Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/104

86 Ho then, youths, with licensed jest and rejoicing, Loud let the songs of gladness ring through the city; Rarely against our lords such freedom is given.

Fair and noble hand of Bacchus, the thyrsus-bearer, Now is the time to light die glittering torches of pinewood. Shake on high the festal fire with languishing fingers;

Now let the hold and merry Fescennine laughter and jesting Sound through our ranks. Let Medea fare in silence and darkness, If perchance another lord she shall wed in her exile.

Medea: We are undone! How harsh upon mine ears doth grate The song! and even now I cannot comprehend The vast extent of woe that hath befallen me. Could Jason prove so false? Bereft of native land, And home, and kingdom, could he leave me here alone On foreign shores? Oh, cruel, could he quite reject My sum of service, he who saw the fire and sea With crime o'ercome for his dear sake? And does he think That thus the fatal chapter can be ended? Wild, Devoid of reason, sick of soul, my swift mind darts In all directions seeking whence revenge may come! I would he had a brother! But his wife—'gainst her Be aimed the blow! Can thus my wrongs be satisfied? Nay, nay—to meet my sum of woe must be heaped high The crimes of Greece, of strange barbaric lands, and those Which even thy hands have not known. Now lash thy soul With memory's scourge, and call thy dark deeds in review: The glory of thy father's kingdom reft away; Thy brother, guiltless comrade of thy guilty flight, All hewn in pieces and his corpse strewn on the deep, To break his royal father's heart; and, last of crimes, Old Pelias by his daughters slain at thy command. O impious one, what streams of blood have flowed to work Thy ends! And yet, not one of all my crimes by wrath Was prompted. Love, ill-omened love, suggested all. Yet, what could Jason else have done, compelled to serve Another's will, another's law? He should have died