Perde 4
[Textpart 2c]
Attend, please. With this right hand, as you know, I slew king Pterelas; his spoils I seized, and the goblet from which he had been used to drink I brought away in a casket; I made a present of it to my wife, with whom this day at home I bathed, I sacrificed, and slept.
AMPHITRYON
Ah me! what do I hear? I scarcely am myself. For, awake, I am asleep; awake, I am in a dream; alive and well, I come to destruction. I am that same Amphitryon, the descendant ofDescendant of: Nepos cannot here mean grandson, as Gorgophone was not a lineal ancestor of Amphitryon, being the sister of his father Alcaeus. Gorgophone, the general of the Thebans, and the sole combatant for Creon against the Teleboans; I, who have subdued by my might the Acarnanians and the Taphians, and, by my consummate warlike prowess, their king. Over these have I appointed Cephalus, the son of the great Deioneus.
JUPITER
I am he who by warfare and my valour crushed the hostile ravagers. They had destroyed Electryon and the brothers of my wife. Wandering through the Ionian, the Aegean, and the Cretan seas, with piratical violence they laid waste Achaia, Aetolia, and Phocis.
AMPHITRYON
Immortal Gods! I cannot trust my own self, so exactly does he relate all the things that happened there. Consider, Blepharo.
BLEPHARO
One thing only remains; if so it is, do you be Amphitryons both of you.
JUPITER
I knew what you would say. The scar that I have on the muscle of my right arm, from the wound which Pterelas gave me—
AMPHITRYON
Quite to the purpose.
JUPITER
See you! look, behold!
BLEPHARO
Uncover, and I’ll look.
JUPITER
We have uncovered. Look!
BLEPHARO
Supreme Jupiter, what do I behold? On the right-arm muscle of each, in the same spot, the scar clearly appears with the same mark, reddish and somewhat livid, just as it has first commenced to close. Reasoning is at a standstill, all judgment is struck dumb; I don’t know what to do.What to do: , With this line terminates what is generally called the supposititious part of this Play.
[Textpart 3]
Do you settle these matters between yourselves; I’m off, for I have business; and I do not think that I have ever anywhere beheld such extraordinary wonders.
1035
AMPHITRYON
Blepharo, I pray that you’ll stay as my advocate, and not go away.
BLEPHARO
Farewell. What need is there of me for an advocate, who don’t know which of the two to side with?
JUPITER
I’m going hence in-doors: Alcmena is in labour.
AMPHITRYON
I’m undone, wretch that I am;
for what am I to do, when my advocates and friends are now forsaking me? Never, by heavens, shall he deride me unrevenged, whoever he is. Now will I betake myself straight to the king, and tell him of the matter as it has happened. By my faith, I will this day take vengeance on this Thessalian sorcerer, who has wrongfully distracted the minds of my household.
1040
But where is he? (Looking around.) By my troth, he’s off into the house, to my wife, I suppose. What other person lives in Thebes more wretched than myself? What now shall I do? I, whom all men deny and deride just as they please. I am resolved; I’ll burst into the house; there, whatever person I perceive, whether maid-servant or man-servant, whether wife or whether paramour,
1045
whether father or whether grandfather, I’ll behead that person in the house; neither Jupiter nor all the Deities shall hinder me from this, even if they would, but that I’ll do just as I have resolved.
1050
