Alcestis | Page 9

my life but every year, While life shall last.... My mother I will know No more. My father shall be held my foe. They brought the words of love but not the deed, While thou hast given thine all, and in my need Saved me. What can I do but weep alone, Alone alway, when such a wife is gone?... An end shall be of revel, and an end Of crowns and song and mirth of friend with friend, Wherewith my house was glad. I ne'er again Will touch the lute nor ease my heart from pain With pipes of Afric. All the joys I knew, And joys were many, thou hast broken in two. Oh, I will find some artist wondrous wise Shall mould for me thy shape, thine hair, thine eyes, And lay it in thy bed; and I will lie Close, and reach out mine arms to thee, and cry Thy name into the night, and wait and hear My own heart breathe: "Thy love, thy love is near." A cold delight; yet it might ease the sum Of sorrow.... And good dreams of thee will come Like balm. 'Tis sweet, even in a dream, to gaze On a dear face, the moment that it stays. O God, if Orpheus' voice were mine, to sing To Death's high Virgin and the Virgin's King, Till their hearts failed them, down would I my path Cleave, and naught stay me, not the Hound of Wrath, Not the grey oarsman of the ghostly tide, Till back to sunlight I had borne my bride. But now, wife, wait for me till I shall come Where thou art, and prepare our second home. These ministers in that same cedar sweet Where thou art laid will lay me, feet to feet, And head to head, oh, not in death from thee Divided, who alone art true to me!
LEADER. This life-long sorrow thou hast sworn, I too, Thy friend, will bear with thee. It is her due.
ALCESTIS. Children, ye heard his promise? He will wed No other woman nor forget the dead.
ADMETUS. Again I promise. So it shall be done.
ALCESTIS (_giving the children into his arms one after the other_). On that oath take my daughter: and my son.
ADMETUS. Dear hand that gives, I accept both gift and vow.
ALCESTIS. Thou, in my place, must be their mother now.
ADMETUS. Else were they motherless--I needs must try.
ALCESTIS. My babes, I ought to live, and lo, I die.
ADMETUS. And how can I, forlorn of thee, live on?
ALCESTIS. Time healeth; and the dead are dead and gone.
ADMETUS. Oh, take me with thee to the dark below, Me also!
ALCESTIS. 'Tis enough that one should go.
ADMETUS. O Fate, to have cheated me of one so true!
ALCESTIS (_her strength failing_). There comes a darkness: a great burden, too.
ADMETUS. I am lost if thou wilt leave me.... Wife! Mine own!
ALCESTIS. I am not thy wife; I am nothing. All is gone.
ADMETUS. Thy babes! Thou wilt not leave them.--Raise thine eye.
ALCESTIS. I am sorry.... But good-bye, children; good-bye.
ADMETUS. Look at them! Wake and look at them!
ALCESTIS. I must go.
ADMETUS. What? Dying!
ALCESTIS. Farewell, husband! [_She dies._]
ADMETUS (_with a cry_). Ah!... Woe, woe!
LEADER. Admetus' Queen is dead!
[While ADMETUS _is weeping silently, and the_ CHORUS _veil their faces, the_ LITTLE BOY runs up to his dead Mother.]
LITTLE BOY. Oh, what has happened? Mummy has gone away, And left me and will not come back any more! Father, I shall be lonely all the day.... Look! Look! Her eyes ... and her arms not like before, How they lie ... Mother! Oh, speak a word! Answer me, answer me, Mother! It is I. I am touching your face. It is I, your little bird.
ADMETUS (_recovering himself and going to the Child_). She hears us not, she sees us not. We lie Under a heavy grief, child, thou and I.
LITTLE BOY. I am so little, Father, and lonely and cold Here without Mother. It is too hard.... And you, Poor little sister, too. Oh, Father! Such a little time we had her. She might have stayed On till we all were old.... Everything is spoiled when Mother is dead.
[The LITTLE BOY _is taken away, with his Sister, sobbing_.]
LEADER. My King, thou needs must gird thee to the worst. Thou shalt not be the last, nor yet the first, To lose a noble wife. Be brave, and know To die is but a debt that all men owe.
ADMETUS. I know. It came not without doubts and fears, This thing. The thought hath poisoned all my years. Howbeit, I now will make the burial due To this dead Queen. Be assembled, all of you; And, after, raise your triumph-song to greet This pitiless Power that yawns beneath our feet. Meantime let all in Thessaly who dread My sceptre join in