Old Aeson restor'd to Youth



7:237 Aemonian matrons, who their absence mourn'd,
7:238 Rejoyce to see their prosp'rous sons return'd:
7:239 Rich curling fumes of incense feast the skies,
7:240 An hecatomb of voted victims dies,
7:241 With gilded horns, and garlands on their head,
7:242 And all the pomp of death, to th' altar led.
7:243 Congratulating bowls go briskly round,
7:244 Triumphant shouts in louder musick drown'd.
7:245 Amidst these revels, why that cloud of care
7:246 On Jason's brow? (to whom the largest share
7:247 Of mirth was due)-His father was not there.
7:248 Aeson was absent, once the young, and brave,
7:249 Now crush'd with years, and bending to the grave.
7:250 At last withdrawn, and by the crowd unseen,
7:251 Pressing her hand (with starting sighs between),
7:252 He supplicates his kind, and skilful queen.

7:253 O patroness! preserver of my life!
7:254 (Dear when my mistress, and much dearer wife)
7:255 Your favours to so vast a sum amount,
7:256 'Tis past the pow'r of numbers to recount;
7:257 Or cou'd they be to computation brought,
7:258 The history would a romance be thought:
7:259 And yet, unless you add one favour more,
7:260 Greater than all that you conferr'd before,
7:261 But not too hard for love and magick skill,
7:262 Your past are thrown away, and Jason's wretched still.
7:263 The morning of my life is just begun,
7:264 But my declining father's race is run;
7:265 From my large stock retrench the long arrears,
7:266 And add 'em to expiring Aeson's years.

7:267 Thus spake the gen'rous youth, and wept the rest.
7:268 Mov'd with the piety of his request,
7:269 To his ag'd sire such filial duty shown,
7:270 So diff'rent from her treatment of her own,
7:271 But still endeav'ring her remorse to hide,
7:272 She check'd her rising sighs, and thus reply'd.

7:273 How cou'd the thought of such inhuman wrong
7:274 Escape (said she) from pious Jason's tongue?
7:275 Does the whole world another Jason bear,
7:276 Whose life Medea can to yours prefer?
7:277 Or cou'd I with so dire a change dispence,
7:278 Hecate will never join in that offence:
7:279 Unjust is the request you make, and I
7:280 In kindness your petition shall deny;
7:281 Yet she that grants not what you do implore,
7:282 Shall yet essay to give her Jason more;
7:283 Find means t' encrease the stock of Aeson's years,
7:284 Without retrenchment of your life's arrears;
7:285 Provided that the triple Goddess join
7:286 A strong confed'rate in my bold design.

7:287 Thus was her enterprize resolv'd; but still
7:288 Three tedious nights are wanting to fulfil
7:289 The circling crescents of th' encreasing moon;
7:290 Then, in the height of her nocturnal noon,
7:291 Medea steals from court; her ankles bare,
7:292 Her garments closely girt, but loose her hair;
7:293 Thus sally'd, like a solitary sprite,
7:294 She traverses the terrors of the night.

7:295 Men, beasts, and birds in soft repose lay charm'd,
7:296 No boistrous wind the mountain-woods alarm'd;
7:297 Nor did those walks of love, the myrtle-trees,
7:298 Of am'rous Zephir hear the whisp'ring breeze;
7:299 All elements chain'd in unactive rest,
7:300 No sense but what the twinkling stars exprest;
7:301 To them (that only wak'd) she rears her arm,
7:302 And thus commences her mysterious charms.

7:303 She turn'd her thrice about, as oft she threw
7:304 On her pale tresses the nocturnal dew;
7:305 Then yelling thrice a most enormous sound,
7:306 Her bare knee bended on the flinty ground.
7:307 O night (said she) thou confident and guide
7:308 Of secrets, such as darkness ought to hide;
7:309 Ye stars and moon, that, when the sun retires,
7:310 Support his empire with succeeding fires;
7:311 And thou, great Hecate, friend to my design;
7:312 Songs, mutt'ring spells, your magick forces join;
7:313 And thou, O Earth, the magazine that yields
7:314 The midnight sorcerer drugs; skies, mountains, fields;
7:315 Ye wat'ry Pow'rs of fountain, stream, and lake;
7:316 Ye sylvan Gods, and Gods of night, awake,
7:317 And gen'rously your parts in my adventure take.

7:318 Oft by your aid swift currents I have led
7:319 Thro' wand'ring banks, back to their fountain head;
7:320 Transformed the prospect of the briny deep,
7:321 Made sleeping billows rave, and raving billows sleep;
7:322 Made clouds, or sunshine; tempests rise, or fall;
7:323 And stubborn lawless winds obey my call:
7:324 With mutter'd words disarm'd the viper's jaw;
7:325 Up by the roots vast oaks, and rocks cou'd draw,
7:326 Make forests dance, and trembling mountains come,
7:327 Like malefactors, to receive their doom;
7:328 Earth groan, and frighted ghosts forsake their tomb.
7:329 Thee, Cynthia, my resistless rhymes drew down,
7:330 When tinkling cymbals strove my voice to drown;
7:331 Nor stronger Titan could their force sustain,
7:332 In full career compell'd to stop his wain:
7:333 Nor could Aurora's virgin blush avail,
7:334 With pois'nous herbs I turn'd her roses pale;
7:335 The fury of the fiery bulls I broke,
7:336 Their stubborn necks submitting to my yoke;
7:337 And when the sons of Earth with fury burn'd,
7:338 Their hostile rage upon themselves I turn'd;
7:339 The brothers made with mutual wounds to bleed,
7:340 And by their fatal strife my lover freed;
7:341 And, while the dragon slept, to distant Greece,
7:342 Thro' cheated guards, convey'd the golden fleece.
7:343 But now to bolder action I proceed,
7:344 Of such prevailing juices now have need,
7:345 That wither'd years back to their bloom can bring,
7:346 And in dead winter raise a second spring.
7:347 And you'll perform't-
7:348 You will; for lo! the stars, with sparkling fires,
7:349 Presage as bright success to my desires:
7:350 And now another happy omen see!
7:351 A chariot drawn by dragons waits for me.

7:352 With these last words he leaps into the wain,
7:353 Stroaks the snakes' necks, and shakes the golden rein;
7:354 That signal giv'n, they mount her to the skies,
7:355 And now beneath her fruitful Tempe lies,
7:356 Whose stories she ransacks, then to Crete she flies;
7:357 There Ossa, Pelion, Othrys, Pindus, all
7:358 To the fair ravisher, a booty fall;
7:359 The tribute of their verdure she collects,
7:360 Nor proud Olympus' height his plants protects.
7:361 Some by the roots she plucks; the tender tops
7:362 Of others with her culling sickle crops.
7:363 Nor could the plunder of the hills suffice,
7:364 Down to the humble vales, and meads she flies;
7:365 Apidanus, Amphrysus, the next rape
7:366 Sustain, nor could Enipeus' bank escape;
7:367 Thro' Beebe's marsh, and thro' the border rang'd
7:368 Whose pasture Glaucus to a Triton chang'd.

7:369 Now the ninth day, and ninth successive night,
7:370 Had wonder'd at the restless rover's flight;
7:371 Mean-while her dragons, fed with no repast,
7:372 But her exhaling simples od'rous blast,
7:373 Their tarnish'd scales, and wrinkled skins had cast.
7:374 At last return'd before her palace gate,
7:375 Quitting her chariot, on the ground she sate;
7:376 The sky her only canopy of state.
7:377 All conversation with her sex she fled,
7:378 Shun'd the caresses of the nuptial bed:
7:379 Two altars next of grassy turf she rears,
7:380 This Hecate's name, that Youth's inscription bears;
7:381 With forest-boughs, and vervain these she crown'd;
7:382 Then delves a double trench in lower ground,
7:383 And sticks a black-fleec'd ram, that ready stood,
7:384 And drench'd the ditches with devoted blood:
7:385 New wine she pours, and milk from th' udder warm,
7:386 With mystick murmurs to compleat the charm,
7:387 And subterranean deities alarm.
7:388 To the stern king of ghosts she next apply'd,
7:389 And gentle Proserpine, his ravish'd bride,
7:390 That for old Aeson with the laws of Fate
7:391 They would dispense, and lengthen his short date;
7:392 Thus with repeated pray'rs she long assails
7:393 Th' infernal tyrant and at last prevails;
7:394 Then calls to have decrepit Aeson brought,
7:395 And stupifies him with a sleeping draught;
7:396 On Earth his body, like a corpse, extends,
7:397 Then charges Jason and his waiting friends
7:398 To quit the place, that no unhallow'd eye
7:399 Into her art's forbidden secrets pry.
7:400 This done, th' inchantress, with her locks unbound,
7:401 About her altars trips a frantick round;
7:402 Piece-meal the consecrated wood she splits,
7:403 And dips the splinters in the bloody pits,
7:404 Then hurles 'em on the piles; the sleeping sire
7:405 She lustrates thrice, with sulphur, water, fire.

7:406 In a large cauldron now the med'cine boils,
7:407 Compounded of her late-collected spoils,
7:408 Blending into the mesh the various pow'rs
7:409 Of wonder-working juices, roots, and flow'rs;
7:410 With gems i' th' eastern ocean's cell refin'd,
7:411 And such as ebbing tides had left behind;
7:412 To them the midnight's pearly dew she flings,
7:413 A scretch-owl's carcase, and ill boding wings;
7:414 Nor could the wizard wolf's warm entrails scape
7:415 (That wolf who counterfeits a human shape).
7:416 Then, from the bottom of her conj'ring bag,
7:417 Snakes' skins, and liver of a long-liv'd stag;
7:418 Last a crow's head to such an age arriv'd,
7:419 That he had now nine centuries surviv'd;
7:420 These, and with these a thousand more that grew
7:421 In sundry soils, into her pot she threw;
7:422 Then with a wither'd olive-bough she rakes
7:423 The bubling broth; the bough fresh verdure takes;
7:424 Green leaves at first the perish'd plant surround,
7:425 Which the next minute with ripe fruit were crown'd.
7:426 The foaming juices now the brink o'er-swell;
7:427 The barren heath, where-e'er the liquor fell,
7:428 Sprang out with vernal grass, and all the pride
7:429 Of blooming May-When this Medea spy'd,
7:430 She cuts her patient's throat; th' exhausted blood
7:431 Recruiting with her new enchanted flood;
7:432 While at his mouth, and thro' his op'ning wound,
7:433 A double inlet her infusion found;
7:434 His feeble frame resumes a youthful air,
7:435 A glossy brown his hoary beard and hair.
7:436 The meager paleness from his aspect fled,
7:437 And in its room sprang up a florid red;
7:438 Thro' all his limbs a youthful vigour flies,
7:439 His empty'd art'ries swell with fresh supplies:
7:440 Gazing spectators scarce believe their eyes.
7:441 But Aeson is the most surpriz'd to find
7:442 A happy change in body and in mind;
7:443 In sense and constitution the same man,
7:444 As when his fortieth active year began.

7:445 Bacchus, who from the clouds this wonder view'd,
7:446 Medea's method instantly pursu'd,
7:447 And his indulgent nurse's youth renew'd.