PROLOGUE



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?

MERC. Are the Gods made of iron?

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