Page:Euripides and his age.djvu/245

Rh with crowbars. The only action they can possibly perform is the sort that specially belongs to the Chorus, the action of baffled desire.

Medea is in the house; the Chorus is chanting its sublimated impersonal emotion about the Love that has turned to Hate in Medea, and its dread of things to come (1267 ff.):

For fierce are the smitings back of blood once shed Where Love hath been: God's wrath upon them that kill, And an anguished Earth, and the wonder of the dead Haunting as music still. . ..

when a sudden cry is heard within. The song breaks short, and one woman speaks:

Hark! Did ye hear? Heard ye the children's cry? Another. O miserable woman! O abhorred! Voice of a Child within. What shall I do? What is it? Keep me fast From Mother! The Other Child. I know nothing. Brother! Oh, I think she means to kill us. One of the Chorus. Let me go! I will!—Help, help! And save them at the last! Child. Yes, in God's name. Help quickly or we die! The Other Child. She has almost caught me now: she has a sword.