Thus hath Apollo said—Alcestis thus

Confirms the oracle—be thou secure.

Phe. O sounds of joy! He lives!

Alc. But not for this,

Think not that e’en for this the stranger Joy

Shall yet revisit these devoted walls.

Phe. Can there be grief when from his bed of death

Admetus rises? What deep mystery lurks

Within thy words? What mean’st thou? Gracious heaven!

Thou, whose deep love is all his own, who hear’st