From any such judgment there is an instant appeal to sane human sympathy. Jason has suffered more than enough. But that also is the way of the world. And the last word upon these tragic things is most often something not to be expressed by the sentences of even the wisest articulate judge, but only by the unspoken _lacrimæ rerum_. G. M. MEDEA CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY MEDEA, _daughter of Aiêtês, King of Colchis_. JASON, _chief of the Argonauts; nephew of Pelias, King of Iôlcos in Thessaly_. CREON, _ruler of Corinth_. AEGEUS, _King of Athens_. NURSE _of Medea_. TWO CHILDREN _of Jason and Medea_. ATTENDANT _on the children_. A MESSENGER. CHORUS of Corinthian Women, with their LEADER. Soldiers and Attendants. _The scene is laid in Corinth. The play was first acted when Pythodôrus was Archon, Olympiad 87, year_ 1 (B.C. 431). _Euphorion was first, Sophocles second, Euripides third, with Medea, Philoctêtes, Dictys, and the Harvesters, a Satyr-play._ MEDEA _The Scene represents the front of_ MEDEA'S _House in Corinth. A road to the right leads towards the royal castle, one on the left to the harbour. The_ NURSE _is discovered alone_. NURSE. Would God no Argo e'er had winged the seas To Colchis through the blue Symplêgades: No shaft of riven pine in Pêlion's glen Shaped that first oar-blade in the hands of men Valiant, who won, to save King Pelias' vow, The fleece All-golden! Never then, I trow, Mine own princess, her spirit wounded sore With love of Jason, to the encastled shore Had sailed of old Iôlcos: never wrought The daughters of King Pelias, knowing not, To spill their father's life: nor fled in fear, Hunted for that fierce sin, to Corinth here With Jason and her babes. This folk at need Stood friend to her, and she in word and deed Served alway Jason. Surely this doth bind, Through all ill days, the hurts of humankind, When man and woman in one music move. But now, the world is angry, and true love Sick as with poison. Jason doth forsake My mistress and his own two sons, to make His couch in a king's chamber. He must wed: Wed with this Creon's child, who now is head And chief of Corinth. Wherefore sore betrayed Medea calleth up the oath they made, They two, and wakes the claspèd hands again, The troth surpassing speech, and cries amain On God in heaven to mark the end, and how Jason hath paid his debt. All fasting now And cold, her body yielded up to pain, Her days a waste of weeping, she hath lain, Since first she knew that he was false. Her eyes Are lifted not; and all her visage lies In the dust. If friends will speak, she hears no more Than some dead rock or wave that beats the shore: Only the white throat in a sudden shame