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 Æneas, 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 Æneas beautiful!
But now, for quittance of this oversight,
I'll make me bracelets of his golden hair;
His glistering 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, Æneas, Dido's treasury,
In whose fair bosom I will lock more wealth
Than twenty thousand Indias 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 Æneas, Achates, Sergestus, Ilioneus, and Cloanthus.
Achates, how doth Carthage please your lord?
Ach. That will Æneas shew your majesty.
Dido. Æneas, art thou there?
Æn. 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.
Æn. 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 maimèd 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 rivell'd[1] gold,
Wound on the barks of odoriferous tree;
Oars of massy ivory, full of holes,
Through which the water shall delight to play;
The anchors 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 pyramides[2] of silver plate;
The sails of folded lawn, where shall be wrought
The wars of Troy,—but not Troy's overthrow;
For ballass,[3] empty Dido's treasury:
Take what ye will, but leave Æneas here.
Achates, thou shalt be so seemly[4] 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.
Æn. Wherefore would Dido have Æneas stay?
Dido. To war against my bordering enemies.
Æneas, 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?
Ach. I saw this man at Troy, ere Troy was sack'd.
Serg.[5] I this in Greece, when Paris stole fair Helen.
Ili. This man and I were at Olympia's[6] 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, Æneas; know you none of these?
Æn. 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;
- ↑ rivell'd] i.e. (I suppose) twisted.
- ↑ pyramides] Mr. Collier (Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poet., iii. 228) is mistaken in stating that here the old ed. has "pyramids."—Our early authors generally wrote "pyramides" (a plural regularly formed from "pyramis"); and we have already had in these plays,—
"Like to the shadows of Pyramides," &c.
First Part of Tamburlane, p. 27, sec. col
"Besides the gates, and high Pyramides," &c.
Faustus, p. 91, sec. col
- ↑ ballass] Spelt here in old ed. "ballace",—i.e. ballast
- ↑ seemly] Old ed. "meanly."—I at first conjectured "meetly."—Mr. Collier pronounces the right reading to be "newly."
- ↑ Serg.] The old ed. has "Æn."; which is proved be wrong by the next speech of Dido.
- ↑ Olympia's] Old ed. "Olympus."
