ALCESTIS.
45
Chorus.
No help bringeth this
To thy love in that place.
Admetus.
Woe!
Chorus.
Bitter it is
The face of a wife well-belovèd for ever and ever to miss.
Admetus.
Thou hast stricken mine heart
Where the wound will not heal.
What is worse than to part
From the loving and leal? 880
Would God I had wedded her not, home-bliss with Alcestis to feel!
O, I envy the lot
Of the man without wife,
Without child: single-wrought
Is the strand of his life:
No soul-crushing burden of sorrow, no strength-overmastering strife.
But that children should sicken,
That gloom of despair
Over bride-beds should thicken,
What spirit can bear?[errata 1]
When childless, unwedded, a man through life's calm journey might fare?
