THE MEDEA

(Medea is heard inside the house.)
Medea

Ah, wretch! Ah, lost in my sufferings,
I wish, I wish I might die.

Nurse

What did I say, dear children? Your mother

Frets her heart and frets it to anger.

Run -away quickly into the house, 100

And keep well out of her sight.

Don't go anywhere near, but be careful

Of the wildness and bitter nature

Of that proud mind.
• ,Go now! Run quickly indoors. 105

It is clear that she soon will put lightning

In that cloud of her cries that is rising

With a passion increasing. O, what will she do,

Proud-hearted and not to be checked on her course,

A soul bitten into with wrong? no

(The Tutor takes the children into the house^) ij^QO *

Ah, I have suffered
What should be wept for bitterly. I hate yoii,"
Children of a hateful mother. I curse you
And your father. Let the whole house crash.
•
Nurse «.---*
Ah, I pity you, you poor creature. ~ 115
,How can your children share in their father's
Wickedness? Why do you hate them? Oh children,
How much I fear that something may happen!
Great people's tempers are terrible, always
Having their own way, seldom checked, 120
Dangerous they shift from mood to mood.
How much better to have been accustomed
To live on equal terms with one's neighbors.
I would like to be safe and grow old in a 125
75