Admetus, being due to Death, and as such totally unprepared to take himself up, is about to betake himself down, according to previous arrangement, when Orcus, who had meanwhile been trying his mean wiles on Alcestis (Admetus' very much better half), expresses himself willing to receive her as a substitute; her husband, friends, and relations not feeling quite so disposed to be disposed of. Alcestis, however, consents, packs up her traps, and then obligingly goes packing down those of Orcus. At this melancholy juncture, Hercules chances to be passing through Thessaly, on his return from his provincial engagements, and, having a knack of turning up a trump at a _rub_, plays his club so judiciously as to retake the queen, in spite of the deuce, and restores her to her family and friends. In the dialogue of "Alcestis" we have such quips as these:-- E'en like a detonator down he goes To pay the _debt o' natur_ which he owes. To curb my rising love I idly tries, I _eyes the idol_ that I _idolise_! I may be captivating; but Death, stronger, Will not be _kept-a-vaiting_ any longer. I'd no time to aggravate Mamma, Or make my _Pa_ my _foe_ by a _faux pas_! In one place Alcestis, apropos of the marriage which is being forced upon her, cries bitterly:-- Why was I ever _saddled_ with this _bridal_? Phædra sings a parody on "I'm afloat, I'm afloat!":-- I'm a flirt, I'm a flirt, yet on thirty's bright side, And numbers have offer'd to make me their bride; Yet, though suitors don't flag in attention to me, I'm a flirt, I'm a flirt, and my hand is yet free! In 1851 came "Thetis and Peleus," in which Talfourd had a collaborator. In 1857 he produced, at the Haymarket, "Atalanta, or the Three Golden Apples," inserting in the "bill" a comic note to the effect that "Lest he should be accused of murdering a good subject, the Author begs to state that it was FOUN' DED from unknown causes many years ago." Miss Oliver was the Atalanta, and Miss Wilton the Cupid. Among the other characters is Mississarris, Atalanta's duenna, "the Guard of the Old Greek Stage, with, in this instance, an eye to the Males, subsequently attached to the old Coach, Paidagogos," played by Compton. One of the cleverest scenes in the piece is designed and written in parody of the balcony scene in "Romeo and Juliet." Hippomenes, the hero, is seen climbing "over the garden wall," guitar in hand. Descending, he soliloquises:-- He jests at scars who ne'er in climbing hit upon A place with spikes and broken glass to sit upon. But soft, a light!--where lights are there's a liver. 'Tis she! I'll try a gentle hint to give her Upon my mandoline, though I'm afraid I'm somewhat too hoarse for a serenade. This night air is too musical by far, And on my chest has struck a light _catarrh_.... Ah, see! The window opens--it is she, More fair than ever in her _robe de nuit_.