The Complete Plays (11 page)

That imitate the moon in every change

And, like the planets, ever love to range!

What shall I do, thus wronged with disdain?

70      Revenge me on Aeneas or on her?

On her? Fond man, that were to war 'gainst heaven,

And with one shaft provoke ten thousand darts.

This Trojan's end will be thy envy's aim,

Whose blood will reconcile thee to content

And make love drunken with thy sweet desire.

But Dido, that now holdeth him so dear,

Will die with
very
tidings of his death;

But time will discontinue her content

And mould her mind unto new
fancy's shapes.

80     O God of heaven, turn the hand of fate

Unto that happy day of my delight!

And then – what then? Iarbas shall but love.

So doth he now, though not with equal gain:

That resteth in
the rival of thy pain,

Who ne'er will cease to soar till he be slain.

Exit
.

The storm. Enter
AENEAS
and
DIDO
in the cave
at several times
.

DIDO

Aeneas!

AENEAS
Dido!

DIDO

Tell me, dear love, how found you out this cave?

AENEAS

By chance, sweet queen, as Mars and Venus met.

DIDO

Why, that was
in a net, where
we are loose,

And yet I am not free. O would I were!

AENEAS

Why, what is it that Dido may desire

And not obtain, be it in human power?

DIDO

The thing that I will die before I ask,

And yet desire to have before I die.

AENEAS

10      It is not aught Aeneas may achieve?

DIDO

Aeneas? No, although his eyes do pierce.

AENEAS

What, hath Iarbas angered her in aught?

And will she be avenged on his life?

DIDO

Not angered me, except in ang'ring thee.

AENEAS

Who, then, of all so cruel may he be

That should detain thy eye in his defects?

DIDO

The man that I do eye where'er I am,

Whose amorous face, like Paean, sparkles fire,

Whenas he
butts his beams on
Flora's bed.

20      
Prometheus hath
put on Cupid's shape,

And I must perish in his burning arms.

Aeneas, O Aeneas, quench these flames!

AENEAS

What ails my queen? Is she fall'n sick of late?

DIDO

Not sick, my love, but sick I must conceal

The torment that it boots me not reveal.

And yet I'll speak, and yet I'll hold my peace;

Do shame her worst, I will disclose my grief.

Aeneas, thou art he – what did I say?

Something it was that now I have forgot.

AENEAS

30      What means fair Dido by this doubtful speech?

DIDO

Nay, nothing. But Aeneas loves me not.

AENEAS

Aeneas' thoughts dare not ascend so high

As Dido's heart, which monarchs might not scale.

DIDO

It was because I saw no king like thee,

Whose golden
crown might balance my content;

But now that I have found what to affect,

I follow one that loveth fame
for me,

And rather had seem fair
to Sirens' eyes

Than to the Carthage queen that dies for him.

AENEAS

40      If that your majesty can look so low

As my despised worths, that shun all praise,

With this my hand I give to you my heart,

And vow by all the gods of hospitality,

By heaven and earth, and my fair brother's bow,

By
Paphos, Capys
, and the purple sea

From whence my radiant mother did descend,

And by this sword that saved me from the Greeks,

Never to leave these new-uprearèd walls

Whiles Dido lives and rules in Juno's town,

50      Never to like or love any but her!

DIDO

What more than
Delian music
do I hear,

That calls my soul from forth his living seat

To move unto the measures of delight?

Kind clouds that sent forth such a courteous storm

As
made disdain to
fly to fancy's lap!

Stout love, in mine arms make thy Italy,

Whose crown and kingdom rests at thy command.

‘Sichaeus', not ‘Aeneas', be thou called;

The ‘King of Carthage', not ‘Anchises' son'.

60      Hold, take these jewels at thy lover's hand,

These golden bracelets and this wedding-ring,

Wherewith my husband wooed me yet a maid,

And be thou King of Libya, by my gift.

Exeunt to the cave
.

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

ACHATES

Did ever men see such a sudden storm,

Or day so clear so suddenly o'ercast?

IARBAS

I think some fell enchantress dwelleth here

That can call them forth whenas she please,

And dive into black tempests' treasury

Whenas she means to mask the world with clouds.

ANNA

In all my life I never knew the like.

It hailed, it snowed, it light'nèd, all at once.

ACHATES

I think it was the devils' revelling night,

10      There was such hurly-burly in the heavens;

Doubtless
Apollo's axle-tree is
cracked,

Or aged
Atlas' shoulder
out of joint,

The motion was so over-violent.

IARBAS

In all this coil, where have ye left the queen?

CUPID

Nay, where's my warlike father, can you tell?

[
Enter
DIDO
and
AENEAS
.]

ANNA

Behold where both of them come forth the cave.

IARBAS
[
aside
]

Come forth the cave? Can heaven endure this sight?

Iarbas, curse that unrevenging Jove,

Whose flinty darts slept in
Typhoeus' den

20      Whiles these adulterers surfeited with sin.

Nature, why mad'st me not some poisonous beast,

That with the sharpness of my edgèd sting

I might have staked them both unto the earth,

Whil'st they were
sporting in
this darksome cave?

AENEAS

The air is clear and southern winds are whist.

Come, Dido, let us hasten to the town,

Since gloomy Aeolus doth cease to frown.

DIDO

Achates and Ascanius, well met.

AENEAS

Fair Anna, how escaped you from the shower?

ANNA

30      As others did, by running to the wood.

DIDO

But where were you, Iarbas, all this while?

IARBAS

Not with Aeneas in the ugly cave.

DIDO

I see Aeneas sticketh in your mind,

But I will soon put by that stumbling-block,

And quell those hopes that thus employ your
cares.

Exeunt
.

Enter
IARBAS
to sacrifice
.

IARBAS

Come, servants
, come; bring forth the sacrifice,

That I may pacify that
gloomy Jove

Whose empty altars have enlarged our ills.

[
Enter
SERVANTS
with the sacrifice, then exeunt
.]

Eternal Jove, great master of the clouds,

Father of gladness and all frolic thoughts,

That with thy gloomy hand corrects the heaven

When airy creatures war amongst themselves,

Hear, hear, O hear Iarbas' plaining prayers

Whose hideous echoes make the welkin howl

10      And all the woods ‘
Eliza'
to resound!

The woman that thou willed us entertain,

Where, straying in our borders up and down,

She craved a
hide of ground to
build a town,

With whom we did divide both laws and land

And all the fruits that plenty else sends forth,

Scorning our loves and royal marriage-rites,

Yields up her beauty to a stranger's bed,

Who, having wrought her shame, is straightway fled.

Now, if thou be'st a pitying god of power,

20      On whom ruth and compassion ever waits,

Redress these wrongs and warn him to his ships,

That now afflicts me with his flattering eyes.

Enter
ANNA
.

ANNA

How now, Iarbas, at your prayers so hard?

IARBAS

Ay, Anna, is there aught you would with me?

ANNA

Nay, no such weighty business of import

But may be slacked until another time.

Yet, if you would
partake with
me the cause

Of this devotion that detaineth you,

I would be thankful for such courtesy.

IARBAS

30      Anna, against this Trojan do I pray,

Who seeks to rob me of thy sister's love

And dive into her heart by
coloured looks
.

ANNA

Alas, poor king, that labours so in vain

For her that so delighteth in thy pain!

Be ruled by me and seek some other love,

Whose yielding heart may yield thee more relief.

IARBAS

Mine eye is fixed where fancy cannot start.

O leave me, leave me to my silent thoughts

That register the
numbers of
my ruth,

40      And I will either move the thoughtless flint

Or drop out both mine eyes in drizzling tears,

Before my sorrow's tide have any stint.

ANNA

I will not leave Iarbas, whom I love,

In this delight
of dying pensiveness.

Away with Dido! Anna be thy song,

Anna, that doth admire thee more than heaven!

IARBAS

I may nor will list to such loathsome change

That intercepts the course of my desire.

Servants, come fetch these empty vessels here,

50      For I will fly from these alluring eyes

That do pursue my peace where'er it goes.

Exit
.

ANNA

Iarbas, stay, loving Iarbas, stay,

For I have honey to present thee with!

Hard-hearted, wilt not deign to hear me speak?

I'll follow thee with outcries ne'er the less

And strew thy walks with my
dishevelled hair.

Exit
.

Enter
AENEAS
alone
.

AENEAS

Carthage, my friendly host, adieu,

Since destiny doth call me from the shore.

Hermes this night, descending in a dream,

Hath summoned me to fruitful Italy;

Jove wills it so, my mother wills it so;

Let
my Phoenissa grant
, and then I go.

Grant she or no, Aeneas must away,

Whose golden fortunes,
clogged with
courtly ease,

Cannot ascend to fame's
immortal house

10      Or banquet in bright honour's burnished hall,

Till he hath furrowed Neptune's glassy fields

And cut a passage through his topless hills.

Achates, come forth! Sergestus, Ilioneus,

Cloanthus, haste away! Aeneas calls!

Enter
ACHATES, CLOANTHUS, SERGESTUS
and
ILIONEUS
.

ACHATES

What wills our lord, or wherefore did he call?

AENEAS

The dreams, brave mates, that did beset my bed,

When sleep but newly had embraced the night,

Commands me leave these unrenownèd
realms,

Whereas nobility abhors to stay,

20      And none but base Aeneas will abide.

Aboard, aboard, since Fates do bid aboard

And
slice the sea with
sable-coloured ships,

On whom the nimble winds may all day wait

And follow them as footmen through the deep!

Yet Dido casts her eyes like anchors out

To stay my fleet from loosing forth the bay.

‘Come back, come back!' I hear her cry afar,

‘And let me link thy body to my lips,

That, tied together by the striving tongues,

30      We may as one sail into Italy!'

ACHATES

Banish that
ticing dame from forth your mouth

And
follow your
foreseeing stars in all.

This is no life for men-at-arms to live,

Where dalliance doth consume a soldier's strength

And wanton motions of alluring eyes

Effeminate our minds inured to war.

ILIONEUS

Why, let us build a city of our own,

And not stand lingering here for amorous looks.

Will Dido raise old Priam forth his grave