Page:Medea (Webster 1868).djvu/89

 A now loathed tie and ruinous to me—

Thee lioness not woman, of a mood

Than the Tursenian Scylla more untamed.

Enough; for not with thousands of rebukes

Could I wring thee, such is thine hardihood.

Avaunt, thou guilty shame! child-murderess!

But mine it is to wail my present fate;

Who nor of my new spousals shall have gain,

Nor shall have sons whom I begot and bred,

To call my living own: for I have lost them.

I would have largely answered back thy words

If Zeus the father knew not what from me

Thou didst receive and in what kind hast done.

And 'twas not for thee, having spurned my love,

To lead a merry life, flouting at me,

Nor for the princess; neither was it his

Who gave her thee to wed, Creon, unscathed,

To cast me out of this his realm. And now,

If it is so like thee, call me lioness

And Scylla, dweller on Tursenian plains,

For as right bade me I have clutched thy heart.