PART OF THE FOURTH BOOK OF
Beginning at V. 437.
------- Talefque miferrima fletus
Fertque refertque foror....
And ending with
Adnixi torquent fpumas, et cærula verrunt. V. 583.
ALL this her weeping sister * does repeat
To the ftern man †, whom nothing could entreat;
Loft were her pray'rs, and fruitless were her tears!
Fate and great Jove had stopp'd his gentle ears.
As when loud winds a well-grown oak would rend 5
Up by the roots, this way and that they bend
His reeling trunk, and with a boist'rous found
Scatter his leaves, and ftrew them on the ground,
He fixed ftands; as deep his roots doth lie
Down to the centre, as his top is high:
No lefs on ev'ry fide the hero prest,
Feels love and pity shake his noble breast,
And down his cheeks tho' fruitless tears do roll,
Unmov'd remains the purpose of his foul,
Then Dido, urged with approaching fate,
Begins the light of cruel Heav'n to hate.
↑ Æneas.
Her refolution to dispatch and die,
Confirm'd by many a horrid prodigy!
The water confecrate for facrifice,
Appears all black to her amazed eyes;
The wine to putrid blood converted flows,
Which from her none, not her own fifter, knows.
Befides there ftood, as facred to her lord*,
A marble temple which she much ádor'd,
With fnowy fleeces and fresh garlands crown'd; 25
Hence ev'ry night proceeds a dreadful found;
Her husband's voice invites her to his tomb,
And difmal owls prefage the ills to come.
Befides, the prophecies of wizards old
Increas'd her terrour, and her fall foretold:
Scorn'd and deferted to herself she feems,
And finds Æneas cruel in her dreams.
So to mad Pentheus double Thebes appears,
And furies howl in his diftemper'd ears.
Oreftes fo, with like distraction toft,
Is made to fly his mother's angry ghost.
Now grief and fury to their height arrive:
Death the decrees, and thus does it contrive.
Her grieved fifter, with a cheerful grace,
(Hope well diffembled shining in her face)
She thus deceives. Dear Sifter! let us prove
The cure I have invented for my love.
*Sichæus.
Beyond the land of Ethiopia lies
The place where Atlas does fupport the fkies;
Hence came an old magician, that did keep
Th' Hefperian fruit, and made the dragon fleep:
Her potent charms do troubled fouls relieve,
And, where she lifts, makes calmeft minds to grieve:
The course of rivers, and of heav'n, can stop,
And call trees down from th' airy mountain's top. 50
Witnefs, ye Gods! and thou, my dearest part!
How loath I am to tempt this guilty art.
Erect a pile, and on it let us place
That bed where I my ruin did embrace:
With all the reliques of our impious gueft,
Arms, fpoils, and prefents, let the pile be dreft;
(The knowing woman thus prescribes) that we
May rafe the man out of our memory.
Thus fpeaks the Queen, but hides the fatal end
For which she doth thofe facred rights pretend. 60
Nor worse effects of grief her fifter thought
Would follow, than Sichæus' murder wrought;
Therefore obeys her: and now, heaped high
The cloven oaks and lofty pines do lie;
Hung all with wreaths and flow'ry garlands round, 65
So by herself was her own fun'ral crown'd!
Upon the
top the Trojan's image lies,
And his fharp fword, wherewith anon she dies.
They by the altar ftand, while with loose hair
The magick prophetess begins her pray'r :
On Chaos, Erebus, and all the gods,
Which in th' infernal shades have their abodes,
She loudly calls, besprinkling all the room
With drops, fuppos'd from Lethe's lake to come.
She feeks the knot which on the forehead grows 75
Of new foal'd colts, and herbs by moonlight mows.
A cake of leaven in her pious hands
Holds the devoted Queen, and barefoot stands:
One tender foot was bare, the other shod,
Her robe ungirt, invoking ev'ry god,
And ev'ry pow'r, if any be above,
Which takes regard of ill-requited love!
Now was the time when weary mortals steep
Their careful temples in the dew of fleep:
On feas, on earth, and all that in them dwell,
A death-like quiet and deep filence fell;
But not on Dido! whofe untamed mind
Refus'd to be by facred night confin'd:
A double paffion in her breast does move,
Love, and fierce anger for neglected love.
Thus fhe afflicts her foul: What shall I do?
With fate inverted shall I humbly who?
And fome proud prince, in wild Numidia born,
Pray to accept me, and forget my scorn?
Or fhall I with th' ungrateful Trojan go,
Quit all my state, and wait upon my foe?
Is not enough, by fad experience, known
The perjur'd race of falfe Laomedon?
With my Sidonians shall I give them chase,
Bands hardly forced from their native place!
No;-die! and let this sword thy fury tame;
Nought but thy blood can quench this guilty flame.
Ah, Sifter! vanquish'd with my passion, thou
Betray'dft me firft, dispensing with my vow.
Had I been conftant to Sichæus still,
And fingle liv'd, I had not known this ill!
Such thoughts torment the Queen's enraged breast, While the Dardanian does fecurely rest
In his tall fhip, for fudden flight prepar'd;
To whom once more the fon of Jove appear'd; 110 Thus feems to speak the youthful deity,
Voice, hair, and colour, all like Mercury.
Fair Venus' feed! canft thou indulge thy fleep, Nor better guard in fuch great danger keep? Mad, by neglect to lose fo fair a wind!" If here thy fhips the purple morning find, Thou shalt behold this hoftile harbour fhine With a new fleet, and fires, to ruin thine : She meditates revenge, refolv'd to die ; Weigh anchor quickly, and her fury fly.
This faid, the god in fhades of night retir'd. Amaz'd Æneas, with the warning fir'd, Shakes off dull fleep, and roufing up his men, Behold! the gods command our flight again. Fall to your oars, and all your canvass spread: 125 What god foe'er that thus vouchsafes to lead,
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