MEDEA
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Euripides and Murray, Gilbert
[The Children and the Attendant go in.
Nurse.
Ah, children, hark! She moves again Her frozen heart, her sleeping wrath. In, quick! And never cross her path, Nor rouse that dark eye in its pain; That fell sea-spirit, and the dire Spring of a will untaught, unbowed. Quick, now!—Methinks this weeping cloud Hath in its heart some thunder-fire, Slow gathering, that must flash ere long. I know not how, for ill or well, It turns, this uncontrollable Tempestuous spirit, blind with wrong.
Voice (within).
Have I not suffered? Doth it call No tears? . . . Ha, ye beside the wall Unfathered children, God hate you As I am hated, and him, too, That gat you, and this house and all!
Nurse.
For pity! What have they to do, Babes, with their father's sin? Why call Thy curse on these? . . . Ah, children, all These days my bosom bleeds for you. Rude are the wills of princes: yea, Prevailing alway, seldom crossed, On fitful winds their moods are tossed: 'Tis best men tread the equal way. Aye, not with glory but with peace May the long summers find me crowned: For gentleness—her very sound Is magic, and her usages. All wholesome: but the fiercely great Hath little music on his road, And falleth, when the hand of God Shall move, most deep and desolate.
[During the last words the Leader of the Chorus has entered. Other women follow her.
Leader.
I heard a voice and a moan, A voice of the eastern seas: Hath she found not yet her ease? Speak, O agèd one. For I stood afar at the gate, And there came from within a cry, And wailing desolate. Ah, no more joy have I, For the griefs this house doth see, And the love it hath wrought in me.
Nurse.
There is no house! 'Tis gone. The lord Seeketh a prouder bed: and she Wastes in her chamber, not one word Will hear of care or charity.
Voice (within).
O Zeus, O Earth, O Light, Will the fire not stab my brain? What profiteth living? Oh, Shall I not lift the slow Yoke, and let Life go, As a beast out in the night, To lie, and be rid of pain?
Chorus.
Some Women A.
"O Zeus, O Earth, O Light:" The cry of a bride forlorn Heard ye, and wailing born Of lost delight?
B.
Why weariest thou this day, Wild heart, for the bed abhorrèd, The cold bed in the clay? Death cometh though no man pray, Ungarlanded, un-adorèd. Call him not thou.
C.
If another's arms be now Where thine have been, On his head be the sin: Rend not thy brow!
D.
All that thou sufferest, God seeth: Oh, not so sore Waste nor weep for the breast That was thine of yore.
Voice (within).
Virgin of Righteousness, Virgin of hallowed Troth, Ye marked me when with an oath I bound him; mark no less That oath's end. Give me to see Him and his bride, who sought My grief when I wronged her not, Broken in misery, And all her house. . . . O God, My mother's home, and the dim Shore that I left for him, And the voice of my brother's blood. . . .
Nurse.
Oh, wild words! Did ye hear her cry To them that guard man's faith forsworn, Themis and Zeus? . . . This wrath new-born Shall make mad workings ere it die.
Chorus.
Other Women.
A.
Would she but come to seek Our faces, that love her well, And take to her heart the spell Of words that speak?
B.
Alas for the heavy hate And anger that burneth ever! Would it but now abate, Ah God, I love her yet. And surely my love's endeavour Shall fail not here.
C.
Go: from that chamber drear Forth to the day Lead her, and say, Oh, say That we love her dear.
D.
Go, lest her hand be hard On the innocent: Ah, let be! For her grief moves hitherward, Like an angry sea.
Nurse.
That will I: though what words of mine Or love shall move her? Let them lie With the old lost labours! . . . Yet her eye— Know ye the eyes of the wild kine, The lion flash that guards their brood? So looks she now if any thrall Speak comfort, or draw near at all My mistress in her evil mood.
[The Nurse goes into the house.