Play despot o'er an alien soil,
And carry flocks and herds for spoil,
Pick marriages at will, and bear
From others' arms the plighted fair,
Make suit for peace with wool-wreathed bough,
Yet arm her ships from stem[errata 1] to prow?
Æneas from the conquering Greek
You filch away with ease,
And cheat them, when a man they seek,
With cloud and airy breeze:
You make his vessels change their guise
And each and all as Nereids rise:
Yet call it crime, when Juno lends
Her succour to her Rutule friends.
Your chief in ignorance bides away;
And in his ignorance let him stay.
Paphos and Amathus are yours,
And high Cythera's shade:
Why seek a sky where battle lowers,
And savage homes invade?
Are ours the hands that labour still
The ebbing strength of Troy to spill?
Our hands? or theirs that broke the peace
And gave her to the sword of Greece?
What fatal cause the quarrel sent
'Twixt continent and continent?
When Paris stormed the Spartan's bed,
Was mine the guiding star that led?
Armed I for war the adulterous hand,
Or battle's flame with passion fanned?
Then had your terror been in place,
Your fears for your beloved race:
Now, all too late, you idly plain,
And fling your wrongful taunts in vain.'
Thus pleaded Juno: and the rest
Murmuriug their diverse minds expressed,
