Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/141

Rh

But they whose halls with laughter sweet

Of children ring—I mark them aye

Care-fretted, travailing alway

To win their loved ones nurture meet.

One toils with love more strong than death:

Yet—yet—who knoweth whether he

A wise man or a fool shall be

To whom he shall his wealth bequeath?

But last, but worst, remains to tell:

For though ye get you wealth enow,

And though your sons to manhood grow,

Fair sons and good:—if Death the fell,

To Hades vanishing, bears down

Your children's lives, what profit is

That Heaven hath laid, with all else, this

Upon mankind, this sorrow's crown?

Friends, long have I, abiding fortune's hap,

Expected what from yonder shall befall.

And lo, a man I see of Jason's train

Hitherward coming, and my eager heart

Foretelleth him the herald of new ills.

Enter Messenger.

O thou who hast wrought an awful deed and lawless,

Flee, O Medea, flee, nor once leave thou

The sea-wain, or the car that scours the plain.