SERVANT.
How should thy revelling hurt, if that were all?
HERACLES.
Hath mine own friend so wronged me in his hall?
SERVANT.
Thou camest at an hour when none was free
To accept thee. We were mourning. Thou canst see
Our hair, black robes…
HERACLES (suddenly, in a voice of thunder).
Who is it that is dead?
SERVANT.
Alcestis, the King's wife.
HERACLES (overcome).
What hast thou said?
Alcestis?… And ye feasted me withal!
SERVANT.
He held it shame to turn thee from his hall.
HERACLES.
Shame! And when such a wondrous wife was gone!
SERVANT (breaking into tears).
Oh, all is gone, all lost, not she alone!
HERACLES.
I knew, I felt it, when I saw his tears,
And face, and shorn hair. But he won mine ears
With talk of the strange woman and her rite
Of burial. So in mine own heart's despite
I crossed his threshold and sat drinking—he
And I old friends!—in his calamity.
Drank, and sang songs, and revelled, my head hot
With wine and flowers!… And thou to tell me not,
When all the house lay filled with sorrow, thou!
(A pause; then suddenly)
Where lies the tomb?—Where shall I find her now?