Rests in my soul this confidence--
The good shall yet safe from their trials rise. {636}

EPISODE III

_The Central Gates open and the Funeral Procession slowly files out and
begins to fill the Stage_. Admetus beside the bier of Alcestis is
calling on the Chorus (as representing the citizens of Pherae) to join
in the invocations to the dead--when _suddenly another Procession
appears on the Stage [entering by the Right Side-door, as from the
immediate neighborhood]: it is headed by the father and mother of
Admetus, both of whom have reached the furthest verge of old age, and
who with difficulty totter along, while attendants follow them bearing
sumptuous drapery and other funeral gifts. The scene settles down into
the 'Forensic Contest,' a fixed feature of every Greek Tragedy, in
which the 'case' of the hero and the opposition to it are brought out
with all the formality of a judicial process, the long rheses
representing advocates' speeches, the stichomuthic dialogue suggesting
cross-examination, and the Chorus interposing as moderators_.

_Pheres_ in the tone of conventional consolation speaks of the virtues
of the dead, and the special virtue of Alcestis's sacrifice, which has
saved her husband's life, and himself from a childless old age; it is
meet then that he should do honor to the corpse. _Attendants of
Admetus advance to receive the presents: Admetus waves them back and
stands coldly confronting his father. At last he speaks._ His father
is an uninvited guest at this funeral feast, and unwelcome: the dead
shall never be arrayed in his gifts. Then was the time for his father
to show kindness when a life was demanded: and yet he could stand aloof
and let a younger die! He will never believe himself the son of so
mean and abject a soul.

At such an age, just trembling on the verge {677}
Of life, thou would'st not, nay, thou dared'st not die
For thine own son; but thou couldst suffer _her_,
Though sprung from foreign blood: with justice then
Her only as my father must I deem,
Her only as my mother. Yet this course
Mightst thou have run with glory, for thy son
Daring to die; brief was the space of life
That could remain to thee: I then had lived
My destin'd time, she too had lived.

Yet Pheres had already had his share of all that makes life happy: a
youth amid royal luxury, a prosperous