Racine: Phaedra

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EURIPIDES
The human race is subject; some there are
Who for their sons have gained sufficient wealth.
Seen them to full maturity advance,
And decked vi^ith every virtue, v^^hen, by fate
If thus it be ordained, comes death unseen
And hurries them to Pluto's gloomy realm.
Can it be any profit to the gods
To heap the loss of children, that one ill
Than all the rest more bitter, on mankind?
Medea.—My friends, with anxious expectation long
Here have I waited, from within to learn
How fortune will dispose the dread event.
But one of Jason's servants I behold
With breathless speed advancing : his looks show
That he some recent mischief would relate.
Enter Messenger.
Messenger.—O thou, who impiously hast wrought a deed
Of horror, fly, Medea, from this land,
Fly with such haste as not to leave the bark
Or from the car alight.
Medea.— What crime, to merit
A banishment like this, have I committed?
Messenger.—By thy enchantments is the royal maid
This instant dead, and Creon, too, her sire.
Medea.—Most glorious are the tidings you relate
Henceforth shall you be numbered with my friends
And benefactors.
Messenger.— Ha! what words are these?
Dost thou preserve thy senses yet entire?
O woman, hath not madness fired thy brain?
The wrongs thou to the royal house hast done
Hear'st thou with joy, nor shudder'st at the tale?
Medea.—Somewhat I have in answer to your speech:
But be not too precipitate, my friend
Inform me how they died, for twofold joy
Wilt thou afiford, if wretchedly they perished.
Messenger.—When with their father thy two sons arrived
And went into the mansion of the bride,
We servants, who had shared thy griefs, rejoiced