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Page 1 of 11904 · PDF PAGE 90
…. Dim winds shall whisper echoes of Our slow ecstatic breath, Telling all worlds how sweet is love, How beautiful is death. MEDEA. Sing, Orpheus, this doth madden them the most. Should one man leap—This tune is terrible ! ORPHEUS. I am not moved, although I am a man. So strong a safeguard is cool chastity. MEDEA. But love thou me! My husband is distraught. ORPHEUS. Madness is on him for thy punishment. MEDEA. Sing, therefore! ORPHEUS. This last song of theirs was sweet.
1904 · PDF PAGE 43
…SON. 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!”
1904 · PDF PAGE 93
… I know not. JASON. But my veins grew strong and swollen, And madness came upon me. MEDEA. You are here, Let that suffice. Remember not! ORPHEUS. ; But now I see the haze lift on the water-way, And hidden headlands loom again. JASON. I know The pleasant portals. CHORUS. Here is home at last. ORPHEUS. The sunset comes: the mist is lifted now To let the last kiss of the daylight fall Once ere night whisper “Sleep!” K
1904 · PDF PAGE 44
…TOR. I heard, ‘‘ Regret not thy mortality! Love conquers death!” POLLUX. But I, “Regret not thou Thine immortality! Love conquers life!” ORPHEUS. A partial wisdom to a partial ear. JASON. But what speech came to thee? ORPHEUS. T heard no voice. ARGUS, What means this? Here’s my labour thrown away, My skill made jest of, all my wage destroyed At one fell stroke. JASON, What? Is the Argo burnt? ARGUS. Burnt! Should I then complain? The ship is finished. JASON. The Goddess, furious at thine absence, Argus, Hath frenzied thee with some delusion.
1904 · PDF PAGE 94
…land Cools the tired eyes. CHORUS. The rocks stand sentinel. MEDEA. Let still the song that saved us gladden us. Lift up thy lyre, sweet Orpheus, on the sea. ORPHEUS. Over a sea like stainéd glass At sunset like a chrysopras:— Our smooth-oared vessel over-rides Crimson and green and purple tides. Between the rocky isles we pass, And greener islets gay with grass; Between the over-arching sides Our pinnace glides. Just by the Maenad-haunted hill Songs rise into the air, and thrill, Like clustered birds at evening _ When love outlingers rain and …
1904 · PDF PAGE 41
…er? Obey my voice. JASON. O master of Apollo’s lyre and light! We are not wise—and for that very cause We meet to-day to call on Wisdom. ORPHEUS. Well! The altar stands, shadowing the Universe That with my fire of Knowledge I destroy— And there is Wisdom—but invoke Her not, Friends, Who is only when none other is. JASON. Let us begin: the hour draws on apace. Drive off the demons from the sacrifice! ORPHEUS. Let all the demons enter and dwell therein! My friends, ye are as ignorant as priests! Let there be silence while the sleeper wakes! O coi…
1904 · PDF PAGE 40
…sounding sea Lustral, poured seven times upon the earth And in one flash consuming wood and stone And the sweet savour of the sacrifice. ORPHEUS. But when the flame hath darted from the eye Of my divine existence, and hath left Nothing, where was the altar and the earth, The water and the incense and the victim— Nothing of all remains! Then look to it That ye invoke not Wisdom by the Name Of bright Athena! JASON. We are here to call Upon that Wisdom by that mighty Name! ORPHEUS. Who calleth upon Wisdom is not wise. Is it not written in the Siby…
1904 · PDF PAGE 75
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…
1904 · PDF PAGE 31
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 …
1904 · PDF PAGE 88
…Help us, Apollo! Light of Sun, awake! This is the desperate hour. JASON. I have no strength. MEDEA. Beware the third, the awful ecstasy! ORPHEUS. A higher spell controls a lower song. Listen, they sing! JASON. Joy! Joy! they sing, they sing! LEUCOSIA. O lover, I am lonely here! O lover, I am weeping! Each pearl of ocean is a tear Let fall while love was sleeping. A tear is made of fire and dew And saddened with a smile; The sun’s laugh in the curving blue Lasts but a little while.
1904 · PDF PAGE 67
…Mingling with sweeter epithalamy— To tell our friends how happy was the quest. MEDEA. But not those strains of music, though divine From Orpheus’ wingéd lyre, exalt at all Our joy to joy, beyond all music’s power! CHORUS. I fear Aeetes and the Pelian guile. JASON. Fear is but failure, herald of distress! MEDEA, What virtue lives there in the coward’s heart? CHORUS. In sooth, I have no fear at all—to flee. JASON. Night, like a mist, steals softly from the East. The hand of darkness gathers up the folds Of day’s gold garment, and the valleys sink…
1904 · PDF PAGE 79
…e lovely. But in him I note the live look of the eyes leap up, And all his love for me forgotten straight At the mere echo of that tune. ORPHEUS. Hark, friends! Aea’s tune—my Colchian harbour-song! I hear the waters faint and far, And look to where the Polar Star, Half hidden in the haze, divides The double chanting of the tides;
1904 · PDF PAGE 91
ACTUS QUARTUS 19 MEDEA. Thine therefore should be sweeter. ORPHEUS. The Gods grant it! Lift up this love of peace and bliss, The starry soul of wine, Destruction’s formidable kiss, The lamp of the divine: This shadow of a nobler name Whose life is strife, whose soul is fame ! I rather will exalt the soul Of man to loftier height, And kindle at a livelier coal The subtler soul of Light. From these soft splendours of a dream T turn, and seek the Self supreme. This world is shadow-shapen of The bitterness of pain, Vain are the little lamps of love…
1904 · PDF PAGE 76
…ts, Labours and journeys, go to make one mad. Well were it to beguile our weariness With song. MEDEA. And here is the sole king of song. ORPHEUS. My song breaks baffled on the rocks of time If thy bewitching beauty be the theme. MEDEA. Sing me thy song, sweet poet, of the sea
1904 · PDF PAGE 84
…path none else hath trode! Come, lover, in my breast all blooms above, Here is thy love! MEDEA. My poet, now! The one song in the world! ORPHEUS. Above us on the mast is spread The splendour of the fleece! Before us, Argive maidens tread The glowing isles of Greece! Behind us, fear and toil are dead: Below, the breakers cease! The Holy Light is on my head— My very name is Peace! The water’s music moves; and swings The sea’s eternal breast. The wind above us whistles, rings, And wafts us to the West.
1904 · PDF PAGE 86
…! Come over the water, love, to my side! I am thy lover and queen and bride! MEDEA. Sing, poet, ere the rash fool leap! JASON. Ah, Zeus! ORPHEUS. The hearts of Greeks with sharper flames Burn than with one fire of all fire, We have the Races and the Games, The song, the chisel, and the lyre; We have the altar, we the shrine, And ours the joy of love and wine. Why take one pleasure, put aside The myriad bliss of life diverse? Unchanging joy will soon divide Into the likeness of a curse. Have we no maidens, slender, strong, Daughters of tender-th…
1904 · PDF PAGE 77
…Infinite. JASON. The more so as my master warns me oft Of late how near that island is, where dwell The alluring daughters of Melpomene. ORPHEUS. Light shed from seaward over breakers bending Kiss-wise to the emerald hollows: light divine Whereof the sun is God, the sea his shrine; Light in vibrations rhythmic; light unending, Light sideways from the girdling crags extending Unto this lone and languid head of mine; Light, that fulfils creation as with wine, Flows in the channels of the deep: light, rending The adamantine columns of the night, I…