Penny Dreadfuls, 1912 · page 45 of 118
The Medea — page 45: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Description This is a page of running theatrical dialogue from "Medea" (page 29), presenting verse drama rather than prose fiction. The page contains speeches from multiple characters—Medea, the Leader (chorus), and Jason—in which Medea laments her abandonment and exile after sacrificing everything for Jason, while Jason attempts to justify himself. The text appears to be a Victorian dramatic adaptation rather than a penny dreadful proper, though it may have been serialized in such publications.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
— = od - . ' MEDEA | 29 Aye, so my whole life stands! There were at home Who loved me well: to them I am become A curse. And the first friends who sheltered me, Whom most I should have spared, to pleasure thee I have turned to foes. Oh, therefore hast thou laid My crown upon me, blest of many a maid In Hellas, now I have won what all did crave, Thee, the world-wondered lover and the brave; Who this day looks and sees me banished, thrown Away with these two babes, all, all, alone... Oh, merry mocking when the lamps are red: ‘‘Where go the bridegroom’s babes to beg their bread In exile, and the woman who gave all To save him?” . O great God, shall gold withal Bear thy clear mark, to sift the base and fine, And o’er man’s living visage runs no sign To show the lie within, ere all too late? LEADER. Dire and beyond all healing is the hate When hearts that loved are turned to enmity. JASON. In speech at least, meseemeth, I must be Not evil; but, as some old pilot goes Furled to his sail’s last edge, when danger blows Too fiery, run before the wind and swell, Woman, of thy loud storms.—And thus I tell My tale. Since thou wilt build so wondrous high Thy deeds of service in my jeopardy, = Eomilcbooks: co