Our fates the Gods in various shapes dispose: {1236}
Heaven sets the crown on many a hopeless cause:
That which is looked for
Fails in the issue.
To goals unexpected
Heav'n points out a passage.
And this is the end of the matter.
[1] The quotations are from Potter's Translation, in Routledge's
Universal Library, freely altered in parts for the purpose of bringing
out changes of metre, etc., in the original. The References are to the
numbering of the lines in Potter.
[2] That is, a scene carried on upon the Stage without the presence of
the Chorus in the Orchestra,--a very rare effect in Greek Drama.
[3] The fact was that the _Alcestis_ was represented in place of a
'Satyric Drama,' which only allowed two (speaking) personages on the
Stage at the same time.