Volume Ii Part 9 (1/2)
CANTO III.
And now the G.o.ddess founds her silver sh.e.l.l, And shakes with deeper tones the inchanted dell; Pale, round her gra.s.sy throne, bedew'd with tears, Flit the thin forms of Sorrows, and of Fears; 5 Soft Sighs responsive whisper to the chords, And Indignations half-unsheath their swords.
”Thrice round the grave CIRCaeA prints her tread, And chaunts the numbers, which disturb the dead; Shakes o'er the holy earth her sable plume, 10 Waves her dread wand, and strikes the echoing tomb!
--Pale shoot the stars across the troubled night, The timorous moon withholds her conscious light; Shrill scream the famish'd bats, and s.h.i.+vering owls, And loud and long the dog of midnight howls!--
[_Circaea_. l. 7. Enchanter's Nightshade. Two males, one female. It was much celebrated in the mysteries of witchcraft, and for the purpose of raising the devil, as its name imports. It grows amid the mouldering bones and decayed coffins in the ruinous vaults of Sleaford-church in Lincolns.h.i.+re. The superst.i.tious ceremonies or histories belonging to some vegetables have been truly ridiculous; thus the Druids are said to have cropped the Misletoe with a golden axe or sickle; and the Bryony, or Mandrake, was said to utter a scream when its root was drawn from the ground; and that the animal which drew it up became diseased and soon died: on which account, when it was wanted for the purposes of medicine, it was usual to loosen and remove the earth about the root, and then to tie it by means of a cord to a dog's tail, who was whipped to pull it up, and was then supposed to suffer for the impiety of the action. And even at this day bits of dried root of Peony are rubbed smooth, and strung, and sold under the name of Anodyne necklaces, and tied round the necks of children, to facilitate the growth of their teeth! add to this, that in Price's History of Cornwall, a book published about ten years ago, the Virga Divinatoria, or Divining Rod, has a degree of credit given to it.
This rod is of hazle, or other light wood, and held horizontally in the hand, and is said to bow towards the ore whenever the Conjurer walks over a mine. A very few years ago, in France, and even in England, another kind of divining rod has been used to discover springs of water in a similar manner, and gained some credit. And in the very last year, there were many in France, and some in England, who underwent an enchantment without any divining rod at all, and believed themselves to be affected by an invisible agent, which the Enchanter called Animal Magnetism!]
--Then yawns the bursting ground!--_two_ imps obscene Rise on broad wings, and hail the baleful queen; Each with dire grin salutes the potent wand, And leads the sorceress with his sooty hand; Onward they glide, where sheds the sickly yew 20 O'er many a mouldering bone its nightly dew; The ponderous portals of the church unbar,-- Hoa.r.s.e on their hinge the ponderous portals jar; As through the colour'd gla.s.s the moon-beam falls, Huge shapeless spectres quiver on the walls; 25 Low murmurs creep along the hollow ground, And to each step the pealing ailes resound; By glimmering lamps, protecting saints among, The shrines all tremble as they pa.s.s along, O'er the still choir with hideous laugh they move, 30 (Fiends yell below, and angels weep above!) Their impious march to G.o.d's high altar bend, With feet impure the sacred steps ascend; With wine unbless'd the holy chalice stain, a.s.sume the mitre, and the cope profane; 35 To heaven their eyes in mock devotion throw, And to the cross with horrid mummery bow; Adjure by mimic rites the powers above, And plite alternate their Satanic love.
Avaunt, ye Vulgar! from her sacred groves 40 With maniac step the Pythian LAURA moves; Full of the G.o.d her labouring bosom sighs, Foam on her lips, and fury in her eyes, Strong writhe her limbs, her wild dishevell'd hair Starts from her laurel-wreath, and swims in air.-- 45 While _twenty_ Priests the gorgeous shrine surround Cinctur'd with ephods, and with garlands crown'd,
[_Laura_. l. 40. Prunus. Lauro-cerasus. Twenty males, one female. The Pythian priestess is supposed to have been made drunk with infusion of laurel-leaves when she delivered her oracles. The intoxication or inspiration is finely described by Virgil. aen. L. vi. The distilled water from laurel-leaves is, perhaps, the most sudden poison we are acquainted with in this country. I have seen about two spoonfuls of it destroy a large pointer dog in less than ten minutes. In a smaller dose it is said to produce intoxication: on this account there is reason to believe it acts in the same manner as opium and vinous spirit; but that the dose is not so well ascertained. See note on Tremella. It is used in the Ratafie of the distillers, by which some dram-drinkers have been suddenly killed. One pint of water, distilled from fourteen pounds of black cherry stones bruised, has the same deleterious effect, destroying as suddenly as laurel-water. It is probable Apricot-kernels, Peach-leaves, Walnut-leaves, and whatever possesses the kernel-flavour, may have similar qualities.]
Contending hosts and trembling nations wait The firm immutable behests of Fate; --She speaks in thunder from her golden throne 50 With words _unwill'd_, and wisdom not her own.
So on his NIGHTMARE through the evening fog Flits the squab Fiend o'er fen, and lake, and bog; Seeks some love-wilder'd Maid with sleep oppress'd, Alights, and grinning fits upon her breast.
55 --Such as of late amid the murky sky Was mark'd by FUSELI'S poetic eye; Whose daring tints, with SHAKESPEAR'S happiest grace, Gave to the airy phantom form and place.-- Back o'er her pillow sinks her blus.h.i.+ng head, 60 Her snow-white limbs hang helpless from the bed; While with quick sighs, and suffocative breath, Her interrupted heart-pulse swims in death.
--Then shrieks of captured towns, and widows' tears, Pale lovers stretch'd upon their blood-stain'd biers, 65 The headlong precipice that thwarts her flight, The trackless desert, the cold starless night, And stern-eye'd Murder with his knife behind, In dread succession agonize her mind.
O'er her fair limbs convulsive tremors fleet, 70 Start in her hands, and struggle in her feet; In vain to scream with quivering lips she tries, And strains in palsy'd lids her tremulous eyes; In vain she _wills_ to run, fly, swim, walk, creep; The WILL presides not in the bower of SLEEP.
75 --On her fair bosom sits the Demon-Ape Erect, and balances his bloated shape;
[_The Will presides not._ 1. 74. Sleep consists in the abolition of all voluntary power, both over our muscular motions and our ideas; for we neither walk nor reason in sleep. But, at the same time, many of our muscular motions, and many of our ideas, continue to be excited into action in consequence of internal irritations and of internal sensations; for the heart and arteries continue to beat, and we experience variety of pa.s.sions, and even hunger and thirst in our dreams. Hence I conclude, that our nerves of sense are not torpid or inert during sleep; but that they are only precluded from the perception of external objects, by their external organs being rendered unfit to transmit to them the appulses of external bodies, during the suspension of the power of volition; thus the eye-lids are closed in sleep, and I suppose the tympanum of the car is not stretched, because they are deprived of the voluntary exertions of the muscles appropriated to these purposes; and it is probable something similar happens to the external apparatus of our other organs of sense, which may render them unfit for their office of perception during sleep: for milk put into the mouths of sleeping babes occasions them to swallow and suck; and, if the eye-lid is a little opened in the day-light by the exertions of disturbed sleep, the person dreams of being much dazzled.
See first Interlude.]
Rolls in their marble orbs his Gorgon-eyes, And drinks with leathern ears her tender cries.
Arm'd with her ivory beak, and talon-hands, 80 Descending FICA dives into the sands; Chamber'd in earth with cold oblivion lies; Nor heeds, _ye Suitor-train_, your amorous sighs; Erewhile with renovated beauty blooms, Mounts into air, and moves her leafy plumes.
85 --Where HAMPS and MANIFOLD, their cliffs among, Each in his flinty channel winds along; With lucid lines the dusky Moor divides, Hurrying to intermix their sister tides.
[When there arises in sleep a painful desire to exert the voluntary motions, it is called the Nightmare or Incubus. When the sleep becomes so imperfect that some muscular motions obey this exertion of desire, people have walked about, and even performed some domestic offices in sleep; one of these sleep-walkers I have frequently seen: once she smelt of a tube-rose, and sung, and drank a dish of tea in this state; her awaking was always attended with prodigious surprize, and even fear; this disease had daily periods, and seemed to be of the epileptic kind.]
[_Ficus indica_. l. 80. Indian Fig-tree. Of the gla.s.s Polygamy. This large tree rises with opposite branches on all sides, with long egged leaves; each branch emits a slender flexile depending appendage from its summit like a cord, which roots into the earth and rises again. Sloan. Hist. of Jamaica. Lin. Spec. Plant. See Capri-ficus.]
Where still their silver-bosom'd Nymphs abhor, 90 The blood-smear'd mansion of gigantic THOR,-- --Erst, fires volcanic in the marble womb Of cloud-wrapp'd WETTON raised the ma.s.sy dome; Rocks rear'd on rocks in huge disjointed piles Form the tall turrets, and the lengthen'd ailes;
[_Gigantic Thor._ l. 90. Near the village of Wetton, a mile or two above Dove-Dale, near Ashburn in Dirbys.h.i.+re, there is a s.p.a.cious cavern about the middle of the ascent of the mountain, which still retains the Name of Thor's house; below is an extensive and romantic common, where the rivers Hamps and Manifold sink into the earth, and rise again in Ham gardens, the seat of John Port, Esq. about three miles below. Where these rivers rise again there are impressions resembling Fish, which appear to be of Jasper bedded in Limestone. Calcareous Spars, Sh.e.l.ls converted into a kind of Agate, corallines in Marble, ores of Lead, Copper, and Zinc, and many strata of Flint, or Chert, and of Toadstone, or Lava, abound in this part of the country. The Druids are said to have offered human sacrifices inclosed in wicker idols to Thor. Thursday had its name from this Deity.
The broken appearance of the surface of many parts of this country; with the Swallows, as they are called, or basons on some of the mountains, like volcanic Craters, where the rain-water sinks into the earth; and the numerous large stones, which seem to have been thrown over the land by volcanic explosions; as well as the great ma.s.ses of Toadstone or Lava; evince the existence of violent earthquakes at some early period of the world. At this time the channels of these subterraneous rivers seem to have been formed, when a long tract of rocks were raised by the sea flowing in upon the central fires, and thus producing an irresistable explosion of steam; and when these rocks again subsided, their parts did not exactly correspond, but left a long cavity arched over in this operation of nature. The cavities at Castleton and Buxton in Derbys.h.i.+re seem to have had a similar origin, as well as this cavern termed Thor's house. See Mr. Whitehurst's and Dr. Hutton's Theories of the Earth.]
95 Broad ponderous piers sustain the roof, and wide Branch the vast rain-bow ribs from side to side.
While from above descends in milky streams One scanty pencil of illusive beams, Suspended crags and gaping gulphs illumes, 100 And gilds the horrors of the deepen'd glooms.