Thanatopsis

“ APOLLO.
I never robbed thee, neither then nor now.
THANATOS.
Why is Admetus here then, not below?
APOLLO.
He gave for ransom his own wife, for whom ...
THANATOS (interrupting) .
I am come; and straight will bear her to the tomb.
APOLLO.
Go, take her.—I can never move thine heart.
THANATOS (mocking) .
To slay the doomed?—Nay; I will do my part.
APOLLO.
No. To keep death for them that linger late.
THANATOS (still mocking) .
'Twould please thee, so?... I owe thee homage great.
APOLLO.
Ah, then she may yet ... she may yet grow old?
THANATOS (with a laugh) . ”

“ Yet the admission is made with a smile, and more than one suggestion is allowed to float across the scene that in real life such conduct would be hardly wise.
Heracles, who rose to tragic rank from a very homely cycle of myth, was apt to bring other homely characters with him. He was a great killer not only of malefactors but of "kêres" or bogeys, such as "Old Age" and "Ague" and the sort of "Death" that we find in this play. Thanatos is not a god, not at all a King of Terrors. One may compare him with the dancing skeleton who is called Death in mediaeval writings. ”

“ Here we are well within the Isle of Thanet, whose name, as generally is the case, is of uncertain origin. "Thanatos," the "Isle of Death," suggested some commentator in the bygone years, but he did not bolster up his derivation by telling us in what way it was so deadly. Perhaps in the wrecks of its coast. In other respects, Thanet is the Isle of Good Health, of rude, hungry, boisterous health; and in summer the Isle of Cockneys. Does it not contain Ramsgate—"rollicking Ramsgate",—and Margate the merry, whose name—I am sorry—always reminds me of margarine? ”

“ She cared for this scoundrel of an Atkins who had first betrayed his employer and then tried to murder him. Very likely they had been half engaged down there in Virginia; and he had crawled out of his engagement; it would be quite like the cur! Later he found that just such a distinguished, charming woman, who had family and friends, was what he wanted; it would be easy enough for him to warm up his old passion, curse him! Then, he had met her and run in a bunch of plausible lies that had convinced her that he had been a regular angel in plain clothes ”

“ The white gown, which was her constant wear in the sick-room, defined her figure clearly against a clump of Japan plum-trees. Their purplish red foliage rustled; and an unseen fountain beyond made a delicate tinkle of water splashing a marble basin. Her face was hidden; only the moonlight gently drew the oval of her cheek. She was standing still, except that one foot was groping back and forth as if trying to find something. ”

“ He pressed on the round white knob, and what he had half expected happened: a segment of the column swung on inner hinges, disclosing the hollow [158] center of the engaged columns on either side. He looked down. Nothing but darkness was visible, but while he stood, tensely holding his breath, his abnormally sensitive auricular nerve caught distinctly the staccato breath of that kind of sigh which is like a groan, and a voice said more wearily than angrily: “Oh, damn it all!” ”

“ The single species from Rott, Thanatites vetula, is closely allied to the modern Thanaos, whose species are numerous and feed upon a variety of plants, belonging to the families Cruciferæ, Leguminosæ, Umbelliferæ, Cupuliferæ, Betulaceæ and Salicaceæ. Most of the genera belonging to its tribe feed upon Leguminosæ, and these are the usual food plants of the species Thanaos also ”

“ Now, how would Rick take it? What kind of a figure would he cut in his son's fancy? How does it affect a son to be able to despise his father? One ignominious vision after another surged over his mind like waves of acid that corrode as they pass.
Nevertheless, so accustomed was the politician to carry on his mental processes under cover, that all this while he was opening his telegrams with the same placid mask of a face that Sir Cedric's world knew. There he sat, to all appearance, a handsome, scrupulously dressed, elderly man, the least bit in the world stern of aspect ”

“ Which isn’t such a plain proposition in ’Frisco as in Massachusetts! But I [351] reckon we can tackle it! And then—then, my darling, I shall dare be happy!”
He found himself leaning on his window-sill and staring like a boy on the landscape, lost in the lovely hallucinations of moonlight. It was no scene that he knew, it was a vision of old Spain; and by and by from yonder turret the princess, with violets in her loosened hair and her soft cheek like satin and snow, would lean and look. ”

“ THANATOS AND HYPNOS WITH BODY OF WARRIOR (FROM BRIT. MUS. D 58) .
Thanatos, the personification of Death, appears on vases [872] almost exclusively in one aspect, as the bearer of souls in conjunction with Hypnos (Sleep) ; they convey the body of Memnon from Troy to his home in Egypt, [873] and this type is borrowed for other scenes (e.g. on the funeral lekythi) in which an ordinary warrior is borne “to his long home.” [874] In one instance Thanatos is seen urging Ajax on to commit suicide [875] ; he also appears on another vase where the subject may relate to the story of Ixion. ”

“ Their dwelling was in the realm of shades, and when they appear among mortals, Thanatos is feared and hated as the enemy of mankind, whose hard heart knows no pity, whilst his brother Hypnus is universally loved and welcomed as their kindest and most beneficent friend. ”

“ Rather grimly the soldier’s eyes were noting marble wainscoting and tiled floors, and contrasting this academic environment with his own at West Point. A caustic comment rose to his lips, but it was not uttered, for he heard the sharp bark of a pistol, followed by a thud, and a crackle as of breaking glass.
“Do you fellows amuse yourselves shooting up [2] the dormitory?” said he. The boy halted; he had gone white.
“It came from Mercer’s room!” he cried, and ran across the corridor to a door with the usual labeling of two visiting cards. ”

“ The creature whom she sees drawing her to "the palaces of the dead" is certainly not Charon, who had no wings, but was like an old boatman in a peasant's cap and sleeveless tunic; nor can he be Hades, the throned King to whose presence she must eventually go. Apparently, therefore, he must be Thanatos, whom we have just seen on the stage. He was evidently supposed to be invisible to ordinary human eyes.
P. 18, l. 280, Alcestis's speech. ”

“ His friend was eying him critically, with queer little grunts, according to his fashion. "You're not fit to walk," he grumbled. "Why will young folks wear shoes that don't fit! Say, you take Lady Jean home while I go over to the club-house with the major. And keep the car if you don't find me. I'll go back with Standish. And—I don't know but you better take her 'round the head of the island and show her that motor mowing-machine—lawn-mower, you know; I want her to see it."
He grinned as the young people obeyed him with grateful docility, speeding away in his electric runabout ”

“ One can’t weed until there is a crop of information, you know.”
“True,” murmured Aunt Rebecca, nodding her head thoughtfully. “Well, did anything else happen?”
“The secretary posted a lot of letters in the shute. They are all smoking now. Yes—” he was on his feet and at the door in almost a single motion. There had been just the slightest tattoo on the panel. When the door was opened the colonel could hear the rattle of the elevator. He was too late to catch it, but he could see the inmates. Three gentlemen stood in the car. One was Keatcham, the other two had their backs to Winter. ”

“ Not seeming to recognize any chill in his reception, the young stranger approached the stove. No one moved to admit him to the inner circle; this, also, he did not seem to observe. "This whole country looks as if you had been having hard times," he continued. His voice had full, rich, magnetic notes, but its unfamiliar intonations jarred on his hearers; they knew them to belong to the East, and they hated the East. ”

“ In all this, however, we begin to catch the first faintly-resounding note of modern Thanet. The intelligent reader will no doubt have observed, with his usual acuteness, that up to date we have heard practically nothing of Ramsgate, Margate, and Broadstairs, which now form the real centres of population in the nominal island. Its relations have all been with Rutupiæ, Sandwich, Canterbury, and the mainland. But the silting up of the Wantsum turned the new Thanet seaward, by the chalky cliffs ”

“ Very little of the neuration can be determined, and what can be made out is comparatively unimportant and agrees with the neuration of Thanaos; the third superior subcostal nervule strikes the [63] apex of the fore wing as in that genus. As to the markings, the agreement with Thanaos is less striking, although the pattern resembles that of Thanaos more closely than it does that of any other genus. In the fore wings the spot in the cell of Thanaos is wanting in the fossil, but in its stead there is a costal spot at the extremity of the costal fold ”

“ The marshy character of the land still renders roads into Thanet scarce. The Wantsum, the channel that formerly divided the Isle of Thanet from the mainland of Kent, flowed past here in a salt-water estuary half a mile broad in the times of the Romans, who were so concerned to defend each of its two mouths, that they built the strong maritime fortresses of Regulbium and Rutupium where ruined Reculver125 and Richborough now stand. The direct way into Thanet was then, as now, by this road, but it was by ferry that travellers then crossed, and continued for many centuries to cross. ”

“ Thanet—that's a rich lady who lives close by, and is a sort of fairy godmother to us girls—has a great notion about practical education. It was she who got up the Harnessing Class and the Model Kitchen. ”

“ You see, there is just a minnit at such times when it is a toss up whether folks will quiet down and begin to laugh, or get scared into wild beasts and crush and kill each other. And Mr. Lossing he caught the minnit! The circus folks came up and the police, and it was all over. WELL, just look here, sir; there's our folks coming out of the elevator!”
They were just landing; and Mrs. Ellis wanted to know where he had gone.
“We run away from ye, shure,” said Shuey, grinning; and he related the adventure. Armorer fell back with Mrs. Ellis. “Did you stay with Esther every minute?” ”

“ CASA FUERTE
Winter would have said that he was too old a man to stay awake all night, when he had a normal temperature; yet he saw the stars come out and the stars fade on that fateful April night. He entered his room at the hour when midnight brushes the pale skirts of dawn and misguided cocks are vociferating their existence to an indifferent world. Before he came there had been a long council with Mercer and his aunt. ”

“ Pauline gave the message, but she felt so guilty because of this last courtesy that she gave it without reproach, even though her only good brush disclosed a pitiful crack.
“Well, you know why I did it,” said Henriette, coolly; “and does the man suppose his playing isn’t obnoxious any hour of the day as well as night? But let us hope they will be quiet awhile. Paula, have you any money? We ought to go over those numbers for the concert beforehand, and we must get Verdi’s Requiem. Mysie has some, but she wants it to buy curtains.”
“I’m sorry, sister Etty, but I haven’t a cent.” ”

“ Once after midnight, the dying lady pointed with her finger to her own lips. Thiennette understood her not; but rose and bent over her face. The Enfeebled tried to lift her head, but could not,—and only rounded her lips. At last, a thought glanced through Thiennette, that the Departing, whose dead arms could now press no beloved heart to her own, wished that she herself should embrace her. O then, that instant, keen and tearful, she pressed her warm lips on the colder,—and she was silent like her that was to speak no more,—and she embraced alone and was not embraced. ”

“ To counterbalance, she knew more than anyone alive what a good son and brother Horatio had always been. But she could not restrain a smile at the picture of the partnership.
“Precisely, you see yourself,” said Armorer. “Meg”—hesitating—“you don't suppose it would be any use to offer Esther a cool hundred thousand to promise to bounce this young fellow?”
“Horatio, NO!” cried Mrs. Ellis, tossing her pretty gray head indignantly; “you'd insult her!”
“Take it the same way, eh? Well, perhaps; Essie has high-toned notions. That's all right, it is the thing for women. Mother had them too. ”

“ Why didn't Nannie answer my letters?"
The Southerner dropped her chin and looked upward in the pose of a seer; no one noticed Mrs. Clymer's sudden movement or the ripple of quick emotion in Mrs. Curtis' face. "That's easy," she responded. "I see a slim girl with dark hair walking with another girl who answers to the name of Elsa. The dark-haired girl gives her a letter, stamped, but not addressed. She has sent a letter to her friend, which has not reached her. Letters sometimes do not reach people who are hurrying through Egypt or—or other places. ”

“ Ld. Thanet quitted his captivity on Monday last; he is delighted at regaining his freedom, but a little annoyed at walking the streets where he is shown as a sight, ‘There he goes: aye, that is him.’ He says all rooms appear immense, his eye having been so long accustomed to the straitened little apartment he occupied. Madame Bonawitz latterly shared his confinement: she is reckoned clever, she writes English verses.
Our planet must have got out of its orbit and flown off further from the sun, as the cold is very remarkable. ”

“ Shall lie in Hades' house. Even at the word
I go to lay upon her hair my sword.
For all whose head this grey sword visiteth
To death are hallowed and the Lords of death.
Thanatos goes into the house. Presently, as the day grows lighter, the Chorus enters: it consists of Citizens of Pherae, who speak severally.
Chorus:
Leader:
Quiet, quiet, above, beneath!
Second Elder:
The house of Admetus holds its breath. ”