Collected Works (Vol. II)

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!