Epilogue
Enter Venus with the Muses.
Venus. Now, worthy Muses, with unwilling mind
Venus is forc’d to trudge to heaven again,
For Jupiter, that god of peerless power,
Proclaimed hath a solemn festival
In honour of Dame Danaë’s luckless death;
Unto the which, in pain of his displeasure,
He hath invited all the immortal gods
And goddesses, so that I must be there,
Unless I will his high displeasure bear.
You see Alphonsus hath, with much ado,
At length obtained fair Iphigena,
Of Amurack her father, for his wife;
Who now are going to the temple wards,
For to perform Dame Juno’s sacred rites;
Where we will leave them, till the feast be done,
Which, in the heavens, by this time is begun.
Meantime, dear Muses, wander you not far
Forth of the path of high Parnassus’ hill,
That, when I come to finish up his life,55
You may be ready for to succour me:
Adieu, dear dames; farewell, Calliope.
Cal. Adieu, you sacred goddess of the sky.
[Exit Venus; or, if you can conveniently, let a chair come down from the top of the stage, and draw her up.
Well, loving sisters, since that she is gone,
Come, let us haste unto Parnassus’ hill,
As Cytherea did lately will.
Melpom. Then make you haste her mind for to fulfil.
[Exeunt omnes, playing on their instruments.