And be thou ever blest!
While, should he choose to wed again,
Mine and his children's hearts would hold him in disdain.

_Antistrophe II_

When, to avert his doom,
His mother in the earth refused to lie;
Nor would his ancient father die
To save his son from an untimely tomb;
Though the hand of time had spread
Hoar hairs o'er each aged head:
In youth's fresh bloom, in beauty's radiant glow,
The darksome way thou daredst to go,
And for thy youthful lord's to give thy life.
Be ours so true a wife!
Though rare the lot, then should we prove
Th' indissoluble bond of faithfulness and love.

EPISODE II

_Enter on the Stage through the distance-entrance [Left Side-door] the
colossal figure of Hercules. Here is the turning-point of the play:
which has the peculiarity of combining an element of the Satyric Drama
(or Burlesque) with Tragedy, the combination anticipating the
'Action-Drama' (or 'Tragi-Comedy') of modern times. Accordingly the
costume and mask of Hercules are compounded, of his conventional
appearance in Tragedy, in which he is conceived as the perfection of
physical strength toiling and suffering for mankind, and his
conventional appearance in Satyric plays as the gigantic feeder, etc.
The two are harmonized in the conception of conscious energy rejoicing
in itself, and plunging with equal eagerness into duty and relaxation,
while each lasts._

_Hercules_ hails the Chorus and enquires for Admetus. They reply that
he is within the Palace, and [shrinking, like all Greeks, from being
the first to tell evil tidings] turn the conversation by enquiring what
brings the Demi-god to Pherae--_in stichomuthic dialogue_ it is brought
out that Hercules is on his way to one of his 'Labors'--that of the
Thracian Steeds; and (so lightly does the thought of toil sit on him)
it appears he has not troubled to enquire what the task meant: from the
Chorus he learns for the first time the many dangers before him, and
how the Steeds are devourers of human flesh.

_Herc._ A toil you tell of that well fits my fate, {517}
My life of hardship, ever struggling upward.

Admetus now appears, in mourning garb: after first salutations between
the two friends, Hercules enquires what his trouble is, which gives
scope for a favorite effect in Greek Drama--'dissimu