Page:Men of Letters, Scott, 1916.djvu/291

265 THE FIRST MORRIS 265 And southward is a gentle sea and kind Nigh landlocked, peopled with all kinds of fish, And the good land yields all that man can wish. If Guenevere acts like a drug, stringing the nerves to a state of tingling clairvoyance, then Jason soothes them like an opiate, a nepenthe compounded of low, flitting colours, and lulling tunes, and the herbs of gathered tales. It is one of the longest sleeping-draughts in the language. Instead of the startling utterance of the first book, " its accent falling in strange unwonted places," as Pater said, "with the effect of a great cry," we have the pro- longed sleepy lapping of a metre that flows like a lullaby, like the murmur on a midsummer beach, the very accent of earthly content : — . . . Then Jason paused and said : ' ' O Jove, by thy hand may all these be led To name and wealth, and yet indeed for me. What happy ending shall I ask from thee ? What helpful friends ? What length of quiet years ? What freedom from ill cares and deadly fears ? Do what thou wilt, and none the less believe That all these things and more shouldst thou receive If thou wert Jason, I were Jove to-day." So the equable iambics flow, whilst the heroes haggle courteously with heaven. For it is no mystic Sangraal that Jason and these Argonauts pursue — they have nothing even of Sir Peter Harpdon's love of battle for battle's sake ; they fight frankly for peace, they work only to win ease — " length of quiet years," " wealth of happy days " ; and they like their voyage to be well guaranteed. In this, as in all else, they are gently in accord. The sharp delineations in the earlier book — the faces so intensely discrimi- nated that they seem to betray the last secrets of