Penny Dreadfuls, 1912 · page 85 of 118
The Medea — page 85: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis This is a page of running dramatic dialogue and verse from what appears to be a theatrical adaptation of Euripides' *Medea*. The page (numbered 69) contains Medea's soliloquy in which she steels herself to commit infanticide, followed by a choral response from "Some Women" who invoke Earth and the Sun to prevent the murder. The text depicts the moment of tragic decision—Medea resolves to kill her children despite her maternal love, then exits into the house as the chorus desperately appeals to cosmic forces for intervention. The language is blank verse and lyrical, presenting this classical tragedy in Victorian dramatic form.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MEDEA 69 My heart! Why longer tarry we to win Our crown of dire inevitable sin? Take up thy sword, O poor right hand of mine, Thy sword: then onward to the thin-drawn line Where life turns agony. Let there be naught Of softness now: and keep thee from that thought, ‘Born of thy flesh,’ ‘thine own belovéd.’ Now, For one brief day, forget thy children: thou Shalt weep hereafter. ‘Though thou slay them, yet Sweet were they. . .. I am sore unfortunate. | She goes into the house. CuHorRUvs. Some Women. O Earth, our mother; and thou All-seér, arrowy crown Of Sunlight, manward now Look down, Oh, look down! Look upon one accurst, Ere yet in blood she twine Red hands—blood that is thine! O Sun, save her first! She is thy daughter still, Of thine own golden line; Save her! Or shall man spill The life divine P } Give peace, O Fire that diest not! Send thy spell To stay her yet, to lift her afar, afar— A torture-changéd spirit, a voice of Hell Wrought of old wrongs and war! Eomichbooks.com