The Complete Plays (12 page)

40      And build the town again the Greeks did burn?

No, no, she cares not how we sink or swim,

So she may have Aeneas in her arms.

CLOANTHUS

To Italy, sweet friends, to Italy!

We will not stay a minute longer here.

AENEAS

Trojans, aboard, and I will follow you.

  [
Exeunt
TROJANS; AENEAS
remains
.]

I fain would go, yet beauty calls me back.

To leave her so and not once say farewell

Were to transgress against all laws of love;

But if I use such ceremonious thanks

50      As parting friends
accustom on
the shore,

Her silver arms will coll me round about

And tears of pearl cry, ‘Stay, Aeneas, stay!'

Each word she says will then contain a crown,

And every speech be ended with a kiss.

I may not
dure this female drudgery,

To sea, Aeneas, find out Italy!

Exit
.

Enter
DIDO
and
ANNA
.

DIDO

O Anna, run unto the water side,

They say Aeneas' men are going aboard;

It may be he will steal away with them.

Stay not to answer me! Run, Anna, run!

[
Exit
ANNA
.]

O foolish Trojans that would steal from hence

And not let Dido understand their
drift!

I would have given Achates store of gold,

And Ilioneus gum and Libyan spice;

The common soldiers rich embroidered coats

10      And silver whistles to control the winds,

Which
Circe sent
Sichaeus when he lived;

Unworthy are they of a queen's reward.

See where they come;
how might I do
to chide?

Enter
ANNA
,
with
AENEAS, ACHATES, ILIONEUS, SERGESTUS
[
and
ATTENDANTS
].

ANNA

'Twas time to run. Aeneas had been gone;

The sails were hoising up and he aboard.

DIDO

Is this thy love to me?

AENEAS

O princely Dido, give me leave to speak;

I went to take my farewell of Achates.

DIDO

How haps Achates
bid me not farewell?

ACHATES

20       Because I feared your grace would keep me here.

DIDO

To rid thee of that doubt, aboard again;

I charge thee put to sea and stay not here.

ACHATES

Then let Aeneas go aboard with us.

DIDO

Get you aboard, Aeneas means to stay.

AENEAS

The sea is rough, the winds blow to the shore.

DIDO

O false Aeneas, now the sea is rough,

But when you were aboard 'twas calm enough!

Thou and Achates meant to sail away.

AENEAS

Hath not the
Carthage Queen mine only son?

30      Thinks Dido I will go and leave him here?

DIDO

Aeneas, pardon me, for I forgot

That young Ascanius lay with me this night.

Love made me jealous, but, to make amends,

Wear the imperial crown of Libya,

Sway thou the Punic sceptre in my stead,

And punish me, Aeneas, for this crime.

[
DIDO
gives
AENEAS
the crown and sceptre
.]

AENEAS

This kiss shall be fair Dido's punishment.

DIDO

O, how a crown becomes Aeneas' head!

Stay here, Aeneas, and command as king.

AENEAS

40      How vain am I to wear this diadem

And bear this golden sceptre in my hand!

A burgonet of steel and not a crown,

A sword and not a sceptre fits Aeneas.

DIDO

O, keep them still, and let me gaze my fill.

Now looks Aeneas like immortal Jove;

O, where is Ganymede to hold his cup

And Mercury to fly for what he calls?

Ten thousand Cupids hover in the air

And fan it in Aeneas' lovely face!

50      O that the
clouds were
here wherein thou
fled'st,

That thou and I unseen might sport ourselves!

Heavens, envious of our joys, is waxen pale,

And when we whisper, then the stars fall down

To be partakers of our honey talk.

AENEAS

O Dido, patroness of all our lives,

When I leave thee, death be my punishment!

Swell, raging seas, frown, wayward
Destinies;

Blow winds, threaten, ye rocks and sandy shelves!

This is the harbour that Aeneas seeks,

60      Let's see what tempests can annoy me now.

DIDO

Not all the world can take thee from mine arms.

Aeneas may command as many
Moors

As in the sea are little water drops.

And now, to
make experience of my
love,

Fair sister Anna, lead my lover forth

And, seated on my jennet, let him ride

As Dido's husband through the Punic streets,

And will
my guard, with
Mauritanian darts,

To wait upon him as their sovereign lord.

ANNA

70       What if the citizens repine thereat?

DIDO

Those that dislike what Dido gives in charge,

Command my guard to slay for their offence.

Shall vulgar peasants storm at what I do?

The ground is mine that gives them sustenance,

The air wherein they breathe, the water, fire,

All that they have, their lands, their goods, their lives;

And I, the goddess of all these, command

Aeneas ride as Carthaginian king.

ACHATES

Aeneas, for his parentage, deserves

80       As large a kingdom as is Libya.

AENEAS

Ay, and unless the Destinies be false,

I shall be planted in as rich a land.

DIDO

Speak of no other land, this land is thine,

Dido is thine; henceforth I'll call thee lord.

[
To
ANNA
]

Do as I bid thee, sister, lead the way,

And from a turret I'll behold my love.

AENEAS

Then here in me shall flourish Priam's race,

And thou and I, Achates, for revenge

For Troy, for Priam, for his fifty sons,

90      Our kinsmen's loves and thousand guiltless souls

Will lead an host against the hateful Greeks

And
fire proud Lacedaemon o
'er their heads.

Exit
[
AENEAS
,
with the
TROJANS
].

DIDO

Speaks not Aeneas like a conqueror?

O blessed tempests that did drive him in!

O happy sand that made him run aground!

Henceforth you shall be our Carthage gods.

Ay, but it may be he will leave my love

And seek a foreign land called Italy.

O that I had a charm to keep the winds

100    Within the closure of a golden ball,

Or that the Tyrrhene Sea were in mine arms

That he might suffer shipwrack on my breast

As oft as he attempts to hoist up sail!

I must
prevent him
, wishing will not serve.

Go, bid my nurse
take young Ascanius

And bear him in the country to her house;

Aeneas will not go without his son.

Yet, lest he should, for I am full of fear,

Bring me his oars, his tackling, and his sails.

[
Exeunt
ATTENDANTS
.]

110    What if I sink his ships? O, he'll frown!

Better he frown than I should die for grief.

I cannot see him frown, it may not be.

Armies of foes resolved to win this town,

Or impious traitors vowed to have my life,

Affright me not: only Aeneas' frown

Is that which terrifies poor Dido's heart.

Not bloody spears, appearing in the air,

Presage the downfall of my empery,

Nor blazing comets threatens Dido's death:

120    It is Aeneas' frown that ends my days.

If he forsake me not, I never die,

For in his looks I see eternity,

And he'll make me immortal with a kiss.

Enter a
LORD
[
with
ATTENDANTS
carrying oars, tackling and sails
].

LORD

Your nurse is gone with young Ascanius,

And here's Aeneas' tackling, oars, and sails.

DIDO

Are these the sails that, in despite of me,

Packed with
the winds to bear Aeneas hence?

I'll hang ye in the chamber where I lie.

Drive, if you can, my house to Italy:

130    I'll set the casement open, that the winds

May enter in and once again conspire

Against the life of me, poor Carthage queen;

But, though he go, he stays in Carthage still,

And let rich Carthage fleet upon the seas,

So I may have Aeneas in mine arms.

Is this the wood that grew in Carthage plains,

And would be toiling in the watery billows

To rob their mistress of her Trojan guest?

O cursèd tree, hadst thou but wit or sense

140    To measure how I prize Aeneas' love,

Thou wouldst have leapt from out the sailors' hands

And told me that Aeneas meant to go!

And yet I blame thee
not, thou
art but wood.

The water, which our poets term a nymph,

Why did it suffer thee to touch her breast

And shrunk not back, knowing my love was there?

The water is an element, no nymph.

Why should I blame Aeneas for his flight?

O Dido, blame not him, but break his oars,

150    These were the instruments that launched him forth.

There's not so much as this base tackling too

But dares to heap up sorrow to my heart.

Was it not you that hoisèd up these sails?

Why burst you not and they fell in the seas?

For this will Dido tie ye full of knots,

And shear ye all asunder with her hands.

Now serve
to chastise shipboys for
their faults,

Ye shall no more offend the Carthage queen.

Now let him hang my
favours on
his masts

160    And see if those will serve instead of sails;

For tackling, let him take the chains of gold

Which I bestowed upon his followers;

Instead of oars, let him use his hands

And swim to Italy. I'll keep these sure;

Come, bear them in.

Exeunt
.

Enter the
NURSE
,
with
CUPID
for
ASCANIUS
.

NURSE

My Lord Ascanius, ye must go with me.

CUPID

Whither must I go? I'll stay with my mother.

NURSE

No, thou shalt go with me unto my house.

I have an orchard that hath store of plums,

Brown almonds,
services, ripe
figs, and dates,

Dewberries, apples
, yellow oranges;

A garden where are bee-hives full of honey,

Musk-roses and a thousand sort of flowers,

And in the midst doth run a silver stream,

10      Where thou shalt see the red-gilled fishes leap,

White swans, and many lovely water-fowls.

Now speak, Ascanius, will ye go or no?

CUPID

Come, come, I'll go; how far hence is your house?

NURSE

But hereby, child; we shall get thither straight.

CUPID

Nurse, I am weary; will you carry me?

NURSE

Ay, so you'll dwell with me and call me mother.

CUPID

So you'll love me, I care not if I do.

NURSE

That I might live to see this boy a man!

How prettily he laughs! Go, ye wag,

20      You'll be a
twigger when
you come to age.

Say Dido what she will, I am not old;

I'll be no more a widow, I am young;

I'll have a husband, or else a lover.

CUPID
A husband, and no teeth?

NURSE

O what mean I to have such foolish thoughts!

Foolish is love, a toy. O sacred love,

If there be any heaven in earth, 'tis love,

Especially in women of
our years
.

Blush, blush for shame, why shouldst thou think of love?

30      A grave and not a lover fits thy age.

A grave? Why? I may live a hundred years:

Fourscore is but a girl's age, love is sweet.

My veins are withered and my sinews dry,

Why do I think of love, now I should die?

CUPID
Come, nurse.

NURSE

Well, if
he come a-wooing, he shall speed:

O how unwise was I to say him nay!

Exeunt
.

Enter
AENEAS
,
with a paper in his hand, drawing the platform of the city; with him
ACHATES, CLOANTHUS
, [
SERGESTUS
]
and
ILIONEUS
.