ALCESTIS Essay Example For Students

ALCESTIS Essay A monologue from the play by Euripides NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from The Plays of Euripides in English, vol. ii. Trans. Shelley Dean Milman. London: J.M. Dent Sons, 1922. ADMETUS: My friends, I deem the fortune of my wifeHappier than mine, though otherwise it seems;For never more shall sorrow touch her breast,And she with glory rests from various ills.But I, who ought not live, my destined hourOerpassing, shall drag on a mournful life,Late taught what sorrow is. How shall I bearTo enter here? To whom shall I addressMy speech? Whose greeting renders my returnDelightful? Which way shall I turn? WithinIn lonely sorrow shall I waste away,As widowed of my wife I see my couch,The seats deserted where she sat, the roomsWanting her elegance. Around my kneesMy children hang, and weep their mother lost:These too lament their mistress now no more.This is the scene of misery in my house:Abroad, the nuptials of Thessalias youthAnd the bright circles of assembled damesWill but augment my grief: neer shall I bearTo see the loved companions of my wife.And if one hates me, he will say, BeholdThe man, who basely lives, who dared not die,But, giving through the meanness of his soulHis wife, avoided death, yet would be deemedA man: he hates his parents, yet himselfHad not the spirit to die. These ill reportsCleave to me: why then wish for longer life,On evil tongues thus fallen, and evil days?