And hide. From this one crime spare Hercules.
[Enter Hercules.]
Hercules: 'Tis well; the household of the shameless king 1035
Is utterly destroyed. To thee, O wife
Of mighty Jove, this promised sacrifice
Have I performed; my vows I've gladly paid;
And other victims shall thine Argos give.
Amphitr.: Thou hast not yet enough atonement made,
O son. Complete the sacrifice. Behold, 1040
A victim at the altar stands, and waits,
With willing neck, thy hand. I offer here
My life, and eagerly; I seek to die.
Slay me.
[Hercules appears to be fainting.]
But what is this? His eye's keen glance
Cannot maintain its gaze; grief dims his sight;
And do I see the hands of Hercules
A-tremble? Now his eyelids fall in sleep,
His head sinks down upon his weary breast, 1045
His knees give way, and down upon the earth
His whole great body falls; as when some ash
Is felled in forest glades, or when some cliff
Falls down and makes a harbor in the sea.
[To Hercules.]
Dost thou yet live? Or has thy furious rage,
Which sent thy friends to death, slain thee as well?
[He examines the prostrate body.]
He slumbers; this his measured breathing proves. 1050
Let him have time for rest, that heavy sleep
May break his madness' force, and so relieve
His troubled heart.
[To attendants.]
Ye slaves, his arms remove,
Lest, waking, he again his madness prove.
Chorus: Let heaven and heaven's creator mourn,
The fertile earth, the wandering wave 1055
Upon the restless sea. And thou,
Who over lands and ocean's plains
