[Exit VISUS.
TAC. Who have we here? see, see, the giant Cacus
Draws an ox backward to his thievish den.
Hath this device so long deluded me?
Monster of men, Cacus, restore my cattle,
Or instantly I'll crush thy idle coxcomb,
And dash thy doltish brains against thy cave.
APP. Cacus! I Cacus? ha, ha, ha! Tactus, you mistake me;
I am yours to command, Appetitus.
TAC. Art Appetitus? Th'art so; run quickly, villain;
Fetch a whole ox to satisfy my stomach.
APP. Fetch an ass to keep you company.
TAC. Then down to hell: tell Pluto, prince of devils,
That great Alcides wants a kitchen wench
To turn his spit. Command him from myself
To send up Proserpine; she'll serve the turn.
APP. I must find you meat, and the devil find you cooks!
Which is the next[305] way?
TAC. Follow the beaten path, thou canst not miss it.
'Tis a wide causeway that conducteth thither,
An easy track, and down-hill all the way.
But if the black prince will not send her quickly,
But still detain her for his bedfellow,
Tell him I'll drag him from his iron chair
By the steel tresses, and then sew him fast
With the three furies in a leathern bag,
And thus will drown them in the ocean.
He pours the jack of beer upon APPETITUS.
APP. You had better keep him alive to light tobacco-pipes, or to sweep chimneys.
TAC. Art thou not gone? nay, then I'll send thy soul
Before thee; 'twill do thy message sooner. [Beats him.