Medea (behind the scenes).
Woe! I have suffered, have suffered, foul wrongs that may waken, may waken,
Mighty lamentings full well! O ye children accursed from the womb,
Hence to destruction, ye brood of a loathed one forsaken, forsaken!
Hence with your father, and perish our home in the blackness of doom!
Nurse.
Ah me, in the father's offences
What part have the babes, that thine hate
Should blast them?—forlorn innocences,
How sorely I fear for your fate!
Ah princes—how fearful their moods are!—
Long ruling, unschooled to obey,— 120
Unforgiving, unsleeping their feuds are.
Better life's level way.
Be it mine, if in greatness I may not,
In quiet and peace to grow old.
Sweeter name than "The Mean" shall ye say not;
But to taste it is sweetness untold.
But to men never weal above measure
Availed: on its perilous height
The Gods in their hour of displeasure
The heavier smite. 130
Enter Chorus of Corinthian Ladies.
Chorus.
I have hearkened the voice of the daughter of Kolchis, the sound of the crying
