ALCESTIS 211
For realms below and their infernal king ! soo
Never will we affirm there 's more of joy
Than grief in marriage ; making estimate
Both from old sorrows anciently observed,
And this misfortune of the king we see —
Admetos who, of bravest spouse bereaved, aos
Will live life's remnant out, no life at all ! "
So wailed they, while a sad procession wound
Slow from the innermost o' the palace, stopped
At the extreme verge of the platformfront :
There opened, and disclosed Alkestis' self 310
The consecrated lady, home to look
Her last — and let the living look their last —
She at the sun, ice at Alkestis. 313
" Sun, and thou light of day, and heavenly dance seo O' the fleet cloud-figure ! " (so her passion paused, "While the awe-stricken husband made his moan. Muttered now this now that iiieptitude ;) " Sun that sees thee and me, a suffering pair, Who did the Gods no wrong whence thou should'st die ! " 365
Then, as if caught up, carried in their course. Fleeting and free as cloud and sunheam are. She missed no happiness that lay beneath : " Ο thou wide earth, from these my palace roofs. To distant nuptial chambers once my own 370
In that lolkos of my ancestry ! " — There the flight failed her. " Raise thee, wretched one ! Give us not up ! Pray pity from the Gods ! "
Vainly Admetos : for " I see it — see
The two-oared boat ! The ferry er of the dead, 375
