The LOVE of JASON and MEDEA.

From the Third Book, Verfe 743, of Apollonius Rhodius.

Νὺ μὲν ἔπειτ' ἐπὶ γαῖαν ἄγεν κιέρας, &c.

TH

ADVERTISEMENT.

HE translator has taken the liberty in the following verfion from the Argonautics of Apollonius, as well as in the story of Talus, to omit whatever has not an immediate relation to the fubject; yet hopes that a due connection is not wanting; and that the reader will not be displeased with thefe fhort sketches from a Poet, who is affirmed to be every where fublime, by no less a critic than Longinus; and from whom many verses are borrowed by fo great a Poet as Virgil.

WOW rifing fhades a folemn gloom display,

No

O'er the wide earth, and o'er th' ethereal way: All night the failor marks the northern team, And golden circlet of Orion's beam : A deep repofe the weary wanderer fhares, And the faint watchman fleeps away his cares; Ev'n the fond mother, while all breathlefs lies Her child of love, in flumber feals her eyes;

No

No found of village-dog, no noife invades
The death-like filence of the midnight shades;
Alone Medea wakes: To love a prey,

Reflefs fhe rolls, and groans the night away:
Now the fire-breathing bulls command her cares,
She thinks on Jafon, and for Jafon fears:

In fad review, on horrors horrors rife,

Quick beats her heart, from thought to thought the flies:
As from replenish'd urns, with dubious ray,
The fun-beams dancing from the furface play,
Now here, now there, the trembling radiance falls
Alternate flashing round th' illumin'd walls;
Thus fluttering bounds the trembling virgin's blood,
And from her fhining eyes defcends a flood:
Now raving with refiftlefs flames the glows,
Now fick with love the melts with fofter woes :
The tyrant God, of every thought poffeft,

Beats in each pulfe, and ftings and racks her break:

Now the refolves the magic to betray

To tame the bulls, now yield him up a prey :

Again the drugs difdaining to fupply,

She loaths the light, and meditates to die :
Anon, repelling with a brave difdain

The coward thought, fhe nourishes the pain :
Thus toft, retoft with furious forms of cares,
On the cold ground fhe rolls, and thus with tears:
Ah me! where'er I turn, before my eyes
A dreadful view, on forrows forrows rife!
Toft in a giddy whirl of ftrong defire,
I glow, I burn, yet blefs the pleafing fire;

O had this fpirit from its prifon fled,

By Dian fent to wander with the dead,

Ere the proud Grecians view'd the Cholchian skies,
Ere Jafon, lovely Jafon, met these eyes!

Hell gave the fhining mifchief to our coast,
Medea faw him, and Medea's loft-

But why thefe forrows? if the powers on high
His death decree, die, wretched Jafon die!
Shall I elude my fire? my art betray?

Ah me! what words fhall purge the guilt away!
But could I yield—O whither must I run
To find the man- -whom virtue bids me fhun?
Shall I, all loft to fhame, to Jason fly?

And yet I muft---If Jafon bleeds, I die!

Then, fhame, farewell! Adieu for ever, fame!
Hail black difgrace! be fam'd for guilt my name!
Live! Jafon, live! enjoy the vital air!

Live through my aid! and fly where winds can bear!
But when he flies, ye poifons, lend your powers,
That day, Medea treads th' infernal fhores!
Then, wretched maid, thy lot is endless thame,
Then the proud dames of Cholchos blast thy name:
I hear them cry--- The falfe Medea's dead,

Through guilty paffion for a ftranger's bed,

• Medea, careless of her virgin fame,

'Prefer'd a stranger to a father's name!'

may I rather yield this vital breath,

Than bear that bafe dishonour, worse than death!
Thus wail'd the fair, and feiz'd with horrid joy
Drugs foes to life, and potent to defroy,

3

A maga

A magazine of death! again the pours
From her fwoln eye-balls tears in fhining fhowers;
With grief infatiate, and with trembling hands,
All comfortless the cafk of death expands:
A fudden fear her labouring foul invades,
Struck with the horrors of th' infernal fhades:
She ftands deep-mufing with a faded brow,
Abforpt in thought, a monument of woe!
While all the comforts that on life attend,
The chearful converfe, and the faithful friend,
By thought deep-imag'd in her bofom play,
Endearing life, and charm defpair away :
Th' all-chearing funs with fweeter light arise,
And every object brightens to her

eyes:

Then from her hand the baneful drugs fhe throws,
Confents to live, recover'd from her woes;

Refolv'd the magic virtue to betray,

She waits the dawn, and calls the lazy day:

Time feems to ftand, or backward drive his wheels:
The hours the chides, and eyes the eastern hills.
At length the dawn with orient beams appears,
The fhades disperse, and man awakes to cares.
Studious to pleafe, her graceful length of hair
With art she binds, that wanton'd with the air;
From her foft cheek fhe wipes the tear away,
And bids keen lightnings from her eyes to play;
From limb to limb refreshing unguents pours,
Unguents, that breathe of heaven, in copious fhowers;
Her robe she next affumes; bright clafps of gold
Clofe to the leffening wait the robe infold;

Down

Down from her fwelling loins, the reft unbound Floats in rich waves redundant o'er the ground: Laft, with a fhining veil her cheeks she shades, Then fwimming smooth along magnificently treads. Thus forward moves the fairest of her kind, Blind to the future, to the present blind; Twelve maids, attendants on her virgin bower, Alike unconfcious of the bridal hour, Join to the car the mules; dire rites to pay, To Hecate's black fane fhe bends her way; A juice the bears, whofe magic virtue tames (Through fell Persephone) the rage of flames; It gives the hero, strong in matchless might, To ftand fecure of harms in mortal fight; It mocks the fword: the fword without a wound, Leaps as from marble fhiver'd to the ground: She mounts the car nor rode the nymph alone, On either fide two lovely damfels fhone:

,

Her hand with skill th' embroider'd rein controls,
Back fly the streets, as fwift the chariot rolls.
Along the wheel-worn road they hold their way,
The domes retreat, the finking towers decay:
Bare to the knee fuccinct a damfel train
Behind attends, and glitters tow'rd the plain.
As when her limbs divine, Diana laves
In fair Parthenius, or th' Amnelian waves,
Sublime in royal ftate the bounding roes
Whirl her bright car along the mountain brows;
Swift to her fane in pomp the goddess moves,
The nymphs attend that haunt the fhady groves,

* 869.

Th