Enter CUPID alone [disguised as ASCANIUS].
CUPID
Now, Cupid, cause the Carthaginian queen
To be enamoured of thy brother’s looks;
Convey this golden arrow in thy sleeve,
Lest she imagine thou art Venus’ son;
And when she strokes thee softly on the head,
Then shall I touch her breast and conquer her.
Enter IARBAS, ANNA and DIDO.
IARBAS
How long, fair Dido, shall I pine for thee?
’Tis not enough that thou dost grant me love,
But that I may enjoy what I desire:
10 That love is childish which consists in words.
DIDO
Iarbas, know that thou of all my wooers –
And yet have I had many mightier kings –
Hast had the greatest favours I could give.
I fear me Dido hath been counted light
In being too familiar with Iarbas,
Albeit the gods do know no wanton thought
Had ever residence in Dido’s breast.
IARBAS
But Dido is the favour I request.
DIDO
Fear not, Iarbas, Dido may be thine.
20 Look, sister, how Aeneas’ little son
Plays with your garments and embraceth you.
CUPID
No, Dido will not take me in her arms,
I shall not be her son, she loves me not.
DIDO
Weep not, sweet boy, thou shalt be Dido’s son.
Sit in my lap and let me hear thee sing.
[CUPID sings.]
No more, my child. Now talk another while,
And tell me where learn’dst thou this pretty song?
CUPID
My cousin Helen taught it me in Troy.
DIDO
How lovely is Ascanius when he smiles!
CUPID
30 Will Dido let me hang about her neck?
DIDO
Ay, wag, and give thee leave to kiss her too.
CUPID
What will you give me? Now I’ll have this fan.
DIDO
Take it, Ascanius, for thy father’s sake.
IARBAS
Come, Dido, leave Ascanius! Let us walk!
DIDO
Go thou away, Ascanius shall stay.
IARBAS
Ungentle queen, is this thy love to me?
DIDO
O stay, Iarbas, and I’ll go with thee.
CUPID
And if my mother go, I’ll follow her.
DIDO [to IARBAS]
Why stay’st thou here? Thou art no love of mine.
IARBAS
40 Iarbas, die, seeing she abandons thee!
No, live Iarbas; what hast thou deserved,
That I should say ‘Thou art no love of mine’?
Something thou hast deserved. Away, I say!
Depart from Carthage! Come not in my sight!
IARBAS
Am I not king of rich Gaetulia?
DIDO
Iarbas, pardon me, and stay a while.
CUPID
Mother, look here.
DIDO
What tell’st thou me of rich Gaetulia?
Am not I queen of Libya? Then depart!
IARBAS
50 I go to feed the humour of my love,
Yet not from Carthage for a thousand worlds.
DIDO
Iarbas!
IARBAS Doth Dido call me back?
DIDO
No, but I charge thee never look on me.
IARBAS
Then pull out both mine eyes, or let me die.
Exit IARBAS.
ANNA
Wherefore doth Dido bid Iarbas go?
DIDO
Because his loathsome sight offends mine eye,
And in my thoughts is shrined another love.
O Anna, didst thou know how sweet love were,
Full soon wouldst thou abjure this single life.
ANNA
60 Poor soul, I know too well the sour of love.
[Aside] O that Iarbas could but fancy me!
DIDO
Is not Aeneas fair and beautiful?
Yes, and Iarbas foul and favourless.
DIDO
Is he not eloquent in all his speech?
ANNA
Yes, and Iarbas rude and rustical.
DIDO
Name not Iarbas! But, sweet Anna, say,
Is not Aeneas worthy Dido’s love?
ANNA
O sister, were you empress of the world,
Aeneas well deserves to be your love;
70 So lovely is he that where’er he goes
The people swarm to gaze him in the face.
DIDO
But tell them none shall gaze on him but I,
Lest their gross eye-beams taint my lover’s cheeks.
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 Aeneas, or I’ll fly to him.
Exit ANNA.
CUPID
You shall not hurt my father when he comes.
DIDO
80 No, for thy sake I’ll love thy father well.
O dull-conceited Dido, that till now
Didst never think Aeneas 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;
90 And thou, Aeneas, 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 AENEAS, ACHATES, SERGESTUS, ILIONEUS and CLOANTHUS.]
Achates, how doth Carthage please your lord?
ACHATES
That will Aeneas show your majesty.
DIDO
Aeneas, art thou there?
AENEAS
I understand your highness sent for me.
DIDO
100 No, but now thou art here, tell me, in sooth,
In what might Dido highly pleasure thee?
AENEAS
So much have I received at Dido’s hands
As, without blushing, I can ask no more.
Yet, Queen of Afric, are my ships unrigged,
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:
110 Which piteous wants if Dido will supply,
We will account her author of our lives.
DIDO
Aeneas, 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 rivelled gold,
Wound on the barks of odoriferous trees;
Oars of massy ivory, full of holes,
Through which the water shall delight to play.
Thy anchors shall be hewed from crystal rocks,
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?
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,
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.
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.