ORC. He to the house of Pluto will conduct her: ORCUS, APOLLO. Why art thou here? Why dost thou make this house T' have snatch'd Admetus from his doom, the Fates Arm'd with thy bow why dost thou guard his wife, Saving her husband's life, to die for him? APOL. Fear not; thy right I reverence and just claim. ORC. Aye, and unjustly to defend this house. APOL. I mourn th' afflictions of the man I love. ORC. Wou'dst thou defraud me of this second dead? APOL. Take her: I know not if I might persuade thee. ORC. 59. It was customary to bury persons, who died advanced in years, pomp and magnificence than those who died young, Barnes. with greater ORC. They with their wealth would purchase to die old. ORC. Thou canst not have all that thou shou'dst not have. A POL. Yet, ruthless as thou art, soon wilt thou cease This contest; such a man to Pheres' house Comes, to the frozen continent of Thrace Sent by Eurystheus for the savage steeds Yoked to the tyrant's car. He, in this house A welcome guest t' Admetus, will by force Take his wife from thee; and no thanks from me Will be thy due; yet what I now entreat Then thou wilt yield, and I shall hate thee still. Say what thou wilt, nothing the more for that Shalt thou from me obtain: this woman goes, Be sure of that, to Pluto's dark domain. I go, and with this sword assert my claim, For sacred to th' infernal gods that head, Whose hair is hallow'd by this charmed blade. ORC. CHORUS. 1st SEM. Before this royal mansion all is still : What may this melancholy silence mean? By me, by all, the noblest of her sex. 1st SEM. Hear you a cry, hear you a clash of hands 81. The learned Ruæus, in his note on Eneid iv. 698, gives the best account we have of this opinion of the ancients, that the hair of the dying person was sacred to Proserpine; and that a lock of it must be cut off as an offering to the infernal queen before the soul could be released from the body; that probably it was derived from the sacrifices, in which it was usual to cut some hairs from the forehead of the victim, and to throw them into the flames. See Eneid vi. 245. So the dying person was considered as a victim to the infernal powers. 89, &c. The usual indications of mourning at the house upon the decease of a person are here enumerated; the beating of hands and lamentation of the family Within, or lamentations for the dead? 2d SEM. Not e'en a servant holds his station here Before the gates. O, 'midst this awful gloom Appear, bright Pæan, and dispel the storm! 1st SEM. If she were dead, they would not be thus silent; Nor could the body vanish from the house. Whence is thy confidence? My fears o'ercome me. A wife so honour'd would Admetus bear Without due pomp in silence to her tomb? 2d SEM. Nor vase of fountain water do I see 2d SEM. 1st SEM. Before the doors, as custom claims, to bathe The corse; and none hath on the portal placed His locks, in solemn mourning for the dead Usually shorn; nor does the younger train Of females raise their sorrowing voices high. 1st SEM. Yet this the fatal day, when she must leave The light of heav'n. 2d SEM. Why dost thou mention this? O, thou hast touch'd my heart, hast touch'd my soul. 1st SEM. When on the good afflictions fall, to grieve Becomes the man that hath been priz'd as honest. In vain, our pious vows are vain : Make we the flying sail our care, The light bark bounding o'er the main, To what new realm shall we repair? To Lycia's hallow'd strand? STRO. Or where in solitary state, 'Midst thirsty deserts wild and wide Shall save her from the realms beneath? within, the laver of ablution in the vestibule, the locks hung up there, and the mournful music of the younger women, the præficæ, at the doors. For the custom of cutting off the hair on these occasions, see the first note on the Choephora of Eschylus. ANTIS. I have no priest, no altar more, O that the son of Phoebus now Lived to behold th' ethereal light! 'Till thund'ring Jove's avenging pow'r To ev'ry god at ev'ry shrine The king hath paid the rites divine: CHORUS, FEMALE ATTENDANT. CHOR. But of the female train one from the house CHOR. Unhappy king, of what a wife bereft ! ATT. Nor knows our lord his suffering, e'er it comes. ATT. Th' inevitable day of fate is come. CHOR. Have you prepared what the sad case requires? CHOR. Illustrious in her death, the best of wives: 169. Dean Swift, in one of his things to Dr. Sheridan, having given his judgment of the old comedians, proceeds to give it also on the old tragedians; and of Euripides speaks thus: Proceed to tragics. First, Euripides (An author where I sometimes dip a-days) ATT. The sun in his wide course sees not her equal. The hallow'd flames, and thus address'd her pray'r; Yet, e'er I go, with reverence let me breathe Be blest through lengthen'd life to honour'd age. This our fathers applauded as wit, nimium patienter, ne dicam stulte mirati. The misrepresentation of Aristotle, the false judgment on our poet, and the undeserved reflection on his female characters, give us reason to suppose that the Dean dipped but lightly into such authors as these; he might dip deeper into Plautus and Aristophanes; but he plunged deepest into the ribaldry of Lucian and Rabelais. 161. This bathing was intended as preparatory to her funeral, a ceremony always observed by the ancients. 164. This also was in order to her funeral, a sepulchral robe, pãgos rapnior, as Homer calls it, Odyss. ii. 199. |