decide
The other way.

HERACLES.
                Who is it that has died?
Thou weepest.

ADMETUS.
               'Tis a woman. It doth take
My memory back to her of whom we spake.

HERACLES.
A stranger, or of kin to thee?

ADMETUS.
                                Not kin,
But much beloved.

HERACLES.
                   How came she to be in
Thy house to die?

ADMETUS.
                   Her father died, and so
She came to us, an orphan, long ago.

HERACLES (as though about to depart).
'Tis sad.
I would I had found thee on a happier day.

ADMETUS.
Thy words have some intent: what wouldst thou say?

HERACLES.
I must find harbour with some other friend.

ADMETUS.
My prince, it may not be! God never send
Such evil!

HERACLES.
            'Tis great turmoil, when a guest
Comes to a mourning house.

ADMETUS.
                            Come in and rest.
Let the dead die!

HERACLES.
                   I cannot, for mere shame,
Feast beside men whose eyes have tears in them.

ADMETUS.
The guest-rooms are apart where thou shalt be.

HERACLES.
Friend, let me go. I shall go gratefully.

ADMETUS.
Thou shalt not enter any door but mine.
(To an Attendant)
Lead in our guest. Unlock the furthest line
Of guest-chambers; and bid the stewards there
Make ready a full feast; then close with care
The midway doors. 'Tis unmeet, if he hears
Our turmoil or is burdened with our tears.

[The Attendant leads HERACLES into the house.]

LEADER.
How, master? When within a thing so sad
Lies, thou wilt house a stranger? Art thou mad?

ADMETUS.
And had I turned the stranger from my door,
Who sought my shelter, hadst thou praised me more?
I trow not, if my sorrow were thereby
No whit less, only the more friendless I.
And more, when bards tell tales, were it not worse
My house should lie beneath the stranger's curse?
Now he is my sure friend, if e'er I stand
Lonely in Argos, in a thirsty land.

LEADER.
Thou callest him thy friend; how didst thou dare
Keep hid from him the burden of thy care?

ADMETUS.
He never would have entered, had he known
My grief.—Aye, men may mock what I have done,
And call me fool. My house hath never learned
To fail its friend, nor seen the stranger spurned.

[ADMETUS goes into the house]

CHORUS.
Oh, a House that loves the stranger,
  And a House for ever free!
And Apollo, the Song-changer,
  Was a herdsman in thy fee;
    Yea, a-piping he was found,
    Where the upward valleys wound,
To the kine from out the manger
  And the sheep from off the lea,
    And love was upon Othrys at the sound.

And from deep glens unbeholden
  Of the forest to his song
There came lynxes streaky-golden,
  There came lions in a throng,
    Tawny-coated, ruddy-eyed,
    To that piper in his pride;
And shy fawns he would embolden,
  Dappled dancers, out along
    The shadow by the pine-tree's side.

And those magic pipes a-blowing
  Have fulfilled thee in thy reign
By thy Lake with honey flowing,
  By thy sheepfolds and thy grain;
    Where the Sun turns his steeds
    To the twilight, all the meads
Of Molossus know thy sowing
  And thy ploughs upon the plain.
    Yea, and eastward thou art free
    To the portals of the sea,
And Pelion, the unharboured, is but minister to thee.

  He hath opened wide his dwelling
    To the stranger, though his ruth
  For the dead was fresh and welling,
    For the loved one of his youth.
      'Tis the brave heart's cry:
      "I will fail not, though I die!"
  Doth it win, with no man's telling,
    Some high vision of the truth?
      We may marvel. Yet I trust,
      When man seeketh to be just
And to pity them that wander, God will raise him from the dust.

[As the song ceases the doors are thrown open and ADMETUS comes before them: a great funeral procession is seen moving out.]

ADMETUS.
Most gentle citizens, our dead is here
Made ready; and these youths to bear the bier
Uplifted to the grave-mound and the urn.
Now, seeing she goes forth never to return,
Bid her your last farewell, as mourners may.

[The procession moves forward, past him.]

LEADER.
Nay, lord; thy father, walking old and grey;
And followers bearing burial gifts and brave
Gauds, which men call the comfort of the grave.

Enter PHERES with followers bearing robes and gifts.

PHERES.
I come in sorrow for thy sorrow, son.
A faithful wife indeed thou hast lost, and one
Who ruled her heart. But, howso hard they be,
We needs must bear these griefs.—Some gifts for thee
Are here…. Yes; take them. Let them go beneath
The sod. We both must honour her in death,
Seeing she hath died, my son, that thou mayst live
Nor I be childless. Aye, she would not give
My soul to a sad old age, mourning for thee.
Methinks she hath made all women's life to be
A nobler thing, by one great woman's deed.
  Thou saviour of my son, thou staff in need
To our wrecked age, farewell! May some good life
Be thine still in the grave.—Oh, 'tis a wife
Like this man needs; else let him stay unwed!

[The old man has not noticed ADMETUS'S gathering indignation.]

ADMETUS.
I called not thee to burial of my dead,
Nor count thy presence here a welcome thing.
My wife shall wear no robe that thou canst bring,
Nor needs thy help in aught. There was a day
We craved thy love, when I was on my way
Deathward—thy love, which bade thee stand aside
And watch, grey-bearded, while a young man died!
And now wilt mourn for her? Thy fatherhood!
Thou wast no true begetter of my blood,
Nor she my mother who dares call me child.
Oh, she was barren ever; she beguiled
Thy folly with some bastard of a thrall.
Here is thy proof! This hour hath shown me all
Thou art; and now I am no more thy son.
  'Fore God, among all cowards can scarce be one
Like thee. So grey, so near the boundary
Of mortal life, thou wouldst not, durst not, die
To save thy son! Thou hast suffered her to do
Thine office, her, no kin to me nor you,
Yet more than kin! Henceforth she hath all the part
Of mother, yea, and father in my heart.
  And what a glory had been thine that day,
Dying to save thy son—when, either way,
Thy time must needs be brief. Thy life has had
Abundance of the things that make men glad;
A crown that came to thee in youth; a son
To do thee worship and