_Dido._ Name not Iarbas: but, sweet Anna, say, Is not aeneas worthy Dido"s love?
_Anna._ O sister, were you empress of the world, aeneas well deserves to be your love!
So lovely is he, that, where"er he goes, 70 The people swarm to gaze him in the face.
_Dido._ But tell them, none shall gaze on him but I, Lest their gross eye-beams taint my lover"s cheeks.
Anna, good sister Anna, go for him, Lest with these sweet thoughts I melt clean away.
_Anna._ Then, sister, you"ll abjure Iarbas" love?
_Dido._ Yet must I hear that loathsome name again?
Run for aeneas, or I"ll fly to him. [_Exit_ ANNA.
_Cup._ You shall not hurt my father when he comes.
_Dido._ No; for thy sake I"ll love thy father well.-- 80 O dull-conceited Dido, that till now Didst never think aeneas beautiful!
But now, for quittance of this oversight, I"ll make me bracelets of his golden hair; His glistering eyes shall be my looking-gla.s.s; His lips an altar, where I"ll offer up[482]
As many kisses as the sea hath sands; Instead of music I will hear him speak; His looks shall be my only library; And thou, aeneas, Dido"s treasury, 90 In whose fair bosom I will lock more wealth Than twenty thousand Indias can afford.
O, here he comes! Love, love, give Dido leave To be more modest than her thoughts admit, Lest I be made a wonder to the world.
_Enter_ aeNEAS, ACHATES, SERGESTUS, ILIONEUS, _and_ CLOANTHUS.
Achates, how doth Carthage please your lord?
_Ach._ That will aeneas show your majesty.
_Dido._ aeneas, art thou there?
_aen._ I understand your highness sent for me.
_Dido._ No; but, now thou art here, tell me, in sooth, 100 In what might Dido highly pleasure thee.
_aen._ So much have I receiv"d at Dido"s hands, As, without blushing, I can ask no more: Yet, queen of Afric, are my ships unrigg"d, My sails all rent in sunder with the wind, My oars broken, and my tackling lost, Yea, all my navy split with rocks and shelves; Nor stern nor anchor have our maimed fleet; Our masts the furious winds struck overboard: Which piteous wants if Dido will supply, 110 We will account her author of our lives.
_Dido._ aeneas, I"ll repair thy Trojan ships, Conditionally that thou wilt stay with me, And let Achates sail to Italy: I"ll give thee tackling made of rivelled[483] gold, Wound on the barks of odoriferous trees;[484]
Oars of ma.s.sy ivory, full of holes, Through which the water shall delight to play; Thy anchors shall be hewed from crystal rocks, Which, if thou lose, shall shine above the waves; 120 The masts, whereon thy swelling sails shall hang, Hollow pyramides of silver plate; The sails of folded lawn, where shall be wrought The wars of Troy,--but not Troy"s overthrow; For ballace,[485] empty Dido"s treasury: Take what ye will, but leave aeneas here.
Achates, thou shalt be so seemly[486] clad, As sea-born nymphs shall swarm about thy ships, And wanton mermaids court thee with sweet songs, Flinging in favours of more sovereign worth 130 Than Thetis hangs about Apollo"s neck, So that aeneas may but stay with me.
_aen._ Wherefore would Dido have aeneas stay?
_Dido._ To war against my bordering enemies.
aeneas, think not Dido is in love; For, if that any man could conquer me, I had been wedded ere aeneas came: See, where the pictures of my suitors hang; And are not these as fair as fair may be?
_Ach._ I saw this man at Troy, ere Troy was sack"d. 140
_aen._[487] I this in Greece, when Paris stole fair Helen.
_Ili._ This man and I were at Olympia"s[488] games,
_Serg._ I know this face; he is a Persian born: I travell"d with him to aetolia.
_Cloan._ And I in Athens with this gentleman, Unless I be deceived, disputed once.
_Dido._ But speak, aeneas; know you none of these?
_aen._ No, madam; but it seems that these are kings.
_Dido._ All these, and others which I never saw, Have been most urgent suitors for my love; 150 Some came in person, others sent their legates, Yet none obtained me: I am free from all; And yet, G.o.d knows, entangled unto one.
This was an orator, and thought by words To compa.s.s me: but yet he was deceiv"d: And this a Spartan courtier, vain and wild; But his fantastic humours pleased not me: This was Alcion, a musician; But, play"d he ne"er so sweet, I let him go: This was the wealthy king of Thessaly; 160 But I had gold enough, and cast him off: This, Meleager"s son, a warlike prince; But weapons gree not with my tender years: The rest are such as all the world well knows: Yet now[489] I swear, by heaven and him I love, I was as far from love as they from hate.
_aen._ O, happy shall he be whom Dido loves!
_Dido._ Then never say that thou art miserable, Because, it may be, thou shalt be my love, Yet boast not of it, for I love thee not,-- 170 And yet I hate thee not.--O, if I speak, I shall betray myself! [_Aside._]--aeneas, come:[490]
We too will go a-hunting in the woods; But not so much for thee,--thou art but one,-- As for Achates and his followers. [_Exeunt._
SCENE II.
_Enter_[491] JUNO _to_ ASCANIUS, _who lies asleep_.
_Juno._ Here lies my hate, aeneas" cursed brat, The boy wherein false Destiny delights, The heir of Fury,[492] the favourite of the Fates,[493]
That ugly imp that shall outwear my wrath, And wrong my deity with high disgrace.
But I will take another order now, And raze th" eternal register of Time: Troy shall no more call him her second hope, Nor Venus triumph in his tender youth; For here, in spite of Heaven, I"ll murder him, 10 And feed infection with his let-out[494] life.
Say, Paris, now shall Venus have the ball?
Say, vengeance, now shall her Ascanius die?
O no! G.o.d wot, I cannot watch my time, Nor quit good turns with double fee down told: Tut, I am simple, without mind[495] to hurt, And have no gall at all to grieve my foes!
But l.u.s.tful Jove and his adulterous child Shall find it written on confusion"s front, That only Juno rules in Rhamnus town.[496] 20
_Enter_ VENUS.
_Ven._ What should this mean? my doves are back return"d Who warn me of such danger prest[497] at hand To harm my sweet Ascanius" lovely life.-- Juno, my mortal foe, what make you here?
Avaunt, old witch! and trouble not my wits.
_Juno._ Fie, Venus, that such causeless words of wrath Should e"er defile so fair a mouth as thine!
Are not we both sprung of celestial race, And banquet, as two sisters, with the G.o.ds?
Why is it, then, displeasure should disjoin 30 Whom kindred and acquaintance co-unites?
_Ven._ Out, hateful hag! thou wouldst have slain my son, Had not my doves discovered thy intent: But I will tear thy eyes fro forth thy head, And feast the birds with their blood-shotten b.a.l.l.s, If thou but lay thy fingers on my boy.
_Juno._ Is this, then, all the thanks that I shall have For saving him from snakes" and serpents" stings, That would have killed him, sleeping, as he lay?
What, though I was offended with thy son, 40 And wrought him mickle woe on sea and land, When, for the hate of Trojan Ganymede,[498]
That was advanced by my Hebe"s shame, And Paris" judgment of the heavenly ball, I mustered all the winds unto his wreck, And urg"d each element to his annoy?
Yet now I do repent me of his ruth, And wish that I had never wrong"d him so.
Bootless, I saw, it was to war with fate That hath so many unresisted[499] friends: 50 Wherefore I changed[500] my counsel with the time, And planted love where envy erst had sprung.
_Ven._ Sister of Jove, if that thy love be such As these thy protestations do paint forth, We two, as friends, one fortune will divide: Cupid shall lay his arrows in thy lap, And to a sceptre change his golden shafts; Fancy[501] and modesty shall live as mates, And thy fair peac.o.c.ks by my pigeons perch: Love, my aeneas, and desire is thine; 60 The day, the night, my swans, my sweets, are thine.
_Juno._ More than melodious are these words to me, That overcloy my soul with their content.
Venus, sweet Venus, how may I deserve Such amorous favours at thy beauteous hand?
But, that thou mayst more easily perceive How highly I do prize this amity, Hark to a motion of eternal league, Which I will make in quittance of thy love.