TAC.  Did not these feet and hands o’ertake and slay
The nimble stag and fierce impetuous bull?

APP.  Did not this throat at one good meal devour
That stag’s sweet venison and that strong bull’s beef?

TAC.  Shall Hercules be thus disparaged? 
Juno! you pouting quean, you louring trull,
Take heed I take you not; for by Jove’s thunder
I’ll be reveng’d.

[APPETITUS draws VISUS backward from TACTUS.

APP.  Why, Visus, Visus, will you be kill’d? away, away.

[Exit VISUS.

TAC.  Who have we here? see, see, the giant Cacus
Draws an ox backward to his thievish den. 
Hath this device so long deluded me? 
Monster of men, Cacus, restore my cattle,
Or instantly I’ll crush thy idle coxcomb,
And dash thy doltish brains against thy cave.

APP.  Cacus!  I Cacus? ha, ha, ha!  Tactus, you mistake me;
I am yours to command, Appetitus.

TAC.  Art Appetitus?  Th’art so; run quickly, villain;
Fetch a whole ox to satisfy my stomach.

APP.  Fetch an ass to keep you company.

TAC.  Then down to hell:  tell Pluto, prince of devils,
That great Alcides wants a kitchen wench
To turn his spit.  Command him from myself
To send up Proserpine; she’ll serve the turn.

APP.  I must find you meat, and the devil find you cooks! 
Which is the next[305] way?

TAC.  Follow the beaten path, thou canst not miss it. 
’Tis a wide causeway that conducteth thither,
An easy track, and down-hill all the way. 
But if the black prince will not send her quickly,
But still detain her for his bedfellow,
Tell him I’ll drag him from his iron chair
By the steel tresses, and then sew him fast
With the three furies in a leathern bag,
And thus will drown them in the ocean.
                           He pours the jack of beer upon APPETITUS.

APP.  You had better keep him alive to light tobacco-pipes, or to sweep chimneys.

TAC.  Art thou not gone? nay, then I’ll send thy soul
Before thee; ’twill do thy message sooner. [Beats him.

APP.  Hercules, Hercules, Hercules! do not you hear Omphale? hark how she calls you, hark!

TAC.  ’Tis she indeed, I know her sugar’d voice: 
Omphale, dear commandress of my life,
My thoughts’ repose, sweet centre of my cares,
Where all my hopes and best desires take rest. 
Lo! where the mighty son of Jupiter
Throws himself captive at your conquering feet! 
Do not disdain my voluntary humbleness: 
Accept my service, bless me with commanding. 
I will perform the hardest imposition,
And run through twelve new labours for thy sake. 
Omphale, dear commandress of my life.

APP.  Do you not see how she beckons to you to follow her?  Look how she holds her distaff, look ye?

TAC.  Where is she gone, that I may follow her? 
Omphale, stay, stay, take thy Hercules!