ACT IV

_Nurse_ [_alone_]: My spirit trembles, for I feel the near approach 670 Of some unseen disaster. Swiftly grows her grief, Its own fires kindling; and again her passion's force Hath leaped to life. I oft have seen her, with the fit Of inspiration in her soul, confront the gods And force the very heavens to her will. But now, A monstrous deed, of greater moment far than these, 675 Medea is preparing. For, but now, did she With step of frenzy hurry off until she reached Her stricken home. There, in her chamber, all her stores Of magic wonders are revealed; once more she views The things herself hath held in fear these many years, Unloosing one by one her ministers of ill, Occult, unspeakable, and wrapt in mystery; And, grasping with her hand the sacred altar-horn, 680 With prayers, she straightly summons all destructive powers, The creatures bred in Libya's sands, and on the peaks Of frigid Taurus, clad in everlasting snows. Obedient to her potent charms, the scaly brood 685 Of serpents leave their darksome lairs and swarm to her; One savage creature rolls his monstrous length along, And darts his forkéd tongue with its envenomed sting, Death-dealing; at the charming sound he stops amazed, And fold on fold his body writhes in nerveless coils. 690 "But these are petty ills; unworthy of my hand," She cries, "are such weak, earth-born weapons. Potent charms Are bred in heaven. Now, now 'tis time to summon powers Transcending common magic. Down I'll draw from heaven That serpent huge whose body lies athwart the sky 695 Like some great ocean stream, in whose constricting folds The greater and the lesser Bears are held enthralled, The greater set as guide for Grecian ships, the less For Sidon's mariners! Let Ophiuchus loose His hand and pour forth venom from his captive thrall! And let the Python huge, that dared to rear its head 700 Against the heavenly twins, be present at my prayer! Let Hydra's writhing heads, which by Alcides' hand Were severed, all return to life and give me aid! Thou too be near and leave thy ancient Colchian home, Thou watchful dragon, to whose eyes the first sleep came In answer to my incantations." When she thus 705 Had summoned all the serpent brood, she cast her store Of baleful herbs together; all the poisons brewed Amid the rocky caves of trackless Eryx; plants That flourish on the snowy peaks of Caucasus, Whose crags were spattered with Prometheus' gore; the herbs 710 Within whose deadly juice the Arab dips his darts, And the quiver-bearing Mede and fleeing Parthian; Those potent juices, too, which, near the shivering pole, The Suabian chieftains gather in Hyrcanian groves. The seasons, too, have paid their tribute to her stores: Whatever earth produces in the nesting time, And when the stiff'ning hand of winter's frost has stripped 715 The glory from the trees and fettered all the land With icy bonds; whatever flow'ring plant conceals Destruction in its bloom, or in its twisted roots Distils the juice of death, she gathers to her use. These pestilential herbs Haemonian Athos gave; 720 And these on lofty Pindus grew; a bloody knife Clipped off these slender leaves on Macedonia's heights; Still others grew beside the Tigris, whirling on His flood to meet the sea; the Danube nourished some; These grew on bright gem-starred Hydaspes' tepid stream; 725 And these the Baetis bore, which gave the land its name, Displacing with its langourous tide, the western sea. These felt the knife when early dawn begins to break; The fruit of these was cut in midnight's gloomy hour; This fatal crop was reaped with sickle magic-edged. 730 These deadly, potent herbs she takes and sprinkles o'er With serpent venom, mixing all; and in the broth She mingles unclean birds: a wailing screech owl's heart, A ghastly vampire's vitals torn from living flesh. Her magic poisons all she ranges for her use. 735 The ravening power of hidden fire is held in these, While deep in others lurks the numbing chill of frost. Now magic runes she adds more potent far. But lo! Her voice resounds! and, as with maddened step she comes, She chants her charms, while heaven and earth convulsive rock.

[_Enter_ Medea, _chanting her incantations_.]

_Medea:_ I supplicate the silent throng, and you, the gods 740 Of death's sad rites, and groping chaos, and the home Of gloomy Pluto, and the black abyss of death Girt by the banks of Tartarus! Ye storied shades, Your torments leave and haste to grace the festival At Hymen's call! Let stop the whirling wheel that holds Ixion's limbs and let him tread Corinthian ground; Let Tantalus unfrighted drink Pirene's stream. 745 On Creon's stock alone let heavier torments fall, And backward o'er the rocks let Sisyphus be hurled. You too, the seed of Danaüs, whose fruitless toil The ever-empty urns deride, I summon you; This day requires your helping hands. Thou radiant moon, 750 Night's glorious orb, my supplications hear and come To aid; put on thy sternest guise, thou goddess dread Of triple form! Full oft have I with flowing locks, And feet unsandaled, wandered through thy darkling groves And by thy inspiration summoned forth the rain From cloudless skies; the heaving seas have I subdued, 755 And sent the vanquished waves to ocean's lowest depths. At my command the sun and stars together shine, The heavenly law reversed; while in the Arctic sea The Bears have plunged. The seasons, too, obey my will: I've made the burning summer blossom as the spring, 760 And hoary winter autumn's golden harvests bear. The Phasis sends his swirling waves to seek their source, And Ister, flowing to the sea with many mouths, His eager water checks and sluggish rolls along. The billows roar, the mad sea rages, though the winds 765 All silent lie. At my command primeval groves Have lost their shade;[15] the sun, abandoning[16] the day, Has stood in middle heaven; while falling Hyades Attest my charms. But now thy sacred hour is come, 770 O Phoebe. Thine these bonds with bloody hand entwined With ninefold serpent coils; these cords I offer thee, Which on his hybrid limbs Typhoeus bore, who shook The throne of Jove. This vessel holds the dying blood Of Nessus, faithless porter of Alcides' bride. 775 Here are the ashes of the pyre on Oeta's top Which drank the poisoned blood of dying Hercules; And here the fatal billet that Althaea burned In vengeance on her son. These plumes the Harpies left 780 Within their caverned lair when Zetes drove them forth; And these the feathers of that vile Stymphalian bird Which arrows, dipped in Lerna's deadly poison, pierced. But lo! mine altar fires resound! While in the tripod's answering voice 785 Behold the present deity! I see the car of Trivia, Not full and clear as when she drives The livelong night to meet the dawn; But with a baleful, lurid glare, As, harried by Thessalian cries, 790 She holds a more restricted course. Send such uncanny light abroad! Fill mortals with a dread unknown; And let our Corinth's priceless bronze Resound, Dictynna, for thy aid! 795 To thee a solemn sacrifice On bloody altar do we pay! To thee, snatched from the mournful tomb, The blazing torch nocturnal burns; On thee I call with tossing head, 800 And many a frantic gesture make; Corpselike upon the bier I lie, My hair with priestly fillet bound; Before thy awful shrine is waved The branch in Stygian waters dipped. And, calling on thy name, with gleaming shoulders bared, 805 Like Bacchus' mad adorers, will I lash my arms With sacrificial knife. Now let my life-blood flow! And let my hands be used to draw the deadly sword, And learn to shed belovéd blood! [_She cuts her arm and lets the blood flow upon the altar._] Behold, self-stricken have I poured the sacrifice! 810 But if too oft upon thy name I call, I pray forgive this importunity! The cause, O Hecate, of all my prayers Is ever Jason; this my constant care. 815 [_To attendants._] Take now Creüsa's bridal robe, and steep in these, My potent drugs; and when she dons the clinging folds, Let subtle flames go stealing through her inmost heart. The fire that in this tawny golden circlet lurks 820 Prometheus gave, who, for his daring heavenly theft In human aid, endured an ever-living death. 'Twas Vulcan showed the fires concealed in sulphur's veins; 825 While from my brother Phaëthon I gained a flame That never dies; I have preserved Chimera's breath, And that fierce heat that parched the fiery, brazen bull Of Colchis. These dread fires commingled with the gall 830 Of dire Medusa have I bidden keep the power Of lurking evil. Now, O Hecate, Give added force to these my deadly gifts. And strictly guard the hidden seeds of flame. Let them deceive the sight, endure the touch; 835 But through her veins let burning fever run; In fervent heat consume her very bones, And let her fiercely blazing locks outshine Her marriage torches! Lo, my prayer is heard: Thrice have replied the hounds of Hecate, 840 And she has shown her baleful, gleaming fires. Now all is ready: hither call my sons, And let them bear these presents to the bride. [_Enter sons._] Go, go, my sons, of hapless mother born, 845 And win with costly gifts and many prayers The favor of the queen, your father's wife. Begone, but quick your homeward way retrace, That I may fold you in a last embrace.

[_Exeunt sons toward the palace_, Medea _in the opposite direction_.]

* * * * *

_Chorus:_ Where hastes this Bacchic fury now, All passion-swept? what evil deed 850 Does her unbridled rage prepare? Her features are congealed with rage, And with a queenly bearing, grand But terrible, she sets herself 855 Against e'en Creon's royal power. An exile who would deem her now? Her cheeks anon with anger flush, And now a deadly pallor show; Each feeling quick succeeds to each, 860 While all the passions of her heart Her changing aspect testifies. She wanders restless here and there, As a tigress, of her young bereft, In frantic grief the jungle scours. 865 Medea knows not how in check To hold her wrath nor yet her love; If love and wrath make common cause, What dire results will come? When will this scourge of Corinth leave 870 Our Grecian shores for Colchis' strand, And free our kingdom from its fear? Now, Phoebus, hasten on thy course With no retarding rein. 875 Let friendly darkness quickly veil the light, And this dread day be buried deep in night.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Reading, with period after _meae_.

[16] Reading, _relicto_, and substituting comma for semicolon.