10 ARGONAUTAE
ALCESTIS.
Be brave, dear sisters, pluck your courage up!
Easy this one condition! All is safe.
MEDEA.
Haste then! Good luck attend you! When the hunt
Returns, how joyful——
FIRST DANAID.
Striding vigorous
The man renewed grasps Jason in embrace
Worthy of Heracles.
ALCESTIS.
Thanks, thanks, dear queen !
We go, we go!
MEDEA.
The Goddess be your speed!
Thus will the danger pass! That vicious fool
Shall cease his plots against my best beloved.
No taint of fell complicity shall touch
My honour in this matter. I will sleep
Through the delicious hours of breezy noon,
Lulled by sweet voices of my singing maids ;
Secure at least that no one will attempt
To wreck my virtue or—restore my youth!
CHORUS.
O sleep of lazy love, be near
In dreams to lift the veil,
And silence from the shadowy sphere
To conjure in our lady’s ear !—