MEDEA
A monologue from the
play by Euripides
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from The Plays of Euripides in English, vol. ii. Trans.
Shelley Dean Milman. London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1922. |
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- MEDEA: From my apartment, ye Corinthian dames,
- Lest ye my conduct censure, I come forth:
- For I have known full many who obtained
- Fame and high rank; some to the public gaze
- Stood ever forth, while others, in a sphere
- More distant, chose their merits to display:
- Nor yet a few, who, studious of repose,
- Have with malignant obloquy been called
- Devoid of spirit: for no human eyes
- Can form a just discernment; at one glance,
- Before the inmost secrets of the heart
- Are clearly known, a bitter hate 'gainst him
- Who never wronged us they too oft inspire.
- But 'tis a stranger's duty to adopt
- The manners of the land in which he dwells;
- Nor can I praise that native, led astray
- By mere perverseness and o'erweening folly,
- Who bitter enmity incurs from those
- Of his own city. But, alas! my friends,
- This unforseen calamity hath withered
- The vigour of my soul. I am undone,
- Bereft of every joy that life can yield,
- And therefore wish to die. For as to him,
- My husband, whom it did import me most
- To have a thorough knowledge of, he proves
- The worst of men. But sure among all those
- Who have with breath and reason been endued,
- We women are the most unhappy race.
- First, with abundant gold are we constrained
- To buy a husband, and in him receive
- A haughty master. Still doth there remain
- One mischief than this mischief yet more grievous,
- The hazard whether we procure a mate
- Worthless or virtuous: for divorces bring
- Reproach to woman, nor must she renounce
- The man she wedded; as for her who comes
- Where usages and edicts, which at home
- She learnt not, are established, she the gift
- Of divination needs to teach her how
- A husband must be chosen: if aright
- These duties we perform, and he the yoke
- Of wedlock with complacency sustains,
- Ours is a happy life; but if we fail
- In this great object, better 'twere to die.
- For, when afflicted by domestic ills,
- A man goes forth, his choler to appease,
- And to some friend or comrade can reveal
- What he endures; but we to him alone
- For succour must look up. They still contend
- That we, at home remaining, lead a life
- Exempt from danger, while they launch the spear:
- False are these judgments; rather would I thrice,
- Armed with a target, in th' embattled field
- Maintain my stand, than suffer once the throes
- Of childbirth. But this language suits not you:
- This is your native city, the abode
- Of your loved parents, every comfort life
- Can furnish is at hand, and with your friends
- You here converse: but I, forlorn, and left
- Without a home, am by that husband scorned
- Who carried me from a Barbarian realm.
- Nor mother, brother, or relation now
- Have I, to whom I 'midst these storms of woe,
- Like an auspicious haven, can repair.
- Thus far I therefore crave ye will espouse
- My interests, as if haply any means
- Or any stratagem can be devised
- For me with justice to avenge these wrongs
- On my perfidious husband, on the king
- Who to that husband's arms his daughter gave,
- And the new-wedded princess; to observe
- Strict silence. For although at other times
- A woman, filled with terror, is unfit
- For battle, or to face the lifted sword,
- She when her soul by marriage wrongs is fired,
- Thirsts with a rage unparalleled for blood.
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MONOLOGUES BY EURIPIDES |
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