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ACTUS TERTIUS MEDEA. Guarding your king and queen on every side— CHORUS, We sail triumphant to the land of Greece. MEDEA. A woman’s love, a woman’s power be told Through ages, gainers of the Fleece of Gold. EXPLICIT ACTUS TERTIUS. 19
ACTUS SECUNDUS By miracle this happy day The ship is finished for our quest. Bring thou the glory from the gray! Bring thou our spirits into rest! O Wisdom, that hast helped so far, Sink never thou thy guiding star! CHORUS OF WORKMEN. Then let us gather one and all, And launch our dragon on the main With paeans raised most musical," Until our heroes come again. With watching and with prayer we wait The imperious Destinies of Fate! Expuicit Actus SEcUNDUS. 19
ARGONAUTAE ACTUS PRIMUS JASON
ARGONAUTAE ACTUS SECUNDUS ARGO
ARGONAUTAE ACTUS TERTIUS MEDEA
ARGONAUTAE ACTUS QUARTUS SIRENAE
ARGONAUTAE ACTUS QUINTUS ARES
ACTUS QUINTUS 23 Of very Time, and plunge success False winged into sure-foot distress! Hail to black Ares! Warrior, hail! Thou glory of the shining sword! What proven armour may avail Against the vengeance of the Lord? Athena’s favour must withdraw Before the justice of thy law! Hail to the Lord of glittering spears The monarch of the mighty name, The Master of ten thousand Fears Whose sword is as a scarlet flame! Hail to black Ares! Wild and pale The echo answers me: All Hail! EXPLICIT ACTUS QUINTUS. CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTIN…
ACTUS PRIMUS Lightly—a maiden’s pleasure-wandering Through lilied fields a summer’s afternoon. PELIAS. The Gods give strength! I pray them send thee back Safe to this throne. JASON, I will not see thy face Ever again until the quest be won. Rule thou with justice in my sacred seat Until I come again. PELIAS, The Gods thy speed. MEN. The hardy hero goes to find The living Fleece of Gold; Or else, some death may chance to bind Those limbs of manly mould. In sooth, I doubt if I shall earn The singer’s fee for his return. PELIAS. Think now—I feared…
ARGONAUTAE. ACTUS QUINTUS. Jason, MEpEA, Pexias, Acastus, ALCESTIS and her Sisters, MADNESS. Scene: Zhe Palace at Lolchus. MADNESS. Black Ares hath called Me forth from the deep! Blind and appalled, Shall the palace high-walled Shake as I leap Over the granite, The marble over, One step to span it, One flight to hover, Like a moon round a planet, A dream round a lover! How shall I come? Shrieking and yelling?
ACTUS QUINTUS FOURTH WOMAN. Our chance gone! FIRST WOMAN. Our life Degraded to her service. SECOND WOMAN. We who are Born nobly, are become her minions. THIRD WOMAN. Slaves, not handmaidens! ALCESTIS. Ototototoi! Ai Ai! What misery! FIRST WOMAN. See! the lady weeps! ALCESTIS. Ai Ai! the black fiend, how he dogs my feet! The fatal day! Ai! Ai! CHORUS. What sorrow thus, Maiden, removes the feet of fortitude? ALCESTIS. Who shall arouse him? CHORUS. Peace, our lady sleeps N
ACTUS QUINTUS 15 So many thoughts—or ever I was ware— And he—the cauldron seethes—— MEDEA, He rises not? ALCESTIS. Nought but moist smoke springs up. MEDEA. Alas! for me! All is but lost. ALCESTIS. Canst thou do anything? MEDEA. Nothing. Ai Ai! ALCESTIS. Ai Ai! CHORUS. Ai Ai! Ai Ai! JASON. What! Shall the hunter find his joy abroad, And sorrow in his house? MEDEA. Thy very hearth Polluted with the old man’s blood! ACASTUS. What blood? Answer me, woman!
ACTUS QUINTUS MEDEA. The child Hath hewn her sire asunder, seething him In herbs of sacred power. ACASTUS. By thy decree? MEDEA, Nay! MADNESS. Safer is it to admit to these Fools—charge the child with lack of fortune! MEDEA. Yea! I bade her take a waxen shape, carved well To look like the old man—— ALCESTIS. Nay! nay! the Sire Himself we stole on sleeping—— CHORUS. Hewn apart! Ai Ai! MEDEA. I said not thus! ALCESTIS, I am so wild, Bewildered with these tears. 17
ACTUS QUINTUS DANAIDES, This also seems to us no easy task. MEDEA. He sleeps through noon, while others are abroad. ALCESTIS. Let us make haste! Dear queen, how good you are! MEDEA. One thing remember! While you say the spell— Here is the parchment !—let no thought arise In any of your minds! atcestis. [Zo her Sisters.] Remember that ! MEDEA. Else—Ototototoi ! FIRST DANAID. What woe is this? MEDEA. The charm is broken. SECOND DANAID. And our father-—— MEDEA. Lost! DANAIDES. Ai Ai! Ai Ai! Ai Ai! MEDEA. Ai Ai! Ai Ai!
ACTUS SECUNDUS Till the Three Worlds flicker and falter, And life and her love be dead! In mysterious joy Awake—and destroy! JASON. It is enough! HERACLES. Too great for a god’s strength! THESEUS. Speak! CASTOR. Change! Not to be borne! POLLUX. But this is death! ORPHEUS, Let the light fade. The oracle is past. JASON. The Voice is past. We are alive again. ORPHEUS. What spake That Silence? HERACLES. “This is not a quest Where strength availeth aught.” I shall not go. JASON. Nay, brother. The voice was: “The end is sorrow!”
ARGONAUTAE. ACTUS QUARTUS. Jason, MEDEA, ORPHEUS, THESEUS, HERACLES, Chorus of Heroes, the Sirens. ScENE: Zhe Argo. MEDEA. Ay! I would murder not my brother only, But tear my own limbs, strew them on the sea, To keep one fury from the man I love! CHORUS. This act and speech are much akin to madness. MEDEA. Remember that your own skins pay the price. CHORUS. I now remember somewhat of the voice Of the oracle, that Madness should hunt hard On the thief’s furtive track, upon the prow Brooding, and at the table president, And spouse-like in the bed…
ARGONAUTAE. ACTUS SECUNDUS. Arcus ¢he son of Purixus, JASON, HERACLES, Castor, POLLUX, THESEUS, ORPHEUS. Chorus of Heroes. Chorus of Shipbuilders. Scene: An open place near Lolchus. CHORUS OF SHIPBUILDERS. The sound of the hammer and steel! The song of the level and line! The whirr of the whistling wheel! The ring of the axe on the pine! The joy of the ended labour, As the good ship plunges free By sound of pipe and tabor To front the sparkling sea! The mystery-woven spell! The voyage of golden gain! The free full sails that swell On the swell …
ARGONAUTAE. ACTUS TERTIUS. AEETES, JASON, MEDEA, Messengers, Chorus of Heroes. Scene: Zhe palace of AEETES. AEETES, Were this man son of Zeus, beloved of Heaven, And skilled with very craft of Maia’s son, Stronger than Phoebus, subtler than the Sphinx, This plague should catch him, nor my wisdom spare. CHORUS OF HEROES. Thus hast thou sent him unto Hades, king. AEETES. Not otherwise were such gain possible. Ye are the witnesses that with much skill, And eloquence of shining words, and thought Darkling behind their measured melody, I did dissuad…
ACTUS QUINTUS DANAIDES. But this is very difficult to do. MEDEA. For me such miracles are merely play, Serving to while away the idle hours While Jason hunts — ALCESTIS. How grand it were to see Our aged father rival the strong youths In feats of great agility! MEDEA. Agreed! But surely you should work the charm yourselves. For children magic is a blithesome game! DANAIDES. Dear lady! teach us how to say the spell! MEDEA, Words must be aided by appalling deeds! ALCESTIS. O! O! you frighten us. MEDEA, Be brave, my child! I too passed through unu…
ARGONAUTAE. ACTUS PRIMUS. PEwias. Jason. Semi-chorus of Iolchian Men. Semi-chorus of Iolchian Women. Scene: Zhe Throne-chamber of Kinc PELs. SEMI-CHORUS OF MEN. The prophecies are spoken in vain, The auguries vainly cast, Since twenty years of joyous reign In peace are overpast; And those who cursed our King’s desires Are branded in the brow for liars. SEMI-CHORUS OF WOMEN. We heard the aged prophet speak The doom of woe and fear. We wait with blanched and icy cheek The one-and-twentieth year: For Justice lies, as seeds lie, dead, But lifts at …