Penny Dreadfuls, 1912 · page 20 of 118
The Medea — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Page 4 from a Victorian Edition This is a page of running prose—specifically, dramatic verse from what appears to be a Victorian translation or adaptation of Euripides' *Medea*. The text depicts Medea's emotional devastation after Jason abandons her to marry Creon's daughter. The passage describes her fasting, weeping, and despair at being cast away from home and family, while a speaker (likely the Chorus or a confidant) expresses growing dread about what desperate act—suicide or violent revenge—the wronged woman might commit. The tone is intensely melodramatic, emphasizing her suffering and the threat she poses to Jason, his new bride, and the king.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
4 EURIPIDES 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 claspéd 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 May writhe, and all alone she moans the name Of father, and land, and home, forsook that day For this man’s sake, who casteth her away. Not to be quite shut out from home . . . alas, She knoweth now howrare a thing that was! Methinks she hath a dread, not joy, to see Her children near. ’Tis this that maketh me Most tremble, lest she do I know not what. Her heart is no light thing, and useth not Aro brook much wrong. I know that woman, aye, And dread her! Will she creep alone to die Bleeding in that old room, where still is laid Lord Jason’s bed? She hath for thata blade Made keen. Or slay the bridegroom and the king, And win herself God knows what direr thing ?. Eomicbooks. co