spend beneath long, and life is short, but still sweet.  Thou too didst shamelessly fight off from dying, and livest, having passed over thy destined fate, by slaying her; then dost thou talk of my nothingness of soul, O most vile one, when thou art surpassed by a woman who died for thee, the handsome youth?  But thou hast made a clever discovery, so that thou mayst never die, if thou wilt persuade the wife that is thine from time to time to die for thee:  and then reproachest thou thy friends who are not willing to do this, thyself being a coward?  Hold thy peace, and consider, if thou lovest thy life, that all love theirs; but if thou shalt speak evil against us, thou shalt hear many reproaches and not false ones.

CHOR.  Too many evil things have been spoken both now and before, but cease, old man, from reviling thy son.

ADM.  Speak, for I have spoken; but if thou art grieved at hearing the truth, thou shouldst not err against me.

PHE.  But had I died for thee, I had erred more.

ADM.  What? is it the same thing for a man in his prime, and for an old man to die?

PHE.  We ought to live with one life, not with two.

ADM.  Mayst thou then live a longer time than Jove!

PHE.  Dost curse thy parents, having met with no injustice?

ADM. I said it, for I perceived thou lovedst a long life.

PHE.  But art not thou bearing forth this corse instead of thyself?

ADM.  A proof this, O most vile one, of thy nothingness of soul.

PHE.  She died not by us at least; thou wilt not say this.

ADM.  Alas!  Oh that you may ever come to need my aid!

PHE.  Wed many wives, that more may die.

ADM.  This is a reproach to thyself, for thou wert not willing to die.

PHE.  Sweet is this light of the God, sweet is it.

ADM.  Base is thy spirit and not that of men.

PHE.  Thou dost not laugh as carrying an aged corse.

ADM.  Thou wilt surely however die inglorious, when thou diest.

PHE.  To bear an evil report is no matter to me when dead.

ADM.  Alas! alas! how full of shamelessness is old age!

PHE.  She was not shameless:  her you found mad.

ADM.  Begone, and suffer me to bury this dead.

PHE.  I will depart; but you will bury her, yourself being her murderer.  But you will render satisfaction to your wife’s relatives yet:  or surely Acastus no longer ranks among men, if he shall not revenge the blood of his sister.

ADM.  Get thee gone, then, thou and thy wife; childless, thy child yet living, as ye deserve, grow old; for ye no more come into the same house with me:  and if it were necessary for me to renounce by heralds thy paternal hearth, I would renounce it.  But let us (for the evil before us must be borne) proceed, that we may place the corse upon the funeral pyre.

CHOR.  O!  O! unhappy because of thy bold deed, O noble, and by far most excellent, farewell! may both Mercury[39] that dwells beneath, and Pluto, kindly receive thee; but if there too any distinction is shown to the good, partaking of this mayst thou sit by the bride of Pluto.