Young alcestis

Scene 1

The four-acre orchard of the Palace of Pherai. In the background, fruit trees. It is Spring, and a bright cloudless morning. In the foreground, a marble garden-seat on a neat lawn.
   On the seat are sitting ADMETUS, king of Pherai (25) and his wife Alcestis (18). He is brown-haired, handsome, with a trim little beard which makes him look mature. She is white-skinned, dark-haired, blue-eyed, and almost frighteningly beautiful. He is dressed in kingly fashion, with a gold diadem, purple cloak, white tunic, gilt sandals. She wears only a simple blue tunic, with a single sapphire on a cord at her throat. Her long dark hair is unbound, and falls with a graceful wave on her shoulders. Her white feet are bare.
   The couple are holding hands.

AD: My darling wife, my queen, you are so beautiful that no robe or diadem could add to your loveliness. And yet – why have you come out like this, dressed almost like a serving-maid?

ALC: My dearest husband, my king, you know I wear the finery when I have to. But now I thought I might do some gardening, so –

AD: Gardening? We have servants for that. I wouldn't want you to soil your lovely hands with dirt. Besides, you might bruise yourself, cut yourself. Your perfect skin! I couldn't bear the thought of that.

ALC: Oh, Admetus, you are so over-protective –

AD: Darling, haven't I reason to be? My sweet bride – the loveliest girl in all Greece. I never want any harm to come to you. Don't risk your hands with a trowel.

ALC: Risk my hands? Oh, my lord husband, you are rather funny, you know. We've been married, what, a month, and so far you haven't really wanted me to do anything, except look graceful about the palace. It's been a gorgeous month, but – we can't go on like this for ever.

AD: For ever! I wish we could!

ALC: But we can't. I have to be a real wife to you – I wan't  to be a real wife. And a real wife can't be just ornamental. One day, soon, I hope to be a mother –

AD: Oh, darling, yes, I suppose so, but let's not talk of that now. I wish you could always be just as you are now – my sweet young girl. I love you so much… [Kisses her]

ALC: And my lord, I love you too, with all my heart. Never doubt it. If you were in danger, and I could save you, I would die for you –

AD: O gods, don't say things like that! Never talk about dying!

ALC: Well, I'll try not to. But we are  mortals, my love, not gods. Let us live now, as real human beings. And I – I am a real woman – and a real woman needs exercise. If you don't want me to garden, perhaps I could just pick flowers?

AD: Oh, all right… Go on, I'll sit here for a bit, and watch you.

[Alcestis gets up, makes a little bow to her husband, laughs, and skips over the grass toward the flower beds. While she picks the yellow flowers, she makes a few dance steps, and sings softly to herself. Admetus leans over the back of the seat and gazes at her.]

AD: O gods. She is not yet a woman. O gods, keep her as she is still – a girl, a goddess!

[Enter, right, APOLLO. He is dressed in rough shepherd's garb, and carries a knobbly staff. He has blond curly hair, and is radiantly handsome. He coughs.]

APOL:   King Admetus! My master!

AD: [springing to his feet] My god! My lord Apollo!

APOL:  [laughing] Well, I think you may call me lord again now. Master Admetus – today my year is up. I am no longer your slave and herdsman. I will be going back to Olympus, to be a blessed god again, and live at ease on ambrosia and nectar. I hope I leave you and your beautiful wife well and happy.

AD: O my lord, immortal Apollo, yes, we are well, and – thanks to you – wonderfully happy. There she is, my happiness, gathering flowers – oh, I don't think she has seen you. I'll call her –

APOL:   Not yet; let us talk first, like man to man. You know, I have quite enjoyed being disguised as a man, for a year. I have learnt much – about  cattle, and about humans. Yes, an amusing year. I am glad Father Zeus gave me this "punishment" for killing those wretched Cyclopses.

AD: A whole year, for a god to be a slave!

APOL:   What's a year, when you are immortal? What's ten thousand years? Nothing.

AD: Ah, but you must have suffered. Hard beds, cold huts…

APOL:   Still nothing, I assure you. My dear man, you still don't realize fully what it is to be a god. We don't really suffer – that is against the divine nature. We are impassible. Well, occasionally we have a mild passing annoyance. But you can spear us, through the heart, and it's just like a scratch. The wound heals at once. We can't really be harmed.

AD: And, I suppose, you are altogether unageing.

APOL:   Oh yes. Papa could have made me live disguised as a human for ten thousand years, and at the end of that I would still look and feel as I am now – in your terms, twenty years old.

AD: And utterly beautiful – for ever…

APOL:   Oh well, of course. Now, King Admetus, you have been so pious to all the gods – all those sacrifices – and such a good master to me –

AD: O my lord, I only pretended to be your master, in fear and trembling – in fear of Zeus, and of you…

APOL:   Yes, yes. Naturally it's scary for humans to have to do with gods. Poor humans, you have so much to be afraid of… So listen, Admetus. I shall disappear presently. But before that, I wonder if I could give you some little parting present.

AD: O my lord – why do you say this? When you already gave me the present of Alcestis, a month ago, when you helped me impress her father Pelias. Harnessing a lion and a boar to my chariot!

APOL:   A trifle, a trifle. I raised my staff, and the wild things became as tame as lambs. But come now, Admetus. You are altogether happy, are you?

AD: As happy as any man can be –

[Alcestis screams, drops her flowers, and falls to the ground. In a crouching position, she stares at the earth before her bare feet.]

APOL:   Girl, what is it?

ALC: Lord god, a snake! It's still there! I stepped on it…

[Apollo hurls his staff. As it strikes the place before Alcestis's feet, there is a flash of light and a small explosion. Admetus runs to her, grasps her by the shoulders.]

AD: It's gone. It's dead. Only a tail left. Did it bite you?

ALC: No. It was just going to strike, when… [She rises to her feet] …the god saved me.

[Admetus and Alcestis come forward, and fall at Apollo's feet.]

AD: Lord god, you have given me that present – again.  Oh, what sacrifice can I make now, to show my love and gratitude?

APOL:   Oh please, no more sacrifices. You've almost overwhelmed Olympus already, with the savor of all those hecatombs! And for me, that little trick was nothing. Last autumn, King Admetus, I saved a couple of your herdsmen in the same way. Get up, please, get up. [They rise.] Lady Alcestis, I'd just like to suggest, it's not a good idea to go dancing barefoot in long grass – even though you look very pretty when you do it.

ALC: I will try to be more careful. Lord god Apollo, you have saved my life. And you have saved my dear husband much sorrow. [She takes his hand, and kisses it.] If I can repay you in any way …

APOL:   [Laughing] I like Admetus too much to suggest the obvious… Anyway, my dear, you have already repaid me by staying alive. And looking so pretty. I am a god who likes to preserve beautiful things.

[Two servant women have come running out of the palace, and are standing left, looking with concern at Alcestis.]

AD: My dear, you are still trembling. Lord Apollo, if you permit, I would like to send her inside.

APOL:   Away from snakes? Do so. Alcestis, farewell.
[Alcestis kisses him on the cheek, then runs off with the women.]
What a sweet thing she is! I'm glad I was able to save her in time. Reversing death is a trick that Father Zeus and the Fates also both frown on. My son Asclepius got zapped with a lightning bolt for trying that. Even I would be afraid to do it.

AD: Ah, you gods have such powers… You saved Alcestis from dying. I wonder…

APOL:   What?

AD: Lord, if it is not against your dignity, let us sit down together. I would like to tell you a few things about – well, about how some mortals feel.

[Apollo grins, and they both sit on the marble bench.]

APOL:   Go on, my dear fellow. It's about how you  feel, isn't it? How you feel for Alcestis?

AD: Yes. Oh, I feel for her – great joy, but also great fear. And grief.

APOL:   Fear – of snakes and such – that I understand. But why grief?

AD: The fear is not just of snakes. Or you could say, human life is beset at every turn with snakes – snakes called diseases, a snake called childbirth, a snake called ageing; and finally, a snake called death. All these I know are lying in wait for Alcestis, for my darling, my jewel, my sweet perfect girl. As she is now, she is at the pinnacle of perfection – she is as perfect as a young human girl can be. Still almost a child, yet almost a woman, and perfect in beauty…

APOL:   Indeed, Admetus, she is as fine as any goddess. Even Aphrodite, even my sister Artemis are not more beautiful. And she's nicer than most goddesses.

AD: But, precisely, she is not a goddess. Goddesses don't change. They don't grow old, they don't lose any of their perfections, not in ten thousand years. Yet in ten years, my Alcestis will not look as she does now. She will no longer look anything like a child, not even what one might call a girl. She will be a woman, a mature woman. She will change from the perfect thing she is now. And that is my great grief.

APOL:   Lord king, she will be a fine woman, a great queen.

AD: That's like saying that an old man looks "distinguished," or that autumn is as fine as spring. It is not. Do you think I don't know what ageing looks like? It is disintegration. Listen, god Apollo. I had a sister once, a twin sister, just as you have a twin sister. And she was beautiful, too – like your sister. But there was this difference: my sister Callirrhoe was not a goddess, she was not immune to that snake called disease. When she and I were both eighteen – the same age as Alcestis is now – a dreadful disease began in her. We have never known its name. But – she began to waste. She was in pain, great pain, and she grew thin, and her skin became grey, and her lovely hair – oh, I can't bear to go on with the details. But by the time she died, after two years, at twenty, she looked old – like an old woman, with withered skin and a wrinkled face. And at last she died. I went out from the death chamber, and looked at the world. It was high spring, a bright blue day – like this day. And I saw some children playing in a garden – beautiful children, ten or twelve years old, a boy and a girl. And I thought, All this is a lie. Under all this beauty hides Death. And, children, as my dead sister looks now, so you will look one day – grey, still, not breathing… And of course this happens to all us mortals. As for me, my own death does not trouble me, nor my own ageing. But that these things should happen to my perfect girl, my Alcestis – and I know they will happen – oh, I feel the pangs of that grief every day. I love her, and I want desperately to protect her from all that. But I know I will fail.

APOL:   All mortal things fail in the end. Except, perhaps, love. Yes, sometimes that does not fail. I have known old human couples who have loved each other till death, and beyond death. And I marvel at it. It is a thing we gods can hardly feel. You know, sometimes I envy you humans, Admetus. You can be heroes, you can have courage. No god can be a hero, because we are never at risk. Think of that!

AD: I don't want Alcestis to be at risk. Lord god Apollo, you said earlier that you wanted to give me a parting present.

APOL: [uneasily] Well, yes…

AD: Then give me this present – make Alcestis to be unchanging: unageing, and also immortal, as you are immortal.

APOL:   That's not a little present, that is an enormous one. I said, a little present…

AD: Lord god, I beg you. I know you are glorious. And one of your glories is that you are not mean… But perhaps you cannot do this.

APOL:  [looks upward.] I can do it… I don't think Father Zeus is looking; and in any case, we gods have an understood privilege: we can make one mortal immortal every thousand years, without referring the matter to Higher Authorities. I haven't made anyone immortal for a thousand years. So I can do what you ask. But are you sure you want this?

AD: Sure!

APOL:   Be very precise in your wish. The gift of a god cannot usually be recalled, or altered. There was a sad case when Dawn wished for Tithonus, her lover, to be made immortal…

AD: I've heard of Tithonus. That's why I specified, immortal and unageing. Oh, and I also mean immortal in the strong sense, the way you are – immune to every accident, snakebite or wound, even through the heart.

APOL:   You want her to be a goddess, then? With the ability to vanish, change shape, and fly?

AD: No, not those! Only immortal, unageing, and invulnerable.

APOL:   Well, you have thought hard about this, I see. I hope the consequences don't disappoint you. Call Alcestis here, and I'll do it.

AD: [walking to extreme left] Alcestis! You handmaids, bring my queen out!

APOL:   [to himself] Lord, what fools these mortals be…

AD: [returning] She is coming. Ah, my lord, ah – but how exactly will you do it? Touch her with your staff?

APOL:   No. To communicate immortality from me to her, I must will it while I – at least – kiss her. Kiss her deeply, you understand?

AD: Oh!

APOL:   No other way, my dear fellow. I could demand more – but since you are my friend, I spare you that. This is no trifle I am giving her. Unending life! A great kiss is the minimum way we gods do it. All right?

AD: Very well.

[Enter Alcestis. She is serious, but composed. Now she wears gilded sandals.]

AD: Oh my dear, how are you?

ALC: Well. Very well. I'm not frightened any more. My lord god Apollo, how fine you are, how good! Oh, may I kiss you again?

APOL:   That's just what I was suggesting to Admetus! He has consented – to a real  kiss, this time, not just a peck on the cheek. I am going to kiss you, Alcestis, as you have never been kissed before. And you will remember it for ever.

ALC: Oh! [She looks nervously at Admetus.]

AD: It's all right, my dear. The god will kiss you in – on – the mouth. This will be a great gift for you, it will bestow great good luck. Submit now, to the great immortal.

[Alcestis blushes. She takes a few steps forward, bows to Apollo. Then she raises her face to his. Apollo takes her in his arms, strokes her cheek, then with his fingers pushes her lips apart. Now he gives her a long deep kiss.]

ALC: [jerking her head back] Ah – ah – ah!  [Almost a scream]

APOL:   I told you, lady. A kiss of life – a kiss you will never forget.  [Releases her.]

[She staggers. Admetus runs to her, catches her.]

AD: My love, my love, is it well with you?

ALC: Oh… I don't know. I feel… very strange. As though there were a kind of fire going all through my body. Oh, my lord god! I am not now carrying a god-child, am I?

APOL:   No. Silly girl, didn't your mother ever tell you, you can't get pregnant just from a kiss?

ALC: I feel… better now. Much better! As though I had never been so well in all my life! Oh, how beautiful is the world, how bright the sun, how blue the sky! Apollo – you shine in my eyes like the sun itself. And you, my dear husband – you are beautiful also, so beautiful a young man.

AD: My lord, is it done, as you said?

APOL:   It is done.

[Admetus kneels to Alcestis, and kisses her sandalled feet. Then he undoes the sandals.]

AD: My darling, you can go barefoot now as much as you want. Lord Apollo has promised, no snake will ever harm you now.

[Alcestis takes a few steps, then twirls in a little dance.]

ALC: Ah, it's amazing! I feel – light. And even when I tread on a stone, a sharp stone, it doesn't hurt. Oh, what is this? Lord Apollo, am I drunk?

APOL:   You could put it like that. On nectar. You'll be permanently a little drunk now, with no hangover. I suppose it will take some getting used to. But after a little while, you will feel calm. Very calm.

ALC: Yes. I can feel that now. Under all the beauty and joy… I feel as though nothing really matters.

APOL:   Exactly. I know exactly how you feel, lady Alcestis. Well now, you happy pair, it's time I was going. I have to present myself to Father. No, no – no elaborate thankings, please. I shall just take a few steps, and then vanish.

AD: My lord, my benefactor, will you visit us again? We will both want to thank you better, with a great feast, at the very least.

APOL:   Very well. Actually, I am interested… But not right away. Say, in a year's time? Then I'll really see how you are making out. Well then, farewell, mortal and… wife.

[He exits right. They stand gazing.]

ALC: He's gone! It must be strange to have power like that… to rise off the ground, then dwindle, then vanish. I suppose it doesn't seem strange to him.  But we'll never know how he feels.

AD: I  never will. But you,my darling! Perhaps you will begin to feel a little like what it is to be a god – or a goddess. Ah, my goddess! My sweet little goddess child, my goddess girl, my goddess wife!… Oh, how happy I am!


[He embraces her. End of scene.]



Scene 2


The same place, a year later. A warm bright afternoon in Spring. Admetus is sitting on the marble bench, his elbows propped on his knees, his face in his hands; his gaze is downcast. He is wearing no diadem, and his hair is ruffled: he has been absent-mindedly pulling at bits of it. There are the beginnings of wrinkles on his tanned forehead. He looks older than his actual age of 26.

AD: That it should come to this… O gods! O goddesses! And you too, my dear. Maybe I should invoke you also, and pray to you… Of course, I can't wish it undone, for your sake. But still… Apollo might have warned me.
   What if he had made me also – immortal and so forth? That might have helped in one way – I wouldn't grow too old for her. But in other ways? Perish the thought! Could I go on being king of Pherai? Could I even love her any better? Could she love me? … O gods, what am I to do?

[Enter left Alcestis. She is barefoot, but otherwise she is richly dressed: faultless white chiton, purple cloak, gold diadem, jewelled necklace and earrings.]

ALC: [smiling]  Oh, there you are , darling. I wondered what you were up to. [She stops and kisses him on the forehead.] Are you all right? You're not unwell again, are you? That cold you had –

AD: No, I'm quite well. Why are you barefoot?

ALC: Oh, it's so warm now, I like going barefoot. You know I never hurt myself. And [she giggles] I know you admire my pretty feet.

AD: I do. They are utterly beautiful – like the rest of you. [Without enthusiasm] You are quite faultless, perfect, and as young as when I first married you.

ALC: Well, that's nice. [Yawns]  What are you doing?

AD: Thinking.

ALC: You seem to do that a lot these days. But I suppose that's good. Kings ought to think about the welfare of their people. But I think Pherai is in pretty good shape. Ah, what a wonderful day! Is there anything I can do for you?

AD: I don't think so. But thank you for caring.

ALC: Of course I care. I care for your health: I get our physician to see you regularly. Well, don't get yourself too sunburnt out here. That makes you look older… Well, I think I'll go and do a little gentle gardening.

AD: [drily]  Try to avoid stepping on the snakes.

ALC: [laughing lightly]  Oh, Admetus, you know that doesn't matter now. Apollo made that promise. And somehow nothing seems to hurt me these days. So I'll go barefoot in the long grass, and kick the snakes out of the way. See you soon…

[She wanders upstage and disappears behind some trees. Admetus does not look in her direction, but again gazes at the ground.]

AD: She cares for me: isn't that nice. And she doesn't need anyone to care for her. O gods…

[Enter, right, Apollo. He is dressed in royal fashion, with a gilded laurel wreath on his golden hair. Admetus jumps up.]

AD: Lord! Lord god Apollo!

APOL:   Hail, friend Admetus! Well, I promised to visit you a year after our last memorable transactions, and here I am. How are things in Pherai? How are you? How is she?

AD: I am well. And she – why, she is perfect. Invulnerable, unageing, and I suppose immortal, just as you promised.

APOL:   You don't seem exactly ecstatic about it. Don't you like being the husband and lover of a goddess?

AD: I should, but…

APOL:   But what?

AD: To be truthful, I was happier before she was… changed.

APOL:   You wish her mortal again, then?

AD: No, no!  I want to save her from every harm.

APOL:   Yes; and now she is saved from every harm.

AD: And therefore I have nothing to do for her. I can't take care of her. And – I can foresee our future. If I don't die before then, in forty years I will be sixty-six. And she will be – still eighteen. 

APOL:   [chuckling]  You should have thought of that before you begged for that wonderful gift. The truth is, mortal men don't do well, in the long run, with  goddesses. You know about Tithonus. He didn't die at sixty-six. He didn't die at all – he just got older, till in the end his goddess couldn't bear him near her. And there's King Peleus, your neighbor, who recently married the goddess Thetis, silver-footed Thetis, that lovely being. They have a splendid baby – he is sure to be a great hero one day; but Peleus is already not young, and in twenty years Thetis will shun his feeble embraces. As for Alcestis... the time will come, if you live long enough, when all her beauty naked in your arms will not make you rise to the occasion. Sorry to put it brutally, but you must have guessed that yourself.

AD: True. Even now…

APOL:   What?

AD: Oh, nothing. Well, when I grow feeble, I know how she will feel. She will be sorry for me – just a bit.

APOL:   Just a bit? Only a bit?

AD: Oh, she is still good-hearted. She loves me. But she is so happy, basically happy all the time, that even great suffering doesn't really shake her. There was one of her waiting-women, an old nurse, whom she loved. The poor wench died of a fever last autumn. Alcestis did all she could for her. And when the poor thing died, she was a bit sorry. She stopped smiling… for about an hour. After that – well, she didn't shed a single tear. I don't think she can.

APOL:   Ah, you are right about that. On Olympus, I have never seen a goddess cry. Or a god. How can we? We are permanently blessed, invulnerable even to sorrow. A shade of sadness in the expression – that's all we can manage. No grief goes deep. It can't. It would violate our beatitude. In heaven, nothing can violate beatitude.

AD: Oh, I wish she were not a goddess, I wish she were human! At least able to feel sorrow. You see, the way she is – she is not the wonderful girl I married. It's like living with a stranger – with a beautiful shape, but with nothing inside. Or nearly nothing. Ah, I can remember what she was like in that first month of our marriage, before she Changed. One time – three weeks after our wedding – I was riding in my chariot in our little grassy stadium. She was watching, among the courtiers. Suddenly the horses shied, and I was thrown out. I wasn't really hurt, just startled and shaken, but at first she couldn't know that. She burst out from the throng and came running across the grass, and reached me before anyone else. As she bent over me, she was pale as death – and so beautiful! And so careful, so careful as she touched me. When I grinned and told her "No bones broken" – that was when she cried. She sobbed with joy as she kissed me. And I think I never loved her so much as at that moment… All that has gone now. She loves me, yes, but as you say – even when I'm reallly ill, it doesn't "violate her beatitude."  Sometimes I cry, about that, when I'm away from her. And the worst is – she does love me, in her way, but I – I don't think I love her now. Not really.

APOL:   You don't? How does it go – you know, in bed?

AD: I can still do it. She has a wonderful body. And I please her… She says, "That was nice." But the whole world is nice for her now, all the time. My love-making, I realize, is nothing special for her. And that puts me off. I think, one day soon I won't be able to do it – unless I think of her as not Alcestis, as just a body to lust after… There is no passion now in what I feel for her.

APOL:   [nodding]  Quite so. We gods don't feel passion for each other. A nice screw – that's about it, when Ares and Aphrodite get together, or Father Zeus with – well, anybody. Real love between gods – no. For passion is another word for suffering.

AD: I guessed that. I had wondered, Apollo, if you could make things better by making me immortal too.

APOL:   [hastily]  My dear fellow, out of the question. I've used up my quota of immortalizing for the next thousand years.

AD: It doesn't matter. Now that I understand, I don't want to be a god. I don't want to just wish well to her, tepidly, the way she does to me. I want to love her passionately. I want to suffer. I see now: no suffering, no love. Not real love… [With rising excitement] Well, perhaps I can love her now, after all. I can pity her, for what's happened to her, her loss of real human feeling. I can mourn for my dear lost wife. Because the Alcestis I once knew and loved is lost – is dead.


[He is in tears. Now upstage there is a confused noise, not too loud, of an animal snarl and a woman's cry. But neither the god nor the man pay attention.]

APOL:   You do seem to be in a mess. But tell me now, one other point. Does she know what she is? Have you told her?

AD: No, and no. I have never told her – except that she is immune to snakes. I suppose I don't want to erect another barrier between us. If she doesn't know she is a goddess, she may feel closer to me, a mortal.

APOL:   She is bound to guess, sooner or later.

AD: Yes. She is not stupid. I have seen her often look puzzled, thoughtful. The time she came nearest to guessing was in summer last year. The hot dog days. And she was walking with me in the town, and out of a lane there suddenly rushed a dog, raging, and before I could stop it, it bit her on the hand. We killed the dog – and then people came running out of the lane, and said the dog was mad. Rabid. After that, Alcestis was faintly afraid, and I – I nearly died of horror. But nothing happened to her. The wound healed over in a few minutes, and then – she didn't get at all sick. She looked very thoughtful after that, for weeks. "I seem to be very lucky," she said. "Or the gods love me." I suppose she will realize, one day, when everyone round her is definitely ageing, and she is not. Maybe in five or ten years.

[Alcestis emerges from the background, walking quickly. She sees Apollo, and stops. She is holding her right hand in her left.]

ALC: [bowing] My lord Apollo! [Hesitates] I am very glad to see you.

APOL:   I promised to come after a year, and here I am. I presume, queen Alcestis, that you are well.

ALC: Very well. I couldn't be better. That kiss you gave me, my lord, has brought me wonderful blessings. I am never ill. I am almost never in pain, except the slightest and most fleeting. And my wounds heal quickly – oh, so quickly! My lord, I would like to question you about all this.

AD: Oh my dear, is that necessary? I invited our lord Apollo to a feast, a year ago. Let us go in now, and prepare that. Spare the god your questions.

APOL:   King Admetus, I wish you both well. I would like to make you truly happy – happier than you are now. Trust me, I will do what is best for you. So now I want to talk to your queen – alone. You go in, and prepare the feast yourself. Leave Alcestis here with me.

AD: Oh, please –

APOL:   A god has commanded you, man.

AD: [bowing]  My lord! Spare her all pain!   [Exit, left, to palace.]

APOL:   Now, my dear, I think you were about to question me. Proceed.

ALC: Lord Apollo, look at my right hand. [She places it in his.] You see, it is quite unmarked.

APOL:   Unmarked, and very beautiful.

ALC: Well, a very short time ago, it was deeply bitten by an angry dog.

APOL:   Another rabid one?

ALC:     No, I don't think so. Just savage. We have a bitch, Argyre, who happens to be in heat. This big black male dog came leaping over the garden fence to get at her, just now as I was gathering flowers. I got in his way: he bit me, hard. The blood came streaming out. But I hit him with a stick, and he suddenly took fright – he seemed in awe of me, and he fled. Then I looked at my hand. Within a few heartbeats, all the shed blood had trickled off it. And then, as I watched, the wound closed up. It was like drawing together the strings of a purse – just as quick as that. Much quicker even than that time last year when the mad dog bit me. I have noticed this before. Little scratches – last year they healed quickly. Now, in the last two or three months, they are gone almost the moment they are made.

APOL:   Yes, these effects are gradual at first. But now, in you, they have reached final perfection.

ALC: Perfection of what? I can remember what I was like, before you kissed me. I suffered pain. I was sometimes quite ill. Also, I was hungry. Now, I never am. If I forget the time, I would miss meals unless Admetus or a servant called me in to them. I am not even thirsty. I can eat and drink, and enjoy the tastes, but it all seems trivial. What if I stopped eating and drinking altogether? Would I die?

APOL:   No, you wouldn't. Mortal men imagine us in Olympus feasting, and living on the smell of their sacrifices, but really we can do without all that. When I eat with mortals, I do it mainly to please them. A god cannot starve.

ALC: A god!

APOL:   Yes. I think you have guessed now what my kiss did for you. Except for a few minor powers, you are now a goddess, Alcestis.

ALC: But why? I never asked for that!

APOL:   But your husband did. Poor man, he loved you so much. And I had promised him a parting present.  He begged me to make you immortal. Immortal, unageing, and immune to all suffering. So I did.

ALC: [kneels to him]  Thank you.

APOL:   [raising her]  You don't seem ecstatic about it, however.

ALC: I suppose I should be. I don't want to be ungrateful. But – couldn't you have done something a little less drastic?

APOL:   There is no halfway condition between immortal and mortal. Besides, he was very precise in his request. So I really had to do it.

ALC: And he – has it made him happy?

APOL:   What do you think?

ALC: I rather think – not. For the first few months, yes, he was happy. Then gradually he became less so. Now, he mopes. He thinks I don't notice, but I do. Poor man! I love him as much as I ever did. What a thing he has done for me! But…  O my lord god, this is going to cause him terrible sorrow in the long run. He will grow old; I will not. He will die – and I will see him die. Now, I never feel really unhappy – but I think that will make me unhappy. And whatever I feel, I wish above all for his welfare. Why, my lord, is he unhappy now? Does he foresee his terrible future?

APOL:   Yes, he does. But that is not the main reason he is unhappy.

ALC: What, then?

APOL:   Mainly he is unhappy because there is nothing he can do for you. He can't protect you, he can't cherish you, since you are never in danger. Human love depends on danger. With no danger of any kind for you, he is – now – finding it hard even to love you.

ALC: Ah, god, I had noticed! Poor man, he is destroyed!

APOL:   He didn't want me to tell you that you are immortal. But I thought it best to do so. In any case, you would have found it out, sooner or later. Sooner is better  -  while Admetus is still young. While you are both young.

ALC: While we are young!  [A tear starts in her eye.]

APOL:   Heavens, a tear! You should not be able to shed tears!

ALC: Perhaps I still remember what it is to be human.  Lord god Apollo, can you take back your gift?

APOL:   What do you mean?

ALC: I want to be mortal again. I want to be truly human.

APOL:   So that you can die?

ALC: That too. I never asked for immortality, and I don't want it now. I want to be able to truly feel again. And I want Admetus to love and care for me. And – one day – I hope I may die before him. Except that that would make him sad. I love Admetus!

APOL:   So that you would die for him?

ALC: Yes, I would die for him! Lord, take back your gift!

APOL:   That's not normally allowed, you know. Father Zeus would be extremely angry if I broke the rules.

ALC: Break the rules. There is nothing serious he can do to you. If he makes you
our slave again, for a year, I'm sure you wouldn't mind.

APOL:   True. [He looks up.] Actually, I think I could do it with impunity. When last heard of, Father was away in Phoenicia, trying to seduce a girl called Europa. That will keep him busy for some time… But are you sure you want this? You know what it means?

ALC: I know what it means. I can remember hunger, and thirst, and illness, and pain.

APOL:   You don't remember ageing and death.

ALC: Admetus is already ageing. I want to age with him. Now, do it, my lord.

APOL:   Very well. The method is this: you must kiss me, in the way I once kissed you. I will be the passive one, I will open my mouth. Then kiss me hard – and at the same time, will your divinity away, back into me.

ALC: Come then. I will kiss you.

APOL:   [Takes her in his arms.]  There is still time, Alcestis, to shun this terrible thing. You can remain a goddess – just give me an ordinary kiss. Or a great kiss, without willing away your godhead.

ALC: No more words.

[She holds Apollo's face in her two hands, and gives him a great long kiss. Then she staggers away from him, and screams.]

ALC: Ah – ah! – ah….

APOL:    Now you feel it? I am sorry, Alcestis, but that  cannot be reversed. You are going to die.

ALC: Ah, death… Death, death, death! I feel it in me already. I thought I remembered what it was like, but I didn't really. Now I know. My whole body – it is heavy. I feel it all – the unpleasure in the bowels, the sharp stones under my feet. I feel hunger. I am a woman again.

APOL:   Are you sorry now, Alcstis?

ALC: Yes… No. I feel sorry the way one does on waking from a beautiful dream. I am glad I will have those memories – how bright the world was, and all that. It is lovely to be a goddess in a dream.: the glorious images, the lightness, the lack of any pain… But it is good to wake up from dreams. I am hungry. I am also hungry for my husband. I crave to see him, to touch him, to protect him. While I was dreaming that I was a goddess, I couldn't feel like that. It is good to be awake.

[The sun is now setting. Alcestis faces towards it.]

Ah, how beautiful that sun is. The setting sun. And how sad. I have not felt that sadness for a whole year.

APOL:   Night is coming on.

ALC: Yes. The sadness – the beauty is in the sadness itself. It is a terrible beauty, but I think it is a greater beauty than you gods can know. Lord Apollo, you should try being mortal for a year. Perhaps you would then consent to die.

APO:   [Laughing]  That's a bit drastic.

                [Enter, left, Admetus.]

AD: Lord Apollo, the feast is ready. We have done our best. I think you may enjoy it.

APOL:   I am sure I will.

[Alcestis runs to Admetus, and embraces him passionately.]

ALC: Oh, my love, my love! How glad I am to see you, to have you! Oh my dear, you are so beautiful! And I love you so much. If I have ever seemed cold to you, forgive me. Believe me, I am not cold. I would die for you, my love.

AD: What is this? [He kisses her.]  Lord Apollo, what have you done?

[Apollo and Alcestis exchange glances. Faintly, she shakes her head.]

APOL:   Oh, nothing much, Admetus. But I think you and your wife will be happy now. Come, shall we go in to this feast?

  [Exeunt omnes, left, to the palace. The sun sets.]

CURTAIN