Part 2 (1/2)

[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 bruised b.r.e.a.s.t.s!

--Yet 'tis this very day ...--This very day?

--The Queen should pa.s.s 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 G.o.ds had slain He pitied and raised again; Till G.o.d'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?...