HERACLES
By your great soul, I challenge you, old friend.
The man who sticks it out against his fate
shows spirit, but the spirit of a fool.	310
No man alive can budge necessity.
Chorus
I could have stopped the mouth of any man
who threatened you, had I my old strength back.
But now I am nothing. With you it rests,
Amphitryon, to avert disaster now.	315
Amphitryon
Not cowardice, not love of life, keep me
from death, but my hope to save these children.
I am in love, it seems, with what cannot be.
(Turning to Lycus.)
Here, king, here is my throat, ready for your sword;
murder me, stab me through, hurl me from a cliff,	320
but, I beg you, grant us both this one boon.
Murder us before you kill these children;
spare us from seeing that ghastly sight,
these boys gasping out their lives, crying
"Mother!" and "Grandfather!" For the rest,	325
do your worst. Our hope is gone; we have to die.
Megara
I beg you, grant me this one last request,
and so by one act you shall oblige us both.
Let me adorn my children for their death;
open those doors which are locked to us	3 30
and give them that much share of their father's house.
Lycus
I grant it. Attendants, undo the bolts!
(Attendants slide open the center doors of the palace.)
Go in and dress. I do not begrudge you clothes.
But when your dressing for your death is done,
319