ACTUS QUINTUS
ITS
MEDEA.
One thing remember! While you say the
spell—
Here is the parchment !—let no thought arise
In any of your minds !1
ALCESTIS. [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! Aji Ai!
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
1 Tt isa common jest among the Hindus to
play this trick on a pupil, 7.e., to promise him
magical powers on condition that during a
given ceremonial he abstains from thinking of
a certain object (e.¢., a horse). He fails, be-
cause only the training of years can enable a
student so to control his mind as to accomplish
this feat of suppressing involuntary thought.
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 !—
The voices fall and fail ;
The light is lowered. O dim sleep,
Over her eyelids creep !
The world of dreams is shapen fair
Beyond a mortal’s nod:
A fragrant and a sunny air
Smiles : a man’s kisses vanish there,
Grow kisses of a god ;
And in dreams’ darkness subtly grows
No Earth-flowered bloom of rose.
O dreams of love and peace, draw nigh,
Hover with shadowy wings !
I.et shining shapes of ecstasy
Cover the frail blue veil of sky,
And speak immortal things !
Dream, lady, dream through summer noon,
Lulled by the sleepy tune!