THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED - OUDL Home

MEDEA (chanting within)
Ah, me! the agony I have suffered, deep enough to call for these
laments! Curse you and your father too, ye children damned, sons of
a doomed mother! Ruin seize the whole family!
NURSE (chanting)
Ah me! ah me! the pity of it! Why, pray, do thy children share
their father's crime? Why hatest thou them? Woe is you, poor
children, how do I grieve for you lest ye suffer some outrage!
Strange are the tempers of princes, and maybe because they seldom
have to obey, and mostly lord it over others, change they their moods
with difficulty. 'Tis better then to have been trained to live on equal
terms. Be it mine to reach old age, not in proud pomp, but in security!
Moderation wins the day first as a better word for men to
use, and likewise it is far the best course for them to pursue; but
greatness that doth o'erreach itself, brings no blessing to mortal
men; but pays a penalty of greater ruin whenever fortune is wroth
with a family.
(The CHORUS enters. The following lines between the NURSE, CHORUS,
and MEDEA are sung.)
CHORUS
I' heard the voice, uplifted loud, of our poor Colchian lady, nor
yet is she quiet; speak, aged dame, for as I stood by the house with
double gates I heard a voice of weeping from within, and I do grieve,
lady, for the sorrows of this house, for it hath won my love.
NURSE
'Tis a house no more; all that is passed away long since; a royal
bride keeps Jason at her side, while our mistress pines away in her
bower, finding no comfort for her soul in aught her friends can say.
MEDEA (within)
Oh, oh! Would that Heaven's levin bolt would cleave this head
in twain! What gain is life to me? Woe, woe is me! O, to die and win
release, quitting this loathed existence!
CHORUS
Didst hear, O Zeus, thou earth, and thou, O light, the piteous note
of woe the hapless wife is uttering? How shall a yearning for that
insatiate resting-place ever hasten for thee, poor reckless one, the
end that death alone can bring? Never pray for that. And if thy lord
prefers a fresh love, be not angered with him for that; Zeus will judge
'twixt thee and him herein. Then mourn not for thy husband's loss
too much, nor waste thyself away.