Page:Medea (Webster 1868).djvu/39

 Thou comest to us, comest, our worst foe.

This is no courage, this no noble strength,

To front it out with friends whom thou hast wronged.

Rather it is man's loathsomest distemper,

Rank shamelessness. But thou dost well to come;

For I, reviling thee, will soothe my heart,

And thou wilt be stung hearing. Yea, and first

I from the first beginning will begin.

I saved thee, as each Hellene knows who sailed

In the ship Argo with thee, thee sent forth

To tame unto the yoke the fire-breathed bulls

And sow the furrow to the deadly strife:

And the dragon who, coiled round the golden fleece,

Fenced it with snaky knots and never slept,

I slew, who stood to thee thy beacon light:

And, traitress to my father and my home,

I, not so wise as loving, came with thee

To Peliot Iolchos: and by death

Of all kind bitterest, by his children's hands,

Pelias I slew and freed thee from all fear.

And, so much owing me, thou, oh worst villain,

Betrayest me and, father of my sons,