Yea, for I see thy heart is set on length of days.PheresIs it not to save thyself thou art carrying to the tomb this corpse?AdmetusA proof of thy cowardice, thou craven heart!PheresAt any rate her death was not due to me; this thou canst not say.AdmetusAh! mayst thou some day come to need my aid!PheresWoo many wives, that there may be the more to die.AdmetusThat is thy reproach, for thou didst refuse to die.PheresDear is the light of the sun-god, dear to all.AdmetusA coward soul is thine, not to be reckoned among men.PheresNo laughing now for thee at bearing forth my aged corpse.AdmetusThy death will surely be a death of shame, come when it will.PheresOnce dead I little reck of foul report.AdmetusAlas! how void of shame the old can be!PheresHers was no want of shame; ’twas want of sense in her that thou didst find.AdmetusBegone! and leave me to bury my dead.PheresI go; bury thy victim, thyself her murderer. Her kinsmen yet will call for an account. Else surely has Acastus ceased to be a man, if he avenge not on thee his sister’s blood.AdmetusPerdition seize thee and that wife of thine! grow old, as ye deserve, childless, though your son yet lives, for ye shall never enter the same abode with me; nay! were it needful I should disown thy paternal hearth by heralds’ voice, I had disowned it. (Exit PHERES). Now, since we must bear our present woe, let us go and lay the dead upon the pyre. [Exit ADMETUS.

ChorusWoe, woe for thee! Alas, for thy hardihood! Noble spirit, good beyond compare, farewell! May Hermes in the nether world, and Hades, too, give thee a kindly welcome! and if even in that other life the good are rewarded, mayst thou have thy share therein and take thy seat by Hades’ bride!AttendantMany the guests ere now from every comer of the world I have seen come to the halls of Admetus, for whom I have spread the board, but never yet have I welcomed to this hearth a guest so shameless as this; a man who, in the first place, though he saw my master’s grief, yet entered and presumed to pass the gates, then took what cheer we had in no sober spirit, though he knew our sorrow; no! was there aught we failed to bring? he called for it. Next in his hands he took a goblet of ivy-wood and drank the pure juice of the black grape, till the mounting fumes of wine heated him, and he crowned his head with myrtle-sprays, howling discordantly, while two-fold strains were there to hear, for he would sing without a thought for the troubles in Admetus’ halls, while we servants mourned our mistress, though we did not let the stranger see our streaming eyes, for such was the bidding of Admetus. So now here am I entertaining as a guest some miscreant thief maybe, or robber, while she is gone forth from the house, nor did I follow her nor stretch my hand towards her bier, in mourning for my lady, who, to me, and all her servants, was a mother, for she would save us from countless trouble, appeasing her husband’s angry mood. Have I not good cause then to loathe this guest who cometh in our hour of woe?HeraclesHo! sirrah, why that solemn, thoughtful look? ’Tis not the way for servants to scowl on guests, but with courteous soul to welcome them. But thou, seeing a friend of thy master arrive, receivest him with sullen, lowering brow, though ’tis but a stranger that is the object of thy mourning. Come hither, that thou too mayst learn more wisdom. Dost know the nature of this mortal state? I trow not; how shouldst thou? Well, lend an ear to me. Death is the common debt of man; no mortal really knows if he will live to see the morrow’s light;