Libretto by Thomas Broughton
Synopsis of the Plot
ACT I
Dejanira sits in a royal apartment in the Trachian Palace in Thessaly, uncertain of her husband Hercules’s fate and bemoaning his absence (“The world, when day’s career is run”). She looks to her son Hyllus for comfort, but Hyllus tells her that the priests have just prophesized Hercules’s immanent death (“I feel, I feel the god, he swells my breast”). Dejanira worries that she will meet her husband only in the underworld (“There in myrtle shades reclined”). Hyllus vows that he will bring Hercules back to his grieving mother (“Where congealed the northern streams”). At that moment, the herald Lichas enters and announces that Hercules has returned from Oechalia with a train of prisoners, including the lovely princess Iole and a group of Oechalian virgins. In a square in front of the palace, Hercules proclaims victory and grants Iole freedom within his realm. Iole’s sadness at the loss of her father (“My father! Ah! Methinks I see”) contrasts sharply with the jubilant celebration (“Crown with festal pomp the day”).
ACT II
Back in the palace, Dejanira admits that she is threatened by Iole, fearing that sorrow makes beautiful women nearly irresistible (“When beauty sorrow’s liv’ry wears”). Although she has little supporting evidence, she manages to convince herself that Hercules has been unfaithful (“Jealousy! Infernal pest”). After she departs, Hyllus—who has fallen in love with Iole—tries to convince the princess to return his feelings, but she refuses his advances, saying she cannot love the son of the man who destroyed her father and homeland (“Banish love from thy breast”). Hyllus cannot ignore his all-encompassing emotions, however (“From celestial seats descending”; “Wanton god of amorous fires”). Meanwhile, Dejanira confronts Hercules with his alleged infidelity, chastising him for trading the glory of victory for the shame of infidelity (“Resign thy club and lion’s spoils”). Hercules vehemently denies any wrongdoing, but his protestations do little to allay Dejanira’s suspicions. Suddenly, Dejanira remembers a vest given to her years before by the centaur Nessus: after suffering a fatal poison arrow wound at Hercules’s hand, Nessus had given Dejanira his blood-soaked garment and claimed it could “revive th’expiring flame of love.” Hoping that the charm will rekindle their passion, Dejanira gives the robe to Lichas and asks him to deliver the peace offering to her husband. Iole enters, and Dejanira apologizes for her earlier jealous fit. Iole expresses happiness for the royal couple’s love and “sorrow at her own predicament,” and Dejanira promises to do what she can to secure the princess’s release (“Joys of freedom, joys of pow’r”). Still convinced that her marriage is in jeopardy, Dejanira prays that her “expedient” will help restore “the nuptial band” (“Love and Hymen, hand in hand”).
ACT III
Lichas tells the Trachinians of the terrible events he has just witnessed: as Hercules awaited the ceremonial sacrifice, the herald presented him with Dejanira’s gift, which the delighted Hercules immediately donned. Already warm from the altar’s flames, Hercules began to sweat—and the moisture from his body, combined with the poison still present in Nessus’s dried blood, led to immediate agony. Hercules’s death is clearly inevitable (“Oh scene of unexampled woe,” “Tyrants now no more shall dread”). Railing against “mistaken, cruel, treacherous Dejanira” for causing his demise, Hercules asks Hyllus to burn his body in a funeral pyre on the top of Mount Oeta. At the palace, Dejanira’s realization that she has unwittingly carried out Nessus’s posthumous revenge torments her, and she teeters on the brink of insanity (“Where shall I fly”). Iole enters, and though Dejanira initially blames her for the tragic events, she quickly realizes that she alone is “the guilty cause of all.” Iole pities “the countless woes of this unhappy house” (“My breast with tender pity swells”). The Priest of Jupiter comforts Dejanira with the news that an eagle has transported Hercules’s spirit to Mount Olympus, where he will dwell for eternity with the deities. The Priest also informs Iole that the gods have declared that she and Hyllus are destined to be together. Hyllus and Iole declare their love for one another (“O prince, whose virtues all admire”), and the Priest and chorus praise Hercules for bringing peace and liberty to all (“To him your grateful notes of praise belong”).
