LEADER. 
Take comfort.  Ere thy lord can speak, I swear,
If truth is in him, he will grant thy prayer.

ADMETUS. 
He will, he will!  Oh, never fear for me. 
Mine hast thou been, and mine shalt ever be,
Living and dead, thou only.  None in wide
Hellas but thou shalt be Admetus’ bride. 
No race so high, no face so magic-sweet
Shall ever from this purpose turn my feet. 
And children ... if God grant me joy of these,
’Tis all I ask; of thee no joy nor ease
He gave me.  And thy mourning I will bear
Not one year of my life but every year,
While life shall last....  My mother I will know
No more.  My father shall be held my foe. 
They brought the words of love but not the deed,
While thou hast given thine all, and in my need
Saved me.  What can I do but weep alone,
Alone alway, when such a wife is gone?... 
  An end shall be of revel, and an end
Of crowns and song and mirth of friend with friend,
Wherewith my house was glad.  I ne’er again
Will touch the lute nor ease my heart from pain
With pipes of Afric.  All the joys I knew,
And joys were many, thou hast broken in two. 
Oh, I will find some artist wondrous wise
Shall mould for me thy shape, thine hair, thine eyes,
And lay it in thy bed; and I will lie
Close, and reach out mine arms to thee, and cry
Thy name into the night, and wait and hear
My own heart breathe:  “Thy love, thy love is near.” 
A cold delight; yet it might ease the sum
Of sorrow....  And good dreams of thee will come
Like balm.  ’Tis sweet, even in a dream, to gaze
On a dear face, the moment that it stays. 
  O God, if Orpheus’ voice were mine, to sing
To Death’s high Virgin and the Virgin’s King,
Till their hearts failed them, down would I my path
Cleave, and naught stay me, not the Hound of Wrath,
Not the grey oarsman of the ghostly tide,
Till back to sunlight I had borne my bride. 
  But now, wife, wait for me till I shall come
Where thou art, and prepare our second home. 
These ministers in that same cedar sweet
Where thou art laid will lay me, feet to feet,
And head to head, oh, not in death from thee
Divided, who alone art true to me!

LEADER. 
This life-long sorrow thou hast sworn, I too,
Thy friend, will bear with thee.  It is her due.

ALCESTIS. 
Children, ye heard his promise?  He will wed
No other woman nor forget the dead.

ADMETUS. 
Again I promise.  So it shall be done.

ALCESTIS (giving the children into his arms one after the other). 
On that oath take my daughter:  and my son.

ADMETUS. 
Dear hand that gives, I accept both gift and vow.

ALCESTIS. 
Thou, in my place, must be their mother now.

ADMETUS. 
Else were they motherless—­I needs must try.

ALCESTIS. 
My babes, I ought to live, and lo, I die.