Alcestis | Page 6

gave for ransom his own wife, for whom ...
THANATOS (_interrupting_). I am come; and straight will bear her to
the tomb.
APOLLO. Go, take her.--I can never move thine heart.
THANATOS (_mocking_). To slay the doomed?--Nay; I will do my
part.
APOLLO. No. To keep death for them that linger late.
THANATOS (_still mocking_). 'Twould please thee, so?... I owe thee
homage great.

APOLLO. Ah, then she may yet ... she may yet grow old?
THANATOS (_with a laugh_). No!... I too have my rights, and them I
hold.
APOLLO. 'Tis but one life thou gainest either-wise.
THANATOS. When young souls die, the richer is my prize.
APOLLO. Old, with great riches they will bury her.
THANATOS. Fie on thee, fie! Thou rich-man's lawgiver!
APOLLO. How? Is there wit in Death, who seemed so blind?
THANATOS. The rich would buy long life for all their kind.
APOLLO. Thou will not grant me, then, this boon? 'Tis so?
THANATOS. Thou knowest me, what I am: I tell thee, no!
APOLLO. I know gods sicken at thee and men pine.
THANATOS. Begone! Too many things not meant for thine Thy greed
hath conquered; but not all, not all!
APOLLO. I swear, for all thy bitter pride, a fall Awaits thee. One even
now comes conquering Towards this house, sent by a southland king
To fetch him four wild coursers, of the race Which rend men's bodies in
the winds of Thrace. This house shall give him welcome good, and he
Shall wrest this woman from thy worms and thee. So thou shalt give
me all, and thereby win But hatred, not the grace that might have been.
[Exit APOLLO.]
THANATOS. Talk on, talk on! Thy threats shall win no bride From
me.--This woman, whatsoe'er betide, Shall lie in Hades' house. Even at
the word I go to lay upon her hair my sword. For all whose head this
grey sword visiteth To death are hallowed and the Lords of death.

[THANATOS _goes into the house. Presently, as the day grows lighter,
the_ CHORUS _enters: it consists of Citizens of Pherae, who speak
severally._]
CHORUS.
LEADER. Quiet, quiet, above, beneath!
SECOND ELDER. The house of Admetus holds its breath.
THIRD ELDER. And never a King's friend near, To tell us either of
tears to shed For Pelias' daughter, crowned and dead; Or joy, that her
eyes are clear. Bravest, truest of wives is she That I have seen or the
world shall see.
DIVERS CITIZENS, conversing. (The dash -- indicates a new
speaker.)
--Hear ye no sob, or noise of hands Beating the breast? No mourners'
cries For one they cannot save? --Nothing: and at the door there stands
No handmaid.--Help, O Paian; rise, O star beyond the wave!
--Dead, and this quiet? No, it cannot be. --Dead, dead!--Not gone to
burial secretly!
--Why? I still fear: what makes your speech so brave? --Admetus cast
that dear wife to the grave Alone, with none to see?
--I see no bowl of clear spring water. It ever stands before the dread
Door where a dead man rests. --No lock of shorn hair! Every daughter
Of woman shears it for the dead. No sound of bruisèd breasts!
--Yet 'tis this very day ...--This very day? --The Queen should pass and
lie beneath the clay. --It hurts my life, my heart!--All honest hearts
Must sorrow for a brightness that departs, A good life worn away.
LEADER. To wander o'er leagues of land, To search over wastes of sea,
Where the Prophets of Lycia stand, Or where Ammon's daughters three
Make runes in the rainless sand, For magic to make her free-- Ah, vain!

for the end is here; Sudden it comes and sheer. What lamb on the
altar-strand Stricken shall comfort me?
SECOND ELDER. Only, only one, I know: Apollo's son was he, Who
healed men long ago. Were he but on earth to see, She would rise from
the dark below And the gates of eternity. For men whom the Gods had
slain He pitied and raised again; Till God's fire laid him low, And now,
what help have we?
OTHERS. All's done that can be. Every vow Full paid; and every altar's
brow Full crowned with spice of sacrifice. No help remains nor respite
now.
Enter from the Castle a HANDMAID, _almost in tears._
LEADER. But see, a handmaid cometh, and the tear Wet on her cheek!
What tiding shall we hear?... Thy grief is natural, daughter, if some ill
Hath fallen to-day. Say, is she living still Or dead, your mistress?
Speak, if speak you may.
MAID. Alive. No, dead.... Oh, read it either way.
LEADER. Nay, daughter, can the same soul live and die?
MAID. Her life is broken; death is in her eye.
LEADER. Poor King, to think what she was, and what