Jason Thou, too, art grieved thyself, and sharest in my sorrow.
Medea Be well assured I am; but it relieves my pain to know thou canst not mock at me.
Jason O my children, how vile a mother ye have found!
Medea My sons, your father’s feeble lust has been your ruin!
Jason ’Twas not my hand, at any rate, that slew them.
Medea No, but thy foul treatment of me, and thy new marriage.
Jason Didst think that marriage cause enough to murder them?
Medea Dost think a woman counts this a trifling injury?
Jason So she be self-restrained; but in thy eyes all is evil.
Medea Thy sons are dead and gone. That will stab thy heart.
Jason They live, methinks, to bring a curse upon thy head.
Medea The gods know, whoso of them began this troublous coil.
Jason Indeed, they know that hateful heart of thine.
Medea Thou art as hateful. I am aweary of thy bitter tongue.
Jason And I likewise of thine. But parting is easy.
Medea Say how; what am I to do? for I am fain as thou to go.
Jason Give up to me those dead, to bury and lament
Medea No, never! I will bury them myself, bearing them to Hera’s sacred field, who watches o’er the Cape, that none of their foes may insult them by pulling down their tombs; and in this land of Sisyphus I will ordain hereafter a solemn feast and mystic rites to atone for this impious murder. Myself will now to the land of Erechtheus, to dwell with Aegeus, Pandion’s son. But thou, as well thou mayest, shalt die a caitiff’s death, thy head crushed ’neath a shattered relic of Argo, when thou hast seen the bitter ending of my marriage.
Jason The curse of our sons’ avenging spirit and of Justice, that calls for blood, be on thee!
Medea What god or power divine hears thee, breaker of oaths and every law of hospitality?
Jason Fie upon thee! cursed witch! child-murderess!
Medea To thy house! go, bury thy wife.
Jason I go, bereft of both my sons.
Medea Thy grief is yet to come; wait till old age is with thee too.
Jason O my dear, dear children!
Medea Dear to their mother, not to thee.
Jason And yet thou didst slay them?
Medea Yea, to vex thy heart.
Jason One last fond kiss, ah me! I fain would on their lips imprint.
Medea Embraces now, and fond farewells for them; but then a cold repulse!
Jason By heaven I do adjure thee, let me touch their tender skin.
Medea No, no! in vain this word has sped its flight.
Jason O Zeus, dost hear how I am driven hence; dost mark the treatment I receive from this she-lion, fell murderess of her young? Yet so far as I may and can, I raise for them a dirge, and do adjure the gods to witness how thou hast slain my sons, and wilt not suffer me to embrace or bury their dead bodies. Would I had never begotten them to see thee slay them after all!
Chorus Many a fate doth Zeus dispense, high on his Olympian throne; oft do the gods bring things to pass beyond man’s expectation; that, which we thought would be, is not fulfilled, while for the unlooked-for god finds out a way; and such hath been the issue of this matter.
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