University of Virginia Library

ACT II.

SCENE I.

The Genius of Caucasus
holding a branch of palm, and looking through the side-scene.
He sings.
Love-lorn maiden, I behold
[Trochaics.
Through these wilds thy dubious steps.
Me thou seest not, but thy ear
With consoling notes I fill.
Arm'd with safety are thy feet:
I am sent thy guide and guard.

CASSANDANE,
entering.
By love, by grief impell'd, and, voice benign!
By thee encourag'd, Cassandane bends
At these forbidden gates her suppliant knee.
Sublime possessor of these mystic walls,
Known by thy virtues only, while thy name
And history lie bury'd in concealment,
Who bear'st no title, but of sage enchantress,
Beneficent and gracious to these nations!
Redeem'd by thee from pestilence and famine,
Enrich'd with conquest and elate with triumph,
They once ador'd thy presence, but, desponding,
Regret thee now, their guardian pow'r withdrawn.
Thou dost not hear. Ah me! These massy bulwarks
Shut Cassandane from thy ear and sight.
Can I obtain a boon refus'd to all?

The Genius
sings.
Injur'd maid, thy suit prefer:
[Trochaics.
Pity dwells within these gates,
Science to redress thy wrongs.
Cassandane, doubt no more.

CASSANDANE,
kneeling.
Then by thy pity, by my own slight merits,
Which once endear'd me to thy smile, I sue;
Stupendous woman, paragon of wisdom!
Let not another's fault exclude me longer!
O, to thy presence grant my woes access!

The Genius
sings.
Horrid centinel, obey
[Trochaics.
What thy potent mistress wills:
To this virgin entrance give,
But thy hideous form conceal.

SCENE II.

A Spirit
appearing on the battlement.
To mortal sight invisible I rise,
And curse thee, hateful messenger of pity,
Who open throw'st these interdicted gates.

CASSANDANE
starting, as the gates fly open.
Oh, direful voice! how dissonant from thine,
Intelligence harmonious, who, unseen,
Yet warbling sweet compassion, hast upheld
My fearful spirit! O attend me still!

The Genius
sings.
Void of fear, light in hope,
[Cretics.
To my strains dance along
Over flowers, under shades,
Shades attun'd to liquid sounds
[Trochaics.
From the nightingales and rills.

CASSANDANE,
coming nearer to the gate.
Soft gales solicit with a fragrant whisper:
Birds trilling, vocal founts in music call.
Bless'd habitation! Emblem of that goodness
Which governs here a refuge to my troubles.

The Genius
sings.
Child of care, vocal founts,
[Cretics.
Trilling birds, fragrant gales,
Glowing flow'rs charm the sense.
Here with wisdom thou shalt rest:
[Trochaics.
These may sooth, but wisdom cures.

[The Spirit, singing, enters the castle; Cassandane follows, and the gates close again.

SCENE III.

The Spirit
on the battlement.
Night is collecting all her sable skirts,
To fly th' approaching dawn. Ye loit'ring nymphs,
Hear from your caves, your mountains, woods, and streams;
With awe receive the signal of my voice
For preparation: while in sounds of horror
I rouse the victim from his rocky pillow.
Ill-guided wand'rer, whose advent'rous steps
Have pass'd these lonely confines, didst thou hope
To rest conceal'd from me thy evil genius?
Awake. The raven with funereal notes,
The screeching inmate of the moulder'd oak,
The tiger's yell, invite thee to despair;
While my infernal cries their discord aid
To pierce with dread thy enterprising soul,
Which shall to vultures leave thy mangled frame
In sight of these impenetrable walls.

SCENE IV.

The Spirit vanishes. Melampus and Madauces.
MELAMPUS.
Malignant voice, thy threat'nings I defy.

MADAUCES.
There spoke my hero like himself.

MELAMPUS.
Why surely
Thou couldst not think a phantom of the night
Could shake my long-try'd firmness. No, Madauces,
I fear no other than the direful image
Within me borne, and planted on my heart:
All else, apparell'd in the blackest terrors,
The monster's brood, the necromancer's spell,
Whate'er the name of Demogorgon draws
From Pluto's borders, I can face, unmov'd.
Thou then, whose mind delib'rate age and science
Have cloth'd in wisdom, give thy last instruction,
And my swift sword shall execute thy counsel.

The voice of a Nymph from behind the scene.
Whence is this wand'rer, who defiles our groves
With foul contagion from his perjur'd breath?

SECOND VOICE.
It is Iolchian Jason, who, forsworn,
Betray'd his love; the weak ungrateful Jason,
Who for Creüsa, Creon's heir, abandon'd
The wife Medea, offspring of the sun.

THIRD VOICE.
Ye woods, ye rocks, ye hollow-winding shores,
Ye caverns, sound the perjuries of Jason.

MELAMPUS.
I am reveal'd. My echo'd name disturbs
The nymphs, and fills their solitude with horror.

MADAUCES.
It is the cry of demons, to confound
Thy resolution.

MELAMPUS.
They declare me perjur'd.
Speak they not truth, Madauces? I am Jason,
That impious false-one. I betray'd Medea,
Who sav'd me from dishonour, who subdu'd
The Colchian monsters, bless'd my toils with love,
And crown'd my triumphs with the golden fleece.
I slew my children by her frantic hand.
Oh, my poor slaughter'd boys! Your father's falsehood
Gave birth to madness, which destroy'd you both!

MADAUCES.
Aid not thy foes.

MELAMPUS.
The bloody act was mine.
Ye fiends, divulge my parricide and treason;
Blast with your taunting breath my strength, my courage:
Then rouse the desert, that some tiger's bowels
May sepulchre my sorrow and my shame.

MADAUCES.
Dost thou forget th' engagement to Orontes?
Doth thy performance slacken?

MELAMPUS.
No. Direct me
To rush on danger.

MADAUCES.
Summon thy attention.
Last night, when all was silent in the skies,
The moon, then smiling on me, I invok'd,
And charm'd a willing spirit from her orb.
By his fair guidance o'er the mead, I pluck'd
A flower, which opens to her mystic beams,
And shuts its bosom in the blaze of day.
Nine drops of precious moisture from this flower
Have bless'd with safety thy anointed spear;
Whose touch, unbarring those enchanted gates,
From magic durance shall protect thy body,
And visionary forms of peril quell:
The rest thy manly conduct must accomplish.
Now grasp the spear, nor quit thy sinewy hold!
This once forsaken, leaves thee to perdition.

The voice of a Fiend behind the scene.
How can the guilty prosper?

SECOND VOICE.
From his hand,
Enervated by crimes, the sword shall fall.

THIRD VOICE.
His spear shall break, his corselet be unbrac'd.
The faithless heart no buckler shall defend.

MELAMPUS.
Fiends, do you brave me? O victorious deeds,
Which heretofore have dignify'd my arm,
Now rise in thought, and animate my bosom;
While, rending glory from the front of horror,
I add new lustre to your splendid roll.

SCENE V.

Melampus and Madauces.
Melampus with his spear strikes the gates, which open with a harsh sound, and discover a Centaur, brandishing a mace, and standing across the entrance. Melampus attacks the Centaur, who at the touch of the spear instantly vanishes. The whole wall disappears at the same time, and discovers a second wall and gate.
MADAUCES.
Now hast thou prov'd the virtues of thy spear.

MELAMPUS.
And will essay its energy again.

[He strikes the second gate, which disappears with the whole wall, leaving in view a craggy rock with a torrent of water down the middle, and a hydra and griffin on the summit. All vanish at the touch of the spear. A third wall appears, with a gulf of fire before it. The fire is filled with fiends, and a gigantic figure of Death, shaking a dart, is planted between the gulf and the gate.
MADAUCES.
These are illusive images of danger,
Which perseverance will dissolve to air.

SCENE VI.

Melampus and Madauces.
Melampus strikes the figure of Death, which sinks with the fire.
MELAMPUS.
Thus far successful, I will try the temper
Of this third portal. Dost thou see, Madauces,
Yon Cyclops, rolling his presumptuous orb,
Which glares defiance from his spacious front,
More lofty than the battlement? By Mars,
I will have entrance, monster!

[The gate, opening spontaneously, admits Melampus, and is immediately shut against Madauces.

SCENE VII.

MADAUCES.
(Looking attentively, as on some distant object.)

SCENE VIII.

Madauces and two Spirits, one personating the God of Riches, the other Hebe, Goddess of Youth.
FIRST SPIRIT.
Old Colchian, once attendant on Medea,
Sprung from that god who, bursting from the east,
Heard from his chariot thy ascending voice,
Hast thou forgot when Jason pledg'd his faith,
And by her love obtain'd the golden fleece?
Thou from her native Phasis to the walls
Of treach'rous Corinth didst her wand'rings share;
Thou best canst witness to her grief and wrongs;
When Jason left her in a foreign clime,
Forlorn, unshelter'd, and espous'd Creüsa,
Thou saw'st the blood, congenial with the sun,
Flow from her infants by a mother's frenzy.
For guilty Jason dost thou lift thy voice?
Th' indignant god rejects th' unseemly pray'r,
By me delivers his sublime behests,
That thou assist his vengeance.

MADAUCES.
He may pierce
This aged bosom with consuming rays,
And he will find it to Medea true,
Nor less to that poor penitent, her husband.

FIRST SPIRIT.
Hear thy reward to animate thy duty.
I am the god of riches, bliss of age.
Come, and behold the diamond emblaze
My gorgeous hall. The emerald, the topaz,
The ruby, shoot their mingling beams around.

HEBE
sings.
Hebe I of youth am goddess:
[Trochaics.
I can smooth a wrinkled cheek:
Go, possess unbounded treasure;
I will then thy prime renew.

MADAUCES.
I fathom now the impotent device.
For me your thin-spun magic do you spread,
Audacious demons, under sacred forms
Of messengers from him who lights the world?
Hadst thou to give with that infernal hand
(To Plutus.)
The treasures, boasted by thy lying tongue;
Couldst thou rekindle fire in icy veins:
(To Hebe.)
Thus should a look command you back to hell.

[The Spirits vanish.

SCENE IX.

MADAUCES.
What hollow sound beneath me! Gods! I hear
A subterraneous groan, portending death.
The earth rocks under my supplanted feet.

SCENE X.

After a horrible sound under the stage, violent and repeated thunder and lightning above, the battlements of the castle totter, and fall; the third wall disappears, and discovers a beautiful garden with a magnificent palace.
Madauces; Melampus prostrate on the ground, with his spear and shield held fast; Orontes bending over him.
ORONTES.
My brave protector on the earth! oh, rise!
Rise to a king's embraces and support.

MELAMPUS,
rising.
Orontes!

MADAUCES
to MELAMPUS.
Art thou safe?

MELAMPUS.
I am, my friend.
And dost thou live, Orontes? Let me press thee
To my transported bosom. Quick relate
What fortune plac'd thee here.

ORONTES.
Thou first unfold
Thy wondrous acts which threw these ramparts down.

MADAUCES.
Nor kill my age, Melampus, with impatience.

MELAMPUS.
Two gates I forc'd. Admitted through the last,
Ere yet beyond the entrance I could plant
My feet secure, impenetrable clouds
Enwrapp'd my forehead, and a steep descent
At once drew downward my reluctant steps,
Compell'd to trace a cavern's black abyss.
Three Gorgon spectres at th'extremest depth
Rose from the gaping mould with livid brands,
Whose glimm'ring sulphur on the clammy roof
And sides presented to my sick'ning sight
A hateful brood, distilling poison round.

ORONTES.
What hath he suffer'd!

MADAUCES.
What surmounted! Hear.

MELAMPUS.
Amid this baleful scene a hideous voice
Roar'd through the dim vacuity. I turn'd;
When, lo! th' enormous Cyclops, striding down,
Lanc'd with impatient rage his pointed beam,
Which o'er my shoulder inoffensive flew;
Then with extended arms, and eager pace,
Advanc'd to grasp me. Blindly driv'n by fury,
And my kind fortune, on my spear he rush'd;
I held it firm, and felt the grating blade
Pierce his tough breast, and vibrate in his heart,
Whose groan redoubled horror through the cave.

ORONTES.
What next?

MELAMPUS.
With peals of subterraneous thunder,
As from her centre, heav'd the earth convuls'd,
And shook me prostrate.

MADAUCES.
Such, as now we found thee.

MELAMPUS.
The swift transition to delights like these,
From earth's cold entrails and unwholesome vapours
To this pure sky and these delicious bowers,
I mark with wonder, uninform'd by knowledge.

ORONTES.
My history, alas! is brief and sad.
By some strange pow'r transported from the spot
Where last you saw me fainting, I awoke
Beneath an arbour's melancholy roof,
With nightshade clad, with monumental yew,
And loathsome plants, the foes to life and joy.

MELAMPUS.
But thou wert wounded by the lion's claw.

ORONTES.
My wound was heal'd. A ghastly goblin stood
Full in my view, a centinel from hell.
All exclamations to discharge my grief,
E'en the complaints of disappointed love,
The cruel fiend deny'd me, and with scorn
Mock'd my imperial person when I mourn'd
My black reverse from boundless power to thraldom.
When on the earth outstretch'd thy limbs appear'd,
How I was suffer'd to approach I know not,
Nor yet how long in freedom may continue
To grace thy merit with a monarch's praise.

MELAMPUS.
Give none to me. That recompence is due
To him alone, my counsellor and guardian.

ORONTES.
This poor old man? What succour could he yield
To thee, who doubtless spring from earliest kings,
If not by some divinity produc'd?

MELAMPUS.
Short-sighted prince, unexercis'd in knowledge!
Learn, that of all endowments Heav'n bestows,
Its richest boon is wisdom, far excelling
The flame of courage and the nerves of strength.
In me his wisdom triumphs. He directs
My sword and jav'lin. Had I gods for parents,
Herculean vigour, and the strength of Atlas,
Without this sage and venerable man,
I were inferior to the meanest reptile
Which crawls in darkness through a dungeon's slime.
He too is righteous—his unerring heart
No self-reproach torments—his tranquil thoughts
No sadd'ning care disquiets—but for me.

MADAUCES
to MELAMPUS, leaning upon him.
Be wise, Melampus.

MELAMPUS.
Wisdom fled with virtue.

ORONTES.
I see the demon—Look! he glares upon me.
Assist me, hero—shield me from these torments.

MADAUCES.
He cannot help thee.

ORONTES
to MELAMPUS.
Whence this sudden change,
These agitations, which embitter joy,
And blot thy lustre?

MADAUCES.
Question him no further.
Thy presence now but irritates his pain.

ORONTES.
I must retire. The beck'ning fiend forbids
My longer stay.

SCENE XI.

Madauces and Melampus.
Cassandane, unseen by them, appears in a grove.
CASSANDANE.
Appointed, here I take
My stand unseen.

MELAMPUS.
My friend! my second father!
Whose wisdom guides me, and whose art defends;
I prov'd the wonders of thy magic dew.
Enchanted gates unclos'd; the Centaur fled;
The Hydra veil'd her sev'n-fold neck in darkness.
O vers'd in science, and supremely good!
Is there no plant affords some precious juice,
Which may dispel the sorcery of anguish,
And disenchant the bosom from despair,
That black magician in the mind?

CASSANDANE.
Oh! words
To penetrate a marble heart!

MADAUCES.
My son!
Why drops that sorrow to deform thy glory?

MELAMPUS.
When I reflect how Heav'n and nature fram'd me,
With nerves and spirit for the hardiest toils,
With qualities endu'd me to secure
Felicity and praise; then how my folly,
Such gifts perverting, to the lowest depths
Of misery hath plung'd me—I must weep—
My very deeds this day excite distraction.

MADAUCES.
Think where thou art.

MELAMPUS.
Where conquest gives me rule,
What shall control my anguish but thy friendship?

MADAUCES.
Believe me, half thy toils are yet to come.

MELAMPUS.
Then I revive.

MADAUCES.
Remember thy engagement.

MELAMPUS.
I do, and will perform.

MADAUCES.
Prepare, and follow.

MELAMPUS.
I am prepar'd. Behold my jav'lin safe;
And in fresh perils shall my soul exult,
Though, like Alcides, I descend to hell,
Or mix in combat with a giant race,
From those deriv'd who shook the tow'rs of Jove.

SCENE XII.

CASSANDANE.
Miraculous in valour, more in grief!
To court new dangers doth thy spirit swell,
Yet could thy tongue from agony of heart
Ask, “if no plant affords some precious juice
“Which might dispel the sorcery of anguish,
“And disenchant the bosom from despair,
“That black magician in the mind?” Alas!
Whoe'er thou art, whatever be thy fault,
I will report thee in the words of pity.
Thy own sad strain will mitigate resentment
At thy intrusion to this seat of wonders,
Which awe my mind, and ev'ry sense confound.

SCENE XIII.

Cassandane and the Genius of Caucasus.
The Genius
sings.
To thy woes add not fear:
[Cretics and Trochaics.
Thou hast aided her thou lov'st.
Serving her, thou shalt reap
Consolation and redress.

CASSANDANE.
Thou known, melodious comforter, whose voice
Procur'd my entrance, and in music smooth'd
The paths of terror, do I hear again
Thy accents melt? Thou com'st not sure deputed
To keep me longer absent from her sight.
I have perform'd the service she enjoin'd.
Alone amid these miracles I shudder.
Ah! reconduct me to her guardian breast.

[She returns to the palace, the Spirit singing before her, then vanishing at the gate as she enters.