Ere your mother to nothingness fleet.“[[29]]
There has been no word of farewell to Admetus yet; and now she gathers strength for the last thing that must be said to him. Perhaps she has been waiting, all through his evident grief and broken words of devotion, for some hint of awakening to a nobler spirit. Perhaps she has longed, in hope that she knew to be vain, for one word of remorse, one flash of protest, though it were too late, against the sacrifice that she is making. But Admetus gives no sign; he is absorbed in his own suffering; and we seem to hear, all through the solemn charge which the dying lips lay upon him, a note of pain.
“Admetus—for thou seest all my plight—
Fain would I speak mine heart’s wish, ere I die.
I, honouring thee, and setting thee in place
Before mine own soul still to see this light,
Am dying, unconstrained to die for thee....
Yet she that bare, he that begat, forsook thee,
Though fair for death their time of life was come,
Yea, fair to save their son and die renowned.