Grasping in his hands {804} A goblet wreath'd with ivy, fill'd it high With the grape's purple juice, and quaff'd it off Untemper'd, till the glowing wine inflamed him; Then binding round his head a myrtle wreath, Howls dismal discord:--two unpleasing strains We heard, his harsh notes who in nought revered Th' afflictions of Admetus, and the voice Of sorrow through the family that wept Our mistress. Yet our tearful eyes we showed not, Admetus so commanded, to the guest. {814} He starts as he feels on his shoulder the huge hand of _Hercules_, who has followed him, and _now appears on the Stage goblet in hand, wreathed and attired like a reveller in full revel_. Hercules good-humouredly scolds him for letting a remote family bereavement hinder him from showing a sociable countenance to his lord's guest. He lectures him on the easy ethics of the banquet-hour: Come hither, that thou mayst be wiser, friend: {832} Knowst thou the nature of all mortal things? Not thou, I ween: how shouldst thou? hear from me. By all of human race death is a debt That must be paid; and none of mortal men Knows whether till to-morrow life's short space Shall be extended: such the dark events Of fortune, never to lie learn'd or traced By any skill. Instructed thus by me {840} Bid pleasure welcome, drink; the life allow'd From day to day esteem thine own; all else Fortune's. The Steward receives his lecture with a bad grace: he knows all that--but there is a time for all things. His manner raises Hercules' suspicions that Admetus has been keeping something back: _Herc._ Is it some sorrow which he told not me? {866} _Stew._ Go thou with joy: ours are our lord's afflictions. _Herc._ These are not words that speak a foreign loss. _Stew._ If such, thy revelry had not displeased me. The secret is not long kept against the questioning of Hercules. When the truth comes out Hercules drops the goblet: he might have known all from so grief-worn a face! All the lightness of the reveller disappears, and the godlike bearing returns to Hercules' figure as he catches the full dignity of his friend's hospitable feat: he is fired to essay a rival deed of nobility.