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 Reflefs fhe rolls, and groans the night away: In fad review, on horrors horrors rife, Quick beats her heart, from thought to thought the flies: 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 : The coward thought, fhe nourishes the pain : 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, Hell gave the fhining mifchief to our coast, But why thefe forrows? if the powers on high Ah me! what words fhall purge the guilt away! And yet I muft---If Jafon bleeds, I die! Then, fhame, farewell! Adieu for ever, fame! Live through my aid! and fly where winds can bear! 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! 3 A maga A magazine of death! again the pours eyes: Then from her hand the baneful drugs fhe throws, 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: 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, * 869. Th |