Alcestis or Alcestes, daughter of Pelias and wife of Admetus (_q. v_.) On his wedding-day Admetus neglected to offer sacrifice to Diana and was condemned to die, but Apollo induced the Fates to spare his life if he could find a voluntary substitute. His wife offered to give her life for his, and went away with death; but Hercules fought with Death and restored Alcestes to her husband. This story is the subject of a tragedy _Alcestes_, by Euripides. Milton alludes to the incident in one of his sonnets: Methought I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me like Alcestes from the grave. John Milton, Sonnet _On his deceased Wife_. William Morris has made Alcestes the subject of one of the tales in his _Earthly Paradise._ A variation of the story is found in Longfellow's _The Golden Legend_, Henry of Hoheneck when dying was promised his life if a maiden could be found who would give up her life for his. Elsie, the daughter of Gottlieb, a tenant-farmer of the prince offered herself as a sacrifice, and followed her lord to Sorrento to give herself up to Lucifer; but Henry heard of it, and, moved by gratitude, saved Elsie and made her his wife. _Alceste_, the hero of Molière's comedy _Le Misanthrope_. He has a pure and noble mind that has been soured and disgusted by intercourse with the world. Courtesy he holds to be the vice of fops, and the manners of society mere hypocrisy. He courts Célmène, a coquette and her treatment of his love confirms his bad opinion of mankind. AL'CHEMIST (_The_), the last of the three great comedies of Ben Jonson (1610). The other two are _Vol'pone_ (2 _syl_.), (1605), and _The Silent Woman_ (1609). The object of _The Alchemist_ is to ridicule the belief in the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life. The alchemist is "Subtle," a mere quack; and "sir Epicure Mammon" is the chief dupe, who supplies money, etc., for the "transmutation of metal." "Abel Drugger" a tobacconist, and "Dapper" a lawyer's clerk, are two other dupes. "Captain Face," _alias_ "Jeremy," the house-servant of "Lovewit," and "Dol Common" are his allies. The whole thing is blown up by the unexpected return of "Lovewit." ALCIB'ADES (5 _syl._), the Athenian general. Being banished by the senate, he marches against the city, and the senate, being unable to offer resistance, open the gates to him (B.C. 450-404). This incident is introduced by Shakespeare in _Timon of Athens_. ALCIBI'ADES' TABLES represented a god or goddess outwardly, and a Sile'nus, or deformed piper, within. Erasmus has a "curious dissertation on these tables" (_Adage_, 667, edit. R. Stephens); hence emblematic of falsehood and dissimulation. Whose wants virtue is compared to these False tables wrought by Alcibiades; Which noted well of all were found t've bin Most fair without, but most deformed within. Wm. Browne, _Britannia's Pastorals_, i. (1613).