How should thy
revelling
hurt, if that were all?
Euripides - Alcestis
Must I go starved because some stranger dies?
SERVANT.
Some stranger? --Yes, a stranger verily!
HERACLES (_his manner beginning to change_).
Is this some real grief he hath hid from me?
SERVANT.
Go, drink, man! Leave to us our master's woes.
HERACLES.
It sounds not like a stranger. Yet, God knows. . .
SERVANT.
How should thy revelling hurt, if that were all?
HERACLES.
Hath mine own friend so wronged me in his hall?
SERVANT.
Thou camest at an hour when none was free
To accept thee. We were mourning. Thou canst see
Our hair, black robes. . .
HERACLES (_suddenly, in a voice of thunder_).
Who is it that is dead?
SERVANT.
Alcestis, the King's wife.
HERACLES (_overcome_).
What hast thou said?
Alcestis?
