(Corinth.)

Medea monologues, printed in full

Medea's twenty-two speeches, Jason's ten, the Nurse, Creon, Aegeus and the Messenger. The play that gives a woman the whole stage and dares the room to look away. Public domain, printed whole.

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1
Creon from Medea
Euripides · play · dark · 1:06 min
What crime? I fear thee, woman--little need To cloak my reasons--lest thou work some deed Of darkness on my child. And in that fear Reasons enough have part. Thou comest here A…
2
Jason from Medea
Euripides · play · defiant · 1:58 min
Oft have I seen, in other days than these, How a dark temper maketh maladies No friend can heal. 'Twas easy to have kept Both land and home. It needed but to accept Unstrivingly…
3
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · defiant · 0:52 min
Surely I have my thoughts, and not a few Have held me strange. To me it seemeth, when A crafty tongue is given to evil men 'Tis like to wreck, not help them. Their own brain…
4
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 1:05 min
He loveth to bear bravely ills like these! But, Aegeus, by thy beard, oh, by thy knees, I pray thee, and I give me for thine own, Thy suppliant, pity me! Oh, pity one So…
5
Aegeus from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 1:01 min
Woman, indeed my heart goes forth to show This help to thee, first for religion's sake, Then for thy promised hope, to heal my ache Of childlessness. 'Tis this hath made mine…
6
Jason from Medea
Euripides · play · contemplative · 1:40 min
Woman, indeed I praise thee now, nor say Ill of thine other hour. 'Tis nature's way, A woman needs must stir herself to wrath, When work of marriage by so strange a path Crosseth…
7
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 1:18 min
I was their mother! When I heard thy prayer Of long life for them, there swept over me A horror, wondering how these things shall be. But for the matter of my need that thou…
8
Jason from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 0:53 min
Ye women by this doorway clustering Speak, is the doer of the ghastly thing Yet here, or fled? What hopeth she of flight? Shall the deep yawn to shield her? Shall the height Send…
9
Jason from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 2:22 min
Thou living hate! Thou wife in every age Abhorred, blood-red mother, who didst kill My sons, and make me as the dead: and still Canst take the sunshine to thine eyes, and smell…
10
Nurse from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 1:04 min
For pity! What have they to do, Babes, with their father's sin? Why call Thy curse on these? . . . Ah, children, all These days my bosom bleeds for you. Rude are the wills of…
11
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 2:16 min
'Tis not the first nor second time, O King, That fame hath hurt me, and come nigh to bring My ruin. . . . How can any man, whose eyes Are wholesome, seek to rear his children wise…
12
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · dramatic · 1:19 min
Surely. She is a woman like her kind. . . . Yet I will aid thee in thy labour; I Will send her gifts, the fairest gifts that lie In the hands of men, things of the days of old,…
13
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 1:23 min
Women, my mind is clear. I go to slay My children with all speed, and then, away From hence; not wait yet longer till they stand Beneath another and an angrier hand To die. Yea,…
14
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 1:02 min
Never! Myself will lay them in a still Green sepulchre, where Hera by the Hill Hath precinct holy, that no angry men May break their graves and cast them forth again To evil. So I…
15
Jason from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 0:58 min
Thou, Zeus, wilt hear me. All is said For naught. I am but spurned away And trampled by this tigress, red With children's blood. Yet, come what may, So far as thou hast granted,…
16
Nurse from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 3:50 min
Ah! would to Heaven the good ship Argo ne’er had sped its course to the Colchian land through the misty blue Symplegades, nor ever in the glens of Pelion the pine been felled to…
17
Nurse from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 1:12 min
Ah me! ah me! the pity of it! Why, pray, do thy children share their father’s crime? Why hatest thou them? Woe is you, poor children, how do I grieve for you lest ye suffer some…
18
Nurse from Medea
Euripides · play · contemplative · 1:19 min
This will I do; but I have my doubts whether I shall persuade my mistress; still willingly will I undertake this trouble for you; albeit, she glares upon her servants with the…
19
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 5:04 min
From the house I have come forth, Corinthian ladies, for fear lest you be blaming me;To extract any satisfactory meaning from this passage, as it stands in our editions, seems an…
20
Creon from Medea
Euripides · play · dramatic · 0:52 min
I fear thee,—no longer need I veil my dread ’neath words,—lest thou devise against my child some cureless ill. Many things contribute to this fear of mine; thou art a witch by…
21
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · defiant · 2:10 min
Alas! this is not now the first time, but oft before, O Creon, hath my reputation injured me and caused sore mischief. Wherefore whoso is wise in his generation ought never to…
22
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · dark · 3:59 min
On all sides sorrow pens me in. Who shall gainsay this? But all is not yet lost! think not so. Still are there troubles in store for the new bride, and for her bridegroom no light…
23
Jason from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 1:32 min
It is not now I first remark, but oft ere this, how unruly a pest is a harsh temper. For instance, thou, hadst thou but patiently endured the will of thy superiors, mightest have…
24
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 4:41 min
Thou craven villain (for that is the only name my tongue can find for thee, a foul reproach on thy unmanliness)! comest thou to me, thou, most hated foe of gods, of me, and of all…
25
Jason from Medea
Euripides · play · defiant · 4:19 min
Needs must I now, it seems, turn orator, and, like a good helmsman on a ship with close-reefed sails, weather that wearisome tongue of thine. Now, I believe, since thou wilt…
26
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · defiant · 0:56 min
No doubt I differ from the mass of men on many points; for, to my mind, whoso hath skill to fence with words in an unjust cause, incurs the heaviest penalty; for such an one,…
27
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 0:52 min
Not in words, but he will not stand out against it. Ο, I implore thee by this beard and by thy knees, in suppliant posture, pity, O pity my sorrows; do not see me cast forth…
28
Aegeus from Medea
Euripides · play · defiant · 1:23 min
Lady, on many grounds I am most fain to grant thee this thy boon, first for the gods’ sake, next for the children whom thou dost promise I shall beget; for in respect of this I am…
29
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 1:31 min
Thee I trust; but Pelias’ house and Creon are my foes. Wherefore, if thou art bound by an oath, thou wilt not giveTo avoid the very doubtful form μεθεῖς = μεθείης some read μεθεῖ’…
30
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · dark · 3:33 min
O Zeus, and Justice, child of Zeus, and sun-god’s light, now will I triumph o’er my foes, kind friends; on victory’s road have I set forth; good hope have I of wreaking vengeance…
31
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 3:22 min
Jason, I crave thy pardon for the words I spoke, and well thou mayest brook my burst of passion, for ere now we twain have shared much love. For I have reasoned with my soul and…
32
Jason from Medea
Euripides · play · contemplative · 1:35 min
Lady, I praise this conduct, not that I blame what is past; for it is but natural to the female sex to vent their spleen against a husband when he trafficks in other marriages…
33
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · dramatic · 1:05 min
I too will aid thee in this task, for by the children’s hand I will send to her gifts that far surpass in beauty, I well know, aught that now is seen ’mongst men, a robe of finest…
34
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 1:00 min
Say not so; ’tis said that gifts tempt even gods; and o’er men’s minds gold holds more potent sway than countless words. Fortune smiles upon thy bride, and heaven now doth swell…
35
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 5:21 min
I will obey; go thou within the house and make the day’s provision for the children. O my babes, my babes, ye have still a city and a home, where far from me and my sad lot you…
36
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 1:21 min
My friends, I am resolved upon the deed; at once will I slay my children and then leave this land, without delaying long enough to hand them over to some more savage hand to…
37
Jason from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 1:01 min
Ladies, stationed near this house, pray tell me is the author of these hideous deeds, Medea, still within, or hath she fled from hence? For she must hide beneath the earth or soar…
38
Jason from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 2:05 min
Accursed woman! by gods, by me and all mankind abhorred as never woman was, who hadst the heart to stab thy babes, thou their mother, leaving me undone and childless; this hast…
39
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · defiant · 0:50 min
To this thy speech I could have made a long retort, but Father Zeus knows well all I have done for thee, and the treatment thou hast given me. Yet thou wert not ordained to scorn…
40
Medea from Medea
Euripides · play · defiant · 1:00 min
No, never! I will bury them myself, bearing them to Hera’s sacred field, who watches o’er the Cape, that none of their foes may insult them by pulling down their tombs; and in…
41
Messenger from Medea
Euripides · play · anguished · 7:13 min
When the children twain whom thou didst bear came with their father and entered the palace of the bride, right glad were we thralls who had shared thy griefs, for instantly from…

Length is estimated at a spoken pace of about 150 words a minute. Public-domain pieces are printed in full on their own page; copyrighted ones list the character and the source.

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