The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 06 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 679 pages of information about The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 06.

The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 06 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 679 pages of information about The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 06.

JASON.  No command
             At least I gave.

MEDEA.  Ne’er sought to learn if I
             Had heart and courage for the deed?

JASON.  Thou know’st
             How, in the first mad burst of rage and hate,
             A man speaks many hot, impetuous threats
             Which calm reflection never would fulfil.

MEDEA.  Once thou didst blame thyself for that mad deed;
             Now thou hast found a victim who can bear
             The guilt in place of thee!

JASON.  ’Tis not the thought
             Of such a deed that merits punishment;
             It is the deed itself.

MEDEA (quickly).

I did it not!

JASON.  Who, then, is guilty?

MEDEA.  Not myself, at least! 
             Listen, my husband, and be thou the first
             To do me justice. 
             As I stood at the chamber door, to enter
             And steal away the Fleece,
             The king lay there on his couch;
             Sudden I heard a cry!  I turned,
             And lo!  I saw the aged king
             Leap from his couch with frightful shrieks,
             Twisting and writhing; and he cried,
             “Com’st thou, O brother, to take revenge,
             Revenge on me?  Ha!  Thou shalt die
             Again, and yet again!” And straight
             He sprang at me, to grip me fast,
             For in my hands I held the Fleece. 
             I shook with fear, and cried aloud
             For help to those dark gods I know;
             The Fleece before me like a shield
             I held.  His face was twisted swift
             To maniac grins, and leered at me! 
             Then, with a shriek, he madly tore
             At the clothes that bound his aged veins;
             They rent; the blood gushed forth in streams,
             And, even as I looked, aghast
             And full of horror, there he lay,
             The king, at my very feet, all bathed
             In his own blood-lay cold and dead!

JASON.  And thou canst stand and tell me such a tale,
             Thou hateful witchwife?  Get thee gone from me! 
             Away!  I shudder at thee!  Would that I
             Had ne’er beheld thy face!

MEDEA.  Thou knewest well
             That I was skilled in witchcraft, from that day
             When first thou saw’st me at my magic arts,
             And still didst yearn and long to call me thine!

JASON.  I was a youth then, and an arrant fool! 
             What boys are pleased with, men oft cast away.

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The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 06 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.