It was not my wish that you should come to this burial, and I deny that your presence is that of a friend! She shall never wear these garments of yours; she needs not your gifts for her burial. You should have grieved when I was, about to die; but you stood aside, and now do you come to wail over a corpse when you, an old man, allowed a young woman to die?
Were you in very truth father of this body of mine? Did she, who claims to be and is called my mother, bring me forth? Or was I bred of a slave's seed and secretly brought to your wife's breast? You have proved what you are when it comes to the test, and therefore I am not your begotten son; or you surpass all men in cowardice, for, being at the very verge and end of life, you had neither courage nor will to die for your son. But this you left to a woman, a stranger, whom alone I hold as my father and my mother!
Yet it had been a beautiful deed in you to die for your son, and short indeed was the time left you to live. She and I would have lived out our lives, and I should not now be here alone lamenting my misery.
You enjoyed all that a happy man can enjoy-you passed the flower of your age as a king, and in me your son you had an heir to your dominion; you would not have died childless, leaving an orphaned house to be plundered by strangers. You will not say that you abandoned me to death because I dishonoured your old age, for above all I was respectful to you-and this is the gratitude I have from you and my mother!
Beget more sons, and quickly, to cherish your old age and wrap you in a shroud when dead and lay your body out in state! This hand of mine shall not inter you. I am dead to you. I look upon the light of day because another saved me-I say I am her son, and will cherish her old age!
Vainly do old men pray for death, regretting their age and the long span of life. If death draws near, none wants to die, and age is no more a burden to him.
LEADER
Admetus! The present misfortune is enough. Do not provoke your father's spirit.
(ADMETUS turns angrily to depart, but PHERES prevents him.)PHERES
My son, do you think you are pursuing some hireling Lydian or Phrygian with your taunts? Do you know I am a Thessalian, a free man lawfully begotten by a Thessalian father? You are over-insolent, and you shall not leave thus, after wounding me with your boyish insults. I indeed begot you, and bred you up to be lord of this land, but I am not bound to die for you. It is not a law of our ancestors or of Hellas that the fathers should die for the children!
You were born to live your own life, whether miserable or fortunate;and what is due to you from me you have. You rule over many men, and Ishall leave you many wide fields even as received them from my own father. How, then, have I wronged you? Of what have I robbed you? Do not die for me, any more than I die for you. You love to look upon the light of day-do you think your father hates it? I tell myself that we are a long time underground and that life is short, but sweet.
But you-you strove shamelessly not to die, and you are alive, you shirked your fate by killing her! And you call me a coward, you, the worst of cowards, surpassed by a woman who died for you, pretty boy? And now you insult those who should be dear to you, when they refuse to die for a coward like you!
Be silent! Learn that if you love your life, so do others. If you utter insults, you shall hear many, and true ones too!
LEADER
These insults and those that went before suffice. Old man, cease to revile your son.
ADMETUS (to PHERES)
Speak on! I shall refute you. If the truth wounds you when you hear it you should not have wronged me.
PHERES
I should have wronged you far more if I had died for you.
ADMETUS
It is the same then to die an old man and in the flower of life?
PHERES
We should live one life, not two.
ADMETUS
May you live longer than God!
PHERES
Do you curse your parents when they have done you no wrong?
ADMETUS
I see you are in love with long life.
PHERES
But you are not carrying her dead body in place of your own?
ADMETUS
It is the proof of your cowardice, O worst of men.
PHERES
You cannot say she died for me!
ADMETUS
Alas! May you one day need my help.
PHERES
Woo many women, so that more may die for you.
ADMETUS
To your shame be it-you who dared not die.
PHERES
Sweet is the daylight of the Gods, very sweet.
ADMETUS
Your spirit is mean, not a man's.
PHERES
Would you laugh to carry an old man's body to the grave?
ADMETUS
You will die infamous, whenever you die.
PHERES
It will matter little enough to me to hear ill of myself when I am dead!
ADMETUS
Alas! Alas! full of impudence. is old age!
PHERES
She was not impudent, but foolish, ADMETUSGo! Leave me to bury her body.
PHERES (turning away)
I go. You, her murderer, will bury her-but soon you must render an account to her relatives. Acastus is not a man if he fails to avenge his sister's blood on you!
(PHERES goes out by the way he entered, followed by his attendants. ADMETUS gazes angrily after him.)ADMETUS
Go with a curse, you, and she who dwells with you! Grow old, as you ought, childless though you have a child. You shall never return to this house. And if I could renounce your hearth as my father's by heralds, I would do it. But we-since this sorrow must be endured-let us go, and set her body on the funeral pyre.
(The Procession moves slowly along the stage, and is joined by the CHORUS. As they pass, the LEADER salutes the body of ALCESTIS.)LEADER (chanting)
Alas! Alas! You who suffer for your courage, O noblest and best of women, hail! May Hermes of the Dead, may Hades, greet you kindly. If there are rewards for the dead, may you share them as you sit by the bride of the Lord of the Dead!
(The Procession has filed out. A servant in mourning hurries out from the guests' quarters.)SERVANT
Many guests from every land, I know, have come to the Palace of Admetus, and I have set food before them, but never one worse than this guest have I welcomed to the hearth.