For she, with heedless, impious passion fired,260

Unmindful of her absent lord, of us,

Her guiltless children, and the law's restraints,

In open day another husband wed.

To that fell couch avenging Fury came

With streaming locks and serpents intertwined,

And quenched those stolen wedding fires in blood.

For with destructive rage, on murder bent,265

She fired the prince's heart; and at his word,

Ah, woe is me, my ill-starred mother fell,