ALCMÈNE, Amphitryon's wife. CLÉANTHIS, Alcmène's attendant and Sosie's wife. SOSIE, Amphitryon's valet. ARGATIPHONTIDAS, } NAUCRATÈS, } Theban captains. POLIDAS, } POSICLÈS, }
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 become the Gods to say they are tired?
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.

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Amphitryon

From the opening

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