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7:250 At last withdrawn, and by the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.