Part 9

Have joy, Medea! 'Tis the homeliest Word that old friends can greet with, and the best.

MEDEA (looking up, surprised).

Oh, joy on thee, too, Aegeus, gentle king Of Athens!--But whence com'st thou journeying?

AEGEUS.

From Delphi now and the old encaverned stair. . . .

MEDEA.

Where Earth's heart speaks in song? What mad'st thou there?

AEGEUS.

Prayed heaven for children--the same search alway.

MEDEA.

Children? Ah God! Art childless to this day?

AEGEUS.

So God hath willed. Childless and desolate.

MEDEA.

What word did Phoebus speak, to change thy fate?

AEGEUS.

Riddles, too hard for mortal man to read.

MEDEA.

Which I may hear?

AEGEUS.

Assuredly: they need A rarer wit.

MEDEA.

How said he?

AEGEUS.

Not to spill Life's wine, nor seek for more. . . .

MEDEA.

Until?

AEGEUS.