weight with you, if ever I have been dear to you, if you bear a heart
that can share the resentment of a mother who loves you so tenderly,
use here your utmost power to support my interests, and cause Psyche
to feel the shafts of my revenge through your own darts. To render her
miserable, choose the dart that will please me most, one of those in
which lurks the keenest venom, and which you hurl in your wrath. See
that she loves, even to madness, the basest and lowest of mortals, and
let her hear the cruel torture of love unreturned.

CUP. In the world nothing is heard but complaints of Cupid; everywhere
a thousand freaks are laid to my charge, and you could not believe the
evil and the foolish things which are daily said of me. If, to assist
your wrath....

VEN. Be gone; no longer resist your mother's wishes; use reasoning
only to find the shortest method of offering a sacrifice to my
outraged glory. Let your departure be your only answer to my
entreaties, and do not see my face again until you have avenged me.

CUPID _flies off, and_ VENUS _withdraws with the two_
GRACES. _The scenery changes to a large town, with palaces and
houses of different architecture on both sides of the stage_.



ACT I

SCENE I.--AGLAURA, CIDIPPE.