Speech of the Chorus in Medea to Dissuade Medea from Her Purpose

O HAGGARD queen! to Athens dost thou guide
Thy glowing chariot, steeped in kindred gore;

Or seek to hide thy foul infanticide
Where Peace and Mercy dwell for evermore?

The land where Truth, pure, precious, and sublime,
Woos the deep silence of sequestered bowers.

And warriors, matchless since the first of time.
Rear their bright banners o’er unconquered towers!

Where joyous youth to Music’s mellow strain
Twines in the dance with nymphs for ever fair,
While Spring eternal on the lilied plain
Waves amber radiance through the fields of air!

The tuneful Nine (so sacred legends tell)
First waked their heavenly lyre these scenes among;

Still in your greenwood bowers they love to dwell,
Still in your vales they swell the choral song!

cide.’
For there the tuneful, chaste Pierian fair,
The guardian nymphs of green Parnassus now.

Sprung from Harmonia, while her graceful hair
Waved in bright auburn o’er her polished brow!

ANTISTROPHE I
Where silent vales and glades of green array
The murmuring wreaths of cool Cephisus lave.

There, as the muse hath sung, at noon of day
The Queen of Beauty bowed to taste the wave;

And blest the stream, and breathed across the land
The soft sweet gale that fans yon summer bowers;

And there the sister Loves, a smiling band.

Crowned with the fragrant wreaths of rosy flowers!

‘And go,’ she cries, ‘in yonder valleys rove.

With Beauty’s torch the solemn scenes illume;

Wake in each eye the radiant light of Love,
Breathe on each cheek young Passion’s tender bloom!

‘Entwine with myrtle chains your soft control.
To sway the hearts of Freedom’s darling kind!

With glowing charms enrapture Wisdom’s soul
And mould to grace ethereal Virtue’s mind.’
STROPHE II
The land where Heaven’s own hallowed waters play,
Where friendship binds the generous and the good,
Say, shall it hail thee from thy frantic way,
Unholy woman! with thy hands embrued
In thine own children’s gore? Oh! ere they bleed,
Let Nature’s voice thy ruthless heart appal!

Pause at the bold, irrevocable deed —
The mother strikes — the guiltless babes shall fall!

Think what remorse thy maddening thoughts shall sting
When dying pangs their gentle bosoms tear!
Where shalt thou sink, when lingering echoes ring
The screams of horror in thy tortured ear?
No! let thy bosom melt to Pity’s cry —
In dust we kneel by sacred Heaven implore —
O! stop thy lifted arm ere yet they die,
Nor dip thy horrid hands in infant gore!

ANTISTROPHE II
Say, how shalt thou that barbarous soul assume,
Undamped by horror at the daring plan?

Hast thou a heart to work thy children’s doom?
Or hands to finish what thy wrath began?

When o’er each babe you look a last adieu,
And gaze on Innocence that smiles asleep.

Shall no fond feeling beat to Nature true.
Charm thee to pensive thought — and bid thee weep?
When the young suppliants clasp their parent dear.
Heave the deep sob, and pour the artless prayer —
Ay! thou shall melt; and many a heart-shed tear
Gush o’er the hardened features of despair!

Nature shall throb in every tender string.
Thy trembling heart the ruffian’s task deny;

Thy horror-smitten hands afar shall fling
The blade, undrenched in blood’s eternal dye.

CHORUS
Hallowed Earth! with indignation
Mark, oh mark, the murderous deed!

Radiant eye of wide creation,
Watch the accurst infanticide!

Yet, ere Colchia’s rugged daughter
Perpetrate the dire design,
And consign to kindred slaughter
Children of thy golden line, —
Shall the hand, with murder gory,
Cause immortal blood to flow?
Sun of Heaven, arrayed in glory,
Rise! forbid, avert the blow!

In the vales of placid gladness
Let no rueful maniac range;
Chase afar the fiend of Madness,
Wrest the dagger from Revenge.
Say, hast thou with kind protection
Reared thy smiling race in vain, —
Fostering Nature’s fond affection.

Tender cares, and pleasing pain?
Hast thou on the troubled ocean
Braved the tempest loud and strong,
Where the waves in wild commotion
Roar Cyanean rocks among?
Didst thou roam the paths of danger
Hymenean joys to prove?
Spare, O sanguinary stranger,
Pledges of thy sacred love!
Shall not Heaven with indignation
Watch thee o’er the barbarous deed?
Shalt thou cleanse with expiation
Monstrous, murderous parricide?