All utterance of our woes. Bereft of sense,

More lifeless than the dying victim, see

The desolate Admetus. Farther yet,

Still farther, let us bear him from the sight

Of his Alcestis.

Alc. O my handmaids! still

Lend me your pious aid, and thus compose

With sacred modesty these torpid limbs

When death’s last pang is o’er.

Chorus.