The Complete Plays (10 page)

120    Which if thou lose shall shine above the waves;

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 ballast, empty Dido's treasury,

Take what ye will, but leave Aeneas here.

Achates, thou shalt be so
manly clad

As sea-born nymphs shall swarm about thy ships,

And wanton mermaids court thee with sweet songs,

130    Flinging in favours of more sovereign worth

Than
Thetis hangs
about Apollo's neck,

So that Aeneas
may but stay with me.

AENEAS

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?

[
Showing pictures
.]

ACHATES

140    I saw this man at Troy, ere Troy was sacked.

AENEAS

I this in Greece when Paris stole fair Helen.

ILIONEUS

This man and I were at Olympus games.

SERGESTUS

I know this face, he is a Persian born.

I travelled with him to Aetolia.

CLOANTHUS

And I in Athens with this gentleman,

Unless I be deceived,
disputed once
.

DIDO

But speak, Aeneas, know you none of these?

AENEAS

No, madam, but it seems that these are kings.

DIDO

All these and others which I never saw

150    Have been most urgent suitors for my love;

Some came in person, others sent their legates;

Yet none obtained me. I am free from all,

[
aside
] And yet, God knows, entangled unto one.

This was an orator, and
thought by words

To compass me, but yet he was deceived;

And this a Spartan courtier, vain and wild,

But his fantastic humours pleased not me;

This was Alcion, a musician,

But played he ne'er so sweet, I let him go;

160    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 now I swear, by heaven and him I love,

I was as far from love as they from hate.

AENEAS

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.

170    Yet boast not of it, for I love thee not.

And yet I hate thee not. [
Aside
] O, if I speak,

I shall betray myself. [
To
AENEAS
] Aeneas, 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
.

Enter
JUNO
to
ASCANIUS
asleep
.

JUNO

Here lies my
hate, Aeneas' cursèd brat,

The boy wherein false Destiny delights,

The heir of
Fame, 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;

10      For here, in spite of heaven, 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!

Tut, I am simple, without
mind to
hurt,

And have no gall at all to grieve my foes;

But lustful Jove and his
adulterous child

Shall find it written on confusion's front,

20      That only
Juno rules
in Rhamnus town.

Enter
VENUS
.

VENUS

What should this mean? My
doves are
back returned,

Who warn me of such danger
prest 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 gods?

30      Why is it, then, displeasure should disjoin

Whom kindred and acquaintance co-unites?

VENUS

Out, hateful hag! Thou wouldst have slain my son

Had not my doves discovered thy intent;

But I will tear thy eyes from forth thy head,

And feast the birds with their blood-shotten balls,

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,

That was advanced by my Hebe's shame,

And Paris' judgement of the heavenly ball,

I mustered all the winds unto his wrack

And urged each element to his annoy?

Yet now I do repent me of his ruth,

And wish that I had never wronged him so.

Bootless I saw it was to war with fate,

That hath so many unresisted friends:

50      Wherefore I changed my counsel with the time,

And planted love where envy erst had sprung.

VENUS

Sister of Jove, if that thy love be such

As these 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 and modesty shall
live as mates,

And thy fair peacocks 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:

70      Thy son, thou know'st, with Dido now remains,

And feeds his eyes with favours of her court;

She likewise in admiring spends her time

And cannot talk nor think of aught but him.

Why should not they then join in marriage

And bring forth mighty kings to Carthage town,

Whom
casualty of sea hath
made such friends?

And, Venus, let there be a match confirmed

Betwixt these two, whose loves are so alike,

And both our deities, conjoined in one,

80      Shall chain felicity unto their throne.

VENUS

Well could I like this reconcilement's means,

But much I fear my son will ne'er consent,

Whose armed soul, already on the sea,

Darts forth her light to
Lavinia's shore.

JUNO

Fair Queen of Love, I will
divorce these
doubts,

And find the way to
weary such
fond thoughts:

This day they both a-hunting forth will ride

Into these woods adjoining to these walls,

When, in the midst of all their gamesome sports,

90      I'll make the clouds dissolve their wat'ry works

And drench
Silvanus' dwellings with
their showers;

Then in one cave the queen and he shall meet,

And interchangeably discourse their thoughts,

Whose short conclusion will seal up their hearts

Unto the purpose which we now propound.

VENUS

Sister, I see you
savour of my
wiles;

Be it as you will
have it for
this once.

Meantime, Ascanius shall be my charge,

Whom I will bear to
Ida in
mine arms,

100     And couch him in
Adonis' purple down.

Exeunt
.

Enter
DIDO, AENEAS, ANNA, IARBAS, ACHATES
, [
CUPID
dressed as
ASCANIUS
,]
and
FOLLOWERS
.

DIDO

Aeneas, think not but I honour thee

That thus in person go with thee to hunt.

My princely robes, thou seest, are laid aside,

Whose glittering pomp
Diana's shrouds supplies;

All fellows now
, disposed alike to sport:

The woods are wide, and we have store of game.

Fair Trojan, hold my golden bow a while,

Until I gird my quiver to my side.

Lords, go before. We two must talk alone.

[
Exeunt
FOLLOWERS
.]

IARBAS
[
aside
]

10      Ungentle, can she wrong Iarbas so?

I'll die before a stranger have that grace.

‘We two will talk alone' – what words be these?

DIDO

What makes Iarbas here of all the rest?

We could have gone without your company.

AENEAS

But love and duty led him on perhaps

To press beyond acceptance to your sight.

IARBAS

Why, man of Troy, do I offend thine eyes?

Or art thou grievèd thy betters press so nigh?

DIDO

How now, Gaetulian, are ye grown so brave

20     To challenge us with your comparisons?

Peasant, go seek companions like thyself,

And meddle not with any that I love.

Aeneas, be not moved at what he says,

For
otherwhile he
will be out of joint.

IARBAS

Women may wrong by privilege of love;

But should that
man of men, Dido
except,

Have taunted me in these opprobrious terms,

I would have either drunk his dying blood,

Or else I would have
given my
life in gage!

DIDO

30      Huntsmen, why
pitch you
not your toils apace,

And rouse the light-foot deer from forth their lair?

ANNA

Sister, see, see Ascanius in his pomp,

Bearing his hunt-spear bravely in his hand!

DIDO

Yea, little son, are you so forward now?

CUPID

Ay, mother, I shall one day be a man

And better able unto other arms;

Meantime these wanton weapons serve my war,

Which I will break betwixt a lion's jaws.

DIDO

What, dar'st thou look a lion in the face?

CUPID

40      Ay, and outface him too, do what he can!

ANNA

How like his father speaketh he in all!

AENEAS

And mought I live to see him sack rich Thebes,

And load his spear with Grecian princes' heads,

Then would I wish me with Anchises' tomb,

And dead to
honour that hath brought me up.

IARBAS

And might I live to see thee shipped away,

And hoist aloft on Neptune's hideous hills,

Then would I wish me in fair Dido's arms,

And dead to scorn that hath pursued me so.

AENEAS

50      Stout friend, Achates, dost thou know this wood?

ACHATES

As I remember, here you shot the deer

That saved your famished soldiers' lives from death,

When first you set your foot upon the shore,

And here we met fair Venus, virgin-like,

Bearing her bow and quiver at her back.

AENEAS

O, how these irksome labours now delight

And overjoy my thoughts with their escape!

Who would not undergo all kind of toil

To be well stored with such
a winter's tale?

DIDO

60      Aeneas, leave these dumps and let's away,

Some to the mountains, some unto the
soil,

You to the valleys, [
to
IARBAS
] thou unto the house.

[
Exeunt;
IARBAS
remains
].

IARBAS

Ay, this it is which wounds me to the death,

To see a Phrygian,
forfeit to the
sea,

Preferred before a man of majesty.

O love! O hate! O cruel women's hearts,