Racine: Phaedra

X34
EURIPTDES
Jason.— You grieve, and are the partner of my woes.
Medea.—Be well assured 1 am : but what assuages
My grief is this, that thou no more canst scoff.
Jason.—How vile a mother, O my sons, was yours
Medea.—How did ye perish through your father's lust!
Jason.—But my right hand was guiltless of their death.
Medea.—Not so thy cruel taunts, and that new marriage.
Jason.—Was my new marriage a sufficient cause
For thee to murder them ?
Medea.— Canst thou suppose
Such wrongs sit light upon the female breast ?
Jason.—On a chaste woman's ; but your soul abounds
With wickedness.
Medea.— Thy sons are now no more.
This will afflict thee.
Jason.— O'er your head, alas
They now two evil geniuses impend.
Medea.—The gods know who these ruthless deeds began.
Jason.—They know the hateful temper of your soul.
Medea.—In detestation thee I hold, and loathe
Thy conversation.
Jason.— Yours too I abhor
But we with ease may settle on what terms
To part forever.
Medea.— Name those terms. Say how
Shall I proceed ? For such my ardent wish.
Jason.—Let me inter the dead, and o'er them weep.
Medea.—Thou shalt not. For their corses with this hand
Am I resolved to bury in the grove
Sacred to awful Juno, who protects
The citadel of Corinth, lest their foes
Insult them, and with impious rage pluck up
The monumental stone. I in this realm
Of Sisyphos moreover will ordain
A solemn festival and mystic rites.
To make a due atonement for my guilt
In having slain them. To Erectheus' land
I now am on my road, where I shall dwell
With ^geus, great Pandion's son ; but thou
Shalt vilely perish as thy crimes deserve.