234 OLYMPIC DIALOGUE. 



Mercury^] That would be but a trifle. 



Ceres, ,] Has my charming Sicily been laid wife by 

 an eruption of iEtna ? 



Bacchus^ Or an -untimely froffc blighted' all the 

 campanian vines ? 



Mercury.'] Trifles ! trifles ! 



Jupiter. ~] Well ; out with thy difmal iTory ! 



Mercury.} It is nothing more than x — \paujing7] 



Jupiter r\ Make me not impatient, Hermes ! what 

 is the meaning of nothing more than — ? 

 - Mercury.l Nothing, Jupiter, but that, on a motion 

 made by the imperator himfelf in the fenate of Rome 

 -—by a great majority of voices— thou art formally 

 depofed. 



\jthe deities all fuddenly rife from table in great agita-* 

 tion7\ 



Jupiter y who alone remains feated, laughing."] No- 

 thing more than that ? — This I have long ago fore- 

 feen. 



All the deities at o?ice.~\ . Jupiter depofed ! is it $of- 

 £ble ? Jupiter ! 



Juno.] Thou fpeakeft wildly, Mercury. — .ZEfcu- 

 lapius, pray feel his pulfe 2 , 



T'be deilves .j Jupiter depofed ! 



Mercurv.] As I faid before, formally and folemnly, 

 by a great majority of voices, declared to be a man of 

 ftraw, — what do I fay ? a man of ftraw is Hill fome- 

 thing ! — lefs than a man of ftraw, a non-entity, de- 

 prived of his temple, of his prieits 5 of his dignity as 

 fupreme protector of the roman empire! 



Hercules.] This is a very ftupid piece of news, 

 Mercury — but, as fure as my name is Hercules, 



\bran^ 



