SPEECH OF THE CHORUS, In the same Tragedy, to dissuade Medea from her purpose of putting her children to…

O HAGGARD queen! to Athens dost thou guide Thy glowing chariot, steep'd in kindred gore; Or seek to hide thy damned parracide Where Peace and Mercy dwell for evermore?

The land where Truth, pure, precious, and sublime, Woos the deep silence of sequester'd bowers, And warriors, matchless since the first of Time, Rear their bright banners o'er unconquer'd 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 wak'd their heavenly lyre these scenes among; Still in your greenwood bowers they love to dwell; Still in your vales they swell the choral song!

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 polish'd brow!