NUR.  Thus it is, my children; your mother excites her heart, excites her fury.  Hasten as quick as possible within the house, and come not near her sight, nor approach her, but guard against the fierce temper and violent nature of her self-willed mind.  Go now, go as quick as possible within.  But it is evident that the cloud of grief raised up from the beginning will quickly burst forth with greater fury; what I pray will her soul, great in rage, implacable, irritated by ills, perform!

MED. Alas! alas!  I wretched have suffered, have suffered treatment worthy of great lamentation.  O ye accursed children of a hated mother, may ye perish with your father, and may the whole house fall.

NUR.  Alas! alas! me miserable! but why should your children share their father’s error?  Why dost thou hate these!  Alas me, my children, how beyond measure do I grieve lest ye suffer any evil!  Dreadful are the dispositions of tyrants, and somehow in few things controlled, in most absolute, they with difficulty lay aside their passion.  The being accustomed then[7] to live in mediocrity of life is the better:  may it be my lot then to grow old if not in splendor, at least in security.  For, in the first place, even to mention the name of moderation carries with it superiority, but to use it is by far the best conduct for men; but excess of fortune brings more power to men than is convenient;[8] and has brought greater woes upon families, when the Deity be enraged.

NURSE, CHORUS.

CHOR.  I heard the voice, I heard the cry of the unhappy Colchian; is not she yet appeased? but, O aged matron, tell me; for within the apartment with double doors, I heard her cry; nor am I delighted, O woman, with the griefs of the family, since it is friendly to me.

NUR.  The family is not; these things are gone already:  for he possesses the bed of royalty; but she, my mistress, is melting away her life in her chamber, in no way soothing her mind by the advice of any one of her friends.

MED. Alas! alas! may the flame of heaven rush through my head, what profit for me to live any longer.  Alas! alas! may I rest myself in death, having left a hated life.

CHOR.  Dost thou hear, O Jove, and earth, and light, the cry which the wretched bride utters? why I pray should this insatiable love of the marriage-bed hasten thee, O vain woman, to death?  Pray not for this.  But if thy husband courts a new bed, be not thus[9] enraged with him.  Jove will avenge these wrongs for thee:  waste not thyself so, bewailing thy husband.

MED. O great Themis and revered Diana, do ye behold what I suffer, having bound my accursed husband by powerful oaths?  Whom may I at some time see and his bride torn piecemeal with their very houses, who dare to injure me first.  O my father, O my city, whom I basely abandoned, having slain my brother.

NUR.  Do ye hear what she says, and how she invokes Themis hearing the vow, and Jove who is considered the dispenser of oaths to mortals?  It is not possible that my mistress will lull her rage to rest on any trivial circumstance.