ALCESTIS (_her
strength
failing_).
Euripides - 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.
