Volume II Part 65 (1/2)
Brave prince, welcome to Carthage and to me, Both happy that aeneas is our guest.
Sit in this chair, and banquet with a queen: aeneas is aeneas, were he clad In weeds as bad as ever Irus ware.
_aen._ This is no seat for one that's comfortless: May it please your grace to let aeneas wait; For though my birth be great, my fortune's mean, Too mean to be companion to a queen. 90
_Dido._ Thy fortune may be greater than thy birth: Sit down, aeneas, sit in Dido's place; And, if this be thy son, as I suppose, Here let him sit.--Be merry, lovely child.
_aen._ This place beseems me not; O, pardon me!
_Dido._ I'll have it so; aeneas, be content.
_Asc._ Madam, you shall be my mother.
_Dido._ And so I will, sweet child.--Be merry, man: Here's to thy better fortune and good stars. [_Drinks._
_aen._ In all humility, I thank your grace. 100
_Dido._ Remember who thou art; speak like thyself: Humility belongs to common grooms.
_aen._ And who so miserable as aeneas is?
_Dido._ Lies it in Dido's hands to make thee blest?
Then be a.s.sur'd thou art not miserable.
_aen._ O Priamus, O Troy, O Hecuba!
_Dido._ May I entreat thee to discourse at large, And truly too, how Troy was overcome?
For many tales go of that city's fall, And scarcely do agree upon one point: 110 Some say Antenor did betray the town; Others report 'twas Sinon's perjury; But all in this, that Troy is overcome, And Priam dead; yet how, we hear no news.
_aen._ A woful tale bids Dido to unfold, Whose memory, like pale Death's stony mace, Beats forth my senses from this troubled soul, And makes aeneas sink at Dido's feet.
_Dido._ What, faints aeneas to remember Troy, In whose defence he fought so valiantly? 120 Look up, and speak.
_aen._ Then speak aeneas, with Achilles' tongue: And, Dido, and you Carthaginian peers, Hear me; but yet with Myrmidons' harsh ears, Daily inured to broils and ma.s.sacres, Lest you be mov'd too much with my sad tale.
The Grecian soldiers, tir'd with ten years' war, Began to cry, ”Let us unto our s.h.i.+ps, Troy is invincible, why stay we here?”
With whose outcries Atrides being appalled 130 Summon'd the captains to his princely tent; Who, looking on the scars we Trojans gave, Seeing the number of their men decreas'd, And the remainder weak and out of heart, Gave up their voices to dislodge the camp, And so in troops all marched to Tenedos;[468]
Where when they came, Ulysses on the sand a.s.sayed with honey words to turn them back; And, as he spoke, to further his intent, The winds did drive huge billows to the sh.o.r.e, 140 And heaven was darkened with tempestuous clouds; Then he alleg'd the G.o.ds would have them stay, And prophesied Troy should be overcome: And therewithal he call'd false Sinon forth, A man compact of craft and perjury, Whose ticing tongue was made of Hermes' pipe, To force an hundred watchful eyes to sleep; And him, Epeus having made the horse, With sacrificing wreaths upon his head, Ulysses sent to our unhappy town; 150 Who, grovelling in the mire of Xanthus' banks, His hands bound at his back, and both his eyes Turned up to heaven, as one resolved to die, Our Phrygian shepherd[s] haled within the gates, And brought unto the court of Priamus; To whom he used action so pitiful, Looks so remorseful, vows so forcible, As therewithal the old man overcome, Kissed him, embraced him, and unloosed his bands; And then--O Dido, pardon me! 160
_Dido._ Nay, leave not here; resolve me of the rest.
_aen._ O, th' enchanting words of that base slave Made him to think Epeus' pine-tree horse A sacrifice t' appease Minerva's wrath!
The rather, for that one Laoc.o.o.n, Breaking a spear upon his hollow breast, Was with two winged serpents stung to death.
Whereat aghast, we were commanded straight With reverence to draw it into Troy: In which unhappy work was I employed; 170 These hands did help to hale it to the gates, Through which it could not enter, 'twas so huge,-- O, had it never enter'd, Troy had stood!
But Priamus, impatient of delay, Enforced a wide breach in that rampired wall Which thousand battering-rams could never pierce, And so came in this fatal instrument: At whose accursed feet, as overjoyed, We banqueted, till, overcome with wine, Some surfeited, and others soundly slept. 180 Which Sinon viewing, caus'd the Greekish spies To haste to Tenedos, and tell the camp: Then he unlocked the horse; and suddenly, From out his entrails, Neoptolemus, Setting his spear upon the ground, leapt forth, And, after him, a thousand Grecians more, In whose stern faces s.h.i.+ned the quenchless[469] fire That after burnt the pride of Asia.
By this, the camp was come unto the walls, And through the breach did march into the streets, 190 Where, meeting with the rest; ”Kill, kill!” they cried.
Frighted with this confused noise, I rose, And, looking from a turret, might behold Young infants swimming in their parents' blood, Headless carcases piled up in heaps, Virgins half-dead, dragged by their golden hair, And with main force flung on a ring[470] of pikes, Old men with swords thrust through their aged sides, Kneeling for mercy to a Greekish lad, 200 Who with steel pole-axes dash'd out their brains.
Then buckled I mine armour, drew my sword, And thinking to go down, came Hector's ghost,[471]
With ashy visage, blueish sulphur eyes, His arms torn from his shoulders, and his breast Furrowed with wounds, and, that which made me weep, Thongs at his heels, by which Achilles' horse Drew him in triumph through the Greekish camp, Burst from the earth, crying ”aeneas, fly!
Troy is a-fire, the Grecians have the town!” 210
_Dido._ O Hector, who weeps not to hear thy name?