IAR. Doth Dido call me back?
DIDO. No; but I charge thee never look on me. IAR. Then pull out both mine eyes, or let me die. [Exit Iarbas. ANNA. Wherefore doth Dido bid Iarbas go? DIDO. Because his loathsome sight offer ds mine eye, And in my thoughts is shrin'd another Jove. O Anna! didst thou know how sweet love were, Full soon would'st thou abjure this single life. ANNA. Poor soul! I know too well the love.
power
O that Iarbas could but fancy me!
DIDO. Is not Æneas fair and beautiful? ANNA. Yes, and Iarbas foul and favourless. DIDO. Is he not eloquent in all his speech? ANNA. Yes, and Iarbas rude and rustical. DIDO. Name not larbas; but, sweet Anna, say, Is not Æneas worthy Dido's love?
ANNA. O sister! were you empress of the world, Eneas well deserves to be your love.
So lovely is he, that, where'er he goes,
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 Eneas, 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. O dull-conceited Dido! that till now Didst never think Eneas beautiful!
But now, for quittance of this oversight,
I'll make me bracelets of his golden hair;
His glist'ring eyes shall be my looking-glass,
His lips an altar, where I'll offer up
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, Eneas, Dido's treasury,
In whose fair bosom I will lock more wealth
Than twenty thousand Indians 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 ENEAS, ACHATES, SERGESTUS, ILIONEUS,
and CLOANTHUS.
Achates, how doth Carthage please your lord?
ACHA. That will Eneas shew your majesty.
DIDO. Æneas, art thou there?
EN. I understand your highness sent for me.
DIDO. No; but now thou art here, tell me in sooth
In what might Dido highly pleasure thee.
EN. 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,
We will account her author of our lives.
DIDO. Æneas, 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 riveld gold,
Wound on the barks of odoriferous trees,
Oars of massy ivory, full of holes,
Through which the water shall delight to play;
Thyanchors shall be hew'd from crystal rocks,
Which, if thou lose, shall shine above the waves;
The masts, whereon thy swelling sails shall hang,
Hollow pyramids of silver plate;
The sails of folded lawn, where shall be wrought
The wars of Troy, but not Troy's overthrow;
For ballast, empty Dido's treasury:
Take what ye will, but leave Æneas here.
Achates, thou shalt be so meanly 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
Than Thetis hangs about Apollo's neck,
So that Æneas may but stay with me.
EN. Wherefore would Dido have Æneas stay? DIDO. To war against my bordering enemies. Eneas, think not Dido is in love;
For if that any man could conquer me,
I had been wedded ere Æneas came:
See where the pictures of my suitors hang;
And are not these as fair as fair may be?
ACHA. I saw this man at Troy, ere Troy was
sack'd.
EN. I this in Greece, when Paris stole fair Helen.
ILIO. This man and I were at Olympus' games. SERG. I know this face; he is a Persian born: I travell'd with him to Ætolia.
CLOAN. And I in Athens, with this gentleman, Unless I be deceiv'd, disputed once.
DIDO. But speak, Eneas; know you none of these?
EN. 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; Some came in person, others sent their legates, Yet none obtain'd me: I am free from all; And yet, God knows, entangled unto one. This was an orator, and thought, by words, To compass me but yet he was deceiv'd: And this a Spartan courtier, vain and wild; But his fantastic humours pleas'd 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;
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 here I swear, by heaven and him I love,
I was as far from love as they from hate.
EN. 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,
And yet I hate thee not. Oh, if I speak
I shall betray myself: Eneas, speak ;
We two 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 JUNO to ASCANIUS, asleep.
JUNO. Here lies my hate, Eneas' cursed brat,
The boy wherein false destiny delights,
The heir of Fury, the favourite of the Fates,
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 heav'n, I'll murder him,
And feed infection with his let-out life:
Say, Paris, now shall Venus have the ball?
Say, vengeance, now shall her Ascanius die?
O no, God wot, I cannot watch my time,
Nor quit good turns with double fee down told.
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