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20 Omphale with her gilt slipper: and never went mad and killed my wife and children.

Herc. If you don't stop that abuse, sir, you'll pretty soon find out that your immortality is not of much use to you. I'll take and pitch you head-first out of heaven; and it will be more than Pæan himself can do to mend you when your skull's broken.

Jup. Stop! I tell you both again, and don't annoy the company, or I'll turn you both out of the hall. But it's quite fair, Hercules, that Æsculapius should sit above you—because he died first.

Juno (meeting her rival with a disdainful half-bow). A lovely pair of brats indeed, Latona, you have presented Jupiter with!

Latona (with a sweeping curtsey). Oh, we cannot all of us be expected, your majesty, to produce such a beauty as Vulcan!

Ju. (rather disconcerted). Well, lame as he is, he is very useful. He's a charming artist, and has decorated heaven for us with excellent taste. Then he has married Venus, and she is wonderfully fond of him too. But those children of yours—why, that girl's quite a masculine creature, only fit for the country. And now this lust expedition of hers into Scythia—everybody knows her horrible way of living there—killing her visitors and eating them—as bad as those cannibals, the Scythians themselves. Then Apollo,—he pretends, I'm told, to know everything