The Complete Plays (7 page)

Or force
her smile
that hitherto hath frowned.

Three winters shall he with the Rutiles war,

90      And in the end subdue them with his sword,

And full three summers likewise shall he waste

In managing those fierce barbarian minds;

Which once performed, poor Troy, so long suppressed,

From forth her ashes shall advance her head,

And flourish once again that erst was dead.

But
bright Ascanius, beauty
's better work,

Who with the sun divides one radiant shape,

Shall build his throne amidst those starry towers

That earth-born Atlas groaning underprops;

100    No bounds but heaven shall bound his empery,

Whose azured gates, enchased with his name,

Shall make the morning haste her grey uprise

To feed her eyes with his engraven fame.

Thus in stout
Hector's race three
hundred years

The Roman sceptre royal shall remain,

Till that a
princess-priest, conceived
by Mars,

Shall yield to dignity a double birth,

Who will
eternise Troy
in their attempts.

VENUS

How may I credit these thy flattering terms,

110    When yet both sea and sands beset their ships,

And
Phoebus, as
in Stygian pools, refrains

To
taint his tresses in
the Tyrrhene main?

JUPITER

I will take order for that presently.

Hermes, awake, and haste to Neptune's realm;

Whereas the
wind-god, warring
now with fate,

Besiege the
offspring of
our kingly loins,

Charge him from me to turn his stormy powers

And fetter them in Vulcan's sturdy brass,

That durst thus proudly wrong our kinsman's peace.

[
Exit
MERCURY
.]

120    Venus, farewell, thy son shall be our care.

Come, Ganymede, we must about this gear.

Exeunt
JUPITER
with
GANYMEDE
.

VENUS

Disquiet seas, lay down your swelling looks,

And court Aeneas with your calmy cheer,

Whose beauteous burden well might make you proud,

Had not the heavens,
conceived with hell
-born clouds,

Veiled his resplendent glory from your view.

For my sake pity him, Oceanus,

That erstwhile
issued from thy
wat'ry loins,

And had my being from thy bubbling froth.

130    
Triton, I
know, hath filled his trump with Troy,

And therefore will take pity on his toil,

And call both
Thetis and
Cymodoce

To succour him in this extremity.

Enter
AENEAS
with
ASCANIUS
[
and
ACHATES
],
with one or two more
.

What, do I see my son now come on shore?

Venus, how art thou compassed with content,

The while thine eyes attract their sought-for joys!

Great Jupiter, still honoured mayst thou be

For this so friendly aid in time of need!

Here in this bush disguised will I stand,

140    Whiles my Aeneas spends himself in plaints,

And heaven and earth with his unrest acquaints.

[
VENUS
stands aside
.]

AENEAS

You sons of care, companions of my course,

Priam's misfortune follows us by sea,

And Helen's rape doth haunt ye at the heels.

How many dangers have we overpassed!

Both
barking Scylla and
the sounding rocks,

The
Cyclops' shelves and
grim Ceraunia's seat

Have you o'ergone, and yet remain alive!

Pluck up your hearts, since fate still rests our friend,

And changing heavens may those good days return

150    Which
Pergama did vaunt in
all her pride.

ACHATES

Brave Prince of Troy, thou only art our god,

That by thy
virtues free
'st us from annoy,

And makes our hopes survive to
coming joys
.

Do thou but smile and cloudy heaven will clear,

Whose night and day descendeth from thy brows.

Though we be now in extreme misery

And
rest the map of
weather-beaten woe,

Yet shall the aged sun shed forth his
hair

160    To make us live unto our former heat,

And every beast the forest doth send forth

Bequeath her young ones to our scanted food.

ASCANIUS

Father, I faint. Good father, give me meat.

AENEAS

Alas, sweet boy, thou must be still a while

Till we have fire to dress the meat we killed.

Gentle Achates, reach the tinder-box,

That we may make a fire to warm us with

And roast our new-found victuals on this shore.

[
AENEAS
kindles a flame
.]

VENUS
[
aside
]

See what
strange arts necessity finds out!

170    
How near, my
sweet Aeneas, art thou driven!

AENEAS

Hold, take this candle and go light a fire;

You shall have leaves and windfall boughs enow

Near to these woods to roast your meat withal.

Ascanius, go and dry thy drenchèd limbs,

Whiles I with my Achates rove abroad

To know what coast the wind hath driven us on,

Or whether men or beasts inhabit it.

[
Exeunt
ASCANIUS
and others
.]

ACHATES

The air is pleasant, and the soil most fit

For cities and
society's supports;

180    Yet much I marvel that I cannot find

No steps of men imprinted in the earth.

VENUS
[
aside
]

Now is the time for me to play my part.

[
To them
] Ho, young men, saw you, as you came,

Any of all my sisters wand'ring here,

Having a quiver girded to her side

And clothèd in a spotted leopard's skin?

AENEAS

I neither saw nor heard of any such.

But what may I, fair virgin, call your name,

Whose looks set forth no mortal form to view,

190    Nor speech bewrays aught human in thy birth?

Thou art a goddess that delud'st our eyes

And shrouds thy beauty in this borrowed shape.

But whether thou
the sun's bright sister be
,

Or one of chaste Diana's fellow nymphs,

Live happy in the height of all content

And
lighten our extremes with
this one boon,

As to instruct us under what good heaven

We breathe as now, and what this world is called

On which by tempests' fury we are cast.

200    Tell us, O tell us, that are ignorant,

And this right hand shall make thy altars crack

With mountain-heaps of
milk-white sacrifice
.

VENUS

Such honour, stranger, do I not
affect.

It is the use for
Tyrian maids
to wear

Their bow and quiver in this modest sort

And
suit themselves
in purple
for the nonce,

That they may trip more lightly o'er the lawns

And overtake the tuskèd boar in chase.

But for the land whereof thou dost enquire,

210    It is the
Punic kingdom, rich
and strong,

Adjoining on Agenor's stately town,

The kingly seat of southern Libya,

Whereas
Sidonian Dido
rules as queen.

But what are you that ask of me these things?

Whence may you come, or whither will you go?

AENEAS

Of Troy am I, Aeneas is my name,

Who, driven by war from forth my native world,

Put sails to sea to seek out Italy,

And my divine descent from sceptred Jove.

220    With twice twelve
Phrygian ships
I ploughed the deep,

And made that way my mother Venus led;

But of them all, scarce seven do anchor safe,

And they so wracked and weltered by the waves

As every tide
tilts
'twixt their oaken sides;

And all of them, unburdened of their load,

Are ballasted with billows' wat'ry weight.

But hapless I, God wot, poor and unknown,

Do trace these Libyan deserts all despised,

Exiled forth Europe and wide Asia both,

230    And have not any coverture but heaven.

VENUS

Fortune hath favoured thee, whate'er thou be,

In sending thee unto this courteous coast.

A' God's name on, and
haste thee to the court

Where Dido will receive ye with her smiles;

And for thy ships, which thou supposest lost,

Not one of them hath perished in the storm,

But are arrivèd safe not far from hence.

And so I leave thee to thy fortune's lot,

Wishing good luck unto thy wand'ring steps.

Exit
.

AENEAS

240    Achates, 'tis my mother that is fled,

I know her by the movings of her feet.

Stay, gentle Venus, fly not from thy son!

Too cruel, why wilt thou forsake me thus?

Or
in these shades deceiv
'st mine eyes so oft?

Why talk we not together hand in hand,

And tell our griefs in more familiar terms?

But thou art gone and leav'st me here alone,

To dull the air with my
discoursive moan
.

Exeunt.

Enter
ILIONEUS
and
CLOANTHUS
[
with
SERGESTUS
and
IARBAS
].

ILIONEUS

Follow, ye Trojans, follow this brave lord,

And plain to him the sum of your distress.

IARBAS

Why, what are you, or wherefore do you sue?

ILIONEUS

Wretches of Troy,
envièd of
the winds,

That crave such favour at your honour's feet

As poor distressed misery may plead;

Save, save, O save our ships from cruel fire,

That do complain the wounds of thousand waves,

And spare our lives whom every spite pursues.

10      We come not, we, to wrong your Libyan gods,

Or steal your
household lares from
their shrines;

Our hands are not prepared to lawless spoil,

Nor armèd to offend in any kind.

Such force is far from our unweaponed thoughts,

Whose fading
weal, of victory forsook,

Forbids all hope to harbour near our hearts.

IARBAS

But tell me, Trojans – Trojans if you be –

Unto what fruitful quarters were ye bound

Before that Boreas buckled with your sails?

CLOANTHUS

20      There is a place, Hesperia termed by us,

An ancient empire, famousèd for arms,

And
fertile in
fair Ceres' furrowed wealth,

Which now we call Italia,
of his name

That in such peace long time did rule the same.

Thither made we

When suddenly gloomy
Orion rose

And led our ships into the shallow sands,

Whereas the southern wind with
brackish breath
,

Dispersed them all amongst the wrackful rocks.

30      From thence a few of us escaped to land;

The rest, we fear, are folded in the floods.

IARBAS

Brave men-at-arms, abandon fruitless fears

Since Carthage
knows to
entertain distress.

SERGESTUS

Ay, but the
barbarous sort do
threat our ships,

And will not let us lodge upon the sands:

In multitudes they swarm unto the shore,

And from the
first earth interdict our feet.

IARBAS

Myself will see they shall not trouble ye.

Your men and you shall banquet in our court,

40      And every Trojan be as welcome here

As Jupiter to silly
Baucis' house.

Come in with me, I'll bring you to my queen,

Who shall confirm my words with further deeds.

SERGESTUS

Thanks, gentle lord, for such unlooked-for grace.

Might we but once more see Aeneas' face,

Then would we hope to quite such friendly turns

As shall surpass the
wonder of our speech.

[
Exeunt
.]

Enter
AENEAS, ACHATES
,
and
ASCANIUS
[
and others
].

AENEAS

Where am I now
? These should be Carthage walls.

ACHATES

Why stands my sweet Aeneas thus amazed?

AENEAS

O my Achates, Theban Niobe,

Who for her sons' death wept out life and breath,

And, dry with grief, was turned into a stone,

Had not such passions in her head as I.

Methinks that town there should be Troy, yon
Ida's hill,

There Xanthus' stream, because here's Priamus,

And when I know it is not, then I die.

ACHATES

10      And in this
humour is
Achates too.