Page:Medea (Webster 1868).djvu/25

 For justice dwells not in the eyes of mortals,

Theirs who, before they inly know a man,

Look and straight loathe him, nothing wronged by him.

More, it behoves an alien specially

To mould himself unto the city's wont:

Nor can I praise a fractious citizen

Waxed wanton to his folk through ignorance.

But my soul by this all unlocked for weird

Fallen upon me is crushed utterly.

I am undone, and turned from joy of life,

My friends, I am in very need to die.

For he in whom was all to me, my husband,

Ye know it well, has proved of men most base.

Aye, of all living and of reasoning things

Are woman the most miserable race:

Who first needs buy a husband at great price,

To take him then for owner of our lives:

For this ill is more keen than common ills.

And of essays most perilous is this,

Whether one good or evil do we take.

For evil-famed to women is divorce,

Nor can one spurn a husband. She so brought

Beneath new rule and wont had surely need