kind abhorred as never woman was, who hadst the heart to stab thy babes, thou their mother, leaving me undone and childless; this hast thou done and still dost gaze upon the sun and earth after this deed most impious? Curses on thee! I now perceive what then I missed in the day I brought thee, fraught with doom, from thy home in a barbarian land to dwell in Hellas, traitress to thy sire and to the land that nurtured thee. On me the gods have hurled the curse that dogged thy steps, for thou didst slay thy brother at his hearth ere thou cam'st aboard our fair ship Argo. Such was the outset of thy life of crime; then didst thou wed with me, and having borne me sons to glut thy passion's lust, thou now hast slain them. Not one amongst the wives of Hellas e'er had dared this deed; yet before them all I chose thee for my wife, wedding a foe to be my doom, no woman, but a lioness fiercer than Tyrrhene Scylla in nature. But with reproaches heaped a thousandfold I cannot wound thee, so brazen is thy nature. Perish, vile sorceress, murderess of thy babes! Whilst I must mourn my luckless fate, for I shall ne'er enjoy my new-found bride, nor shall I have the children, whom I bred and reared, alive to say the last farewell to me; nay, I have lost them. Medea-To this thy speech I could have made a long retort, but Father Zeus knows well all I have done for thee, and the treatment thou hast given me. Yet thou wert not ordained to scorn my love and lead a life of joy in mockery of me, nor was thy royal bride nor Creon, who gave thee a second wife, to thrust me from this land and rue it not. Wherefore, if thou wilt, call me e'en a lioness, and Scylla, whose home is in the Tyrrhene land; for I in turn have wrung thy heart, as well I might. Jason-Thou, too, art grieved thyself, and sharest in my sorrow. Medea-Be well assured I am; but it relieves my pain to know thou canst not mock at me. Jason-O my children, how vile a mother ye have found! Medea - My sons, your father's feeble lust has been your ruin! Jason'Twas not my hand, at any rate, that slew them. Medea-No, but thy foul treatment of me, and thy new marriage. Jason-Didst think that marriage cause enough to murder them? Medea-Dost think a woman counts this a trifling injury? Jason So she be self-restrained; but in thy eyes all is evil. Medea-Thy sons are dead and gone. That will stab thy heart. Jason They live, methinks, to bring a curse upon thy head. Medea-The gods know, whoso of them began this troublous coil. Jason — Indeed, they know that hateful heart of thine. Medea - Thou art as hateful. I am aweary of thy bitter tongue. Jason And I likewise of thine. But parting is easy. Medea to go. Say how; what am I to do? for I am fain as thou Jason Give up to me those dead, to bury and lament. Medea-No, never! I will bury them myself, bearing them to Hera's sacred field, who watches o'er the Cape, that none of their foes may insult them by pulling down their tombs; and in this land of Sisyphus I will ordain hereafter a solemn feast and mystic rites to atone for this impious murder. Myself will now to the land of Erechtheus, to dwell with Ægeus, Pandion's son. But thou, as well thou mayest, shalt die a caitiff's death, thy head crushed 'neath a shattered relic of Argo, when thou hast seen the bitter ending of my marriage. Jason―The curse of our sons' avenging spirit and of Justice, that calls for blood, be on thee! Medea - What god or power divine hears thee, breaker of oaths and every law of hospitality? Jason-Fie upon thee! cursed witch! child murderess! Jason-I go, bereft of both my sons. Medea - Thy grief is yet to come; wait till old Medea Yea, to vex thy heart. -- age is with Jason - One last fond kiss, ah me! I fain would on their lips imprint. Medea Embraces now, and fond farewells for them; but then a cold repulse! |