Penny Dreadfuls, 1912 · page 72 of 118
The Medea — page 72: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is a page of running prose from a classical dramatic text—specifically a translation of Euripides' *Medea*. The page contains dialogue and stage directions followed by a choral passage. The visible text depicts a tragic moment: a character exits to deliver poisoned gifts (a robe and crown) to a bride, while the chorus laments that the bride will unknowingly perish upon accepting them. The language is archaic English verse ("she taketh," "flieth not"), characteristic of Victorian-era translations of ancient Greek drama. This appears to be from a scholarly or literary edition rather than a penny dreadful, despite the page number (56) suggesting it's part of a larger serialized work.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
56 EURIPIDES Exiled: and give the caskets—above all Mark this!—to none but her, to hold withal And keep. ... Go quick! And let your mother know Soon the good tiding that she longs for. . . . Go! | She goes quickly into the house. JASON and the CHILDREN with their ATTENDANT depart. CHORUS. Now I have no hope more of the children’s living; No hope more. ‘They are gone forth unto death. The bride, she taketh the poison of their giving: She taketh the bounden gold and openeth; And the crown, the crown, she lifteth about her brow, Where the light brown curls are clustering. No hope now! O sweet and cloudy gleam of the garments golden! The robe, it hath clasped her breast and the crown her head. Then, then, she decketh the bride,as a bride of olden Story, that goeth pale to the kiss of the dead. For the ring hath closed, and the portion of death is there; | And she flieth not, but perisheth unaware. Some Women. O bridegroom, bridegroom of the kiss so cold, Art thou wed with princes, art thou girt with gold, Eomicbooks (E(0) Qo ee . ’ ‘ ty Ss 8 eS ae ee ee ee ee ee a