Right o'er against Plemmyrium's watery strand
There lies an ifle, once call'd th' Ortygian land:
Alpheus, as old fame reports, has found
From Greece a secret paffage under ground :
By love to beauteous Arethufa led,
And mingling here, they roll in the fame facred bed. As Helenus enjoin'd, we next adore
Diana's name, protectress of the shore.
With profperous gales we pass the quiet founds
Of ftill Elorus, and his fruitful bounds.
Then doubling Cape Pachynus, we furvey
The rocky fhore extended to the fea.
The town of Camarine from far we fee:
And fenny lake undrain'd by fates decree.
In fight of the Geloan fields we pass,
And the large walls, where mighty Gela was :
Then Agragas with lofty summits crown'd;
Long for the race of warlike fteeds renown'd:
We pafs'd Selinus, and the palmy land,
And widely fhun the Lilybean strand,
Unfafe, for secret rocks, and moving fand.
At length on fhore the weary fleet arriv'd:
Which Drepanum's unhappy port receiv'd.
Here, after endless labours, often toft
By raging storms, and driven on every coast,
My dear, dear father, spent with age, I loft.
Eafe of my cares and folace of my pain,
Sav'd through a thousand toils, but fav'd in vain. 935
The prophet, who my future woes reveal'd,
Yet this, the greatest and the worft conceal'd.
And dire Celano, whofe foreboding skill
Denounc'd all elfe, was filent of this ill :
This my laft labour was. Some friendly god
From thence convey'd us to your blest abode.
Thus, to the liftening queen, the royal guest
His wandering courfe, and all his toils exprefs'd,
And here concluding, he retir'd to rest.
THE ARGUMENT.
Dido difcovers to her fifter her paffion for Æneas, and her thoughts of marrying him: fhe prepares a hunting-match for his entertainment. Juno, by Venus's confent, raises a storm, which feparates the hunters, and drives Æneas and Dido into the fame cave, where their marriage is fuppofed to be compleated. Jupiter difpatches Mercury to Æneas, to warn him from Carthage: Æneas fecretly prepares for his voyage: Dido finds out his defign; and, to put a stop to it, makes ufe of her own and her fifter's intreaties, and discovers all the variety of paffions that are incident to a neglected lover : when nothing would prevail upon him, fhe contrives her own death, with which this book concludes.
BUT anxious cares already feiz'd the queen :
She fed within her veins a flame unfeen :
The hero's valour, acts, and birth, inspire
Her foul with love, and fan the fecret fire.
His words, his looks imprinted in her heart,
Improve the paffion, and increase the smart.
Now when the purple morn had chas'd away
The dewy fhadows, and reftor'd the day,
Her fifter first with early care fhe fought,
And thus, in mournful accents, eas'd her thought: 10
My dearest Anna, what new dreams affright
My labouring foul; what vifions of the night
Disturb my quiet, and diftract my breast
With strange ideas of our Trojan guest ?
His worth, his actions, and majestic air,
A man defcended from the gods declare.
Fear ever argues a degenerate kind,
His birth is well afferted by his mind.
Then what he suffer'd, when by Fate betray'd,
What brave attempts for falling Troy he made!
Such were his looks, fo gracefully he spoke,
That, were I not refolv'd against the yoke
Of hapless marriage, never to be curs'd
With fecond love, fo fatal was my firft,
To this one error I might yield again :
For fince Sichæus was untimely flain,
This only man is able to fubvert
The fix'd foundations of my ftubborn heart.
And, to confefs my frailty, to my shame,
Somewhat I find within, if not the fame,
Too like the sparkles of my former flame.
But first, let yawning earth a paffage rend,
And let me through the dark abyss descend:
First let avenging Jove, with flames from high,
Drive down this body to the nether sky,
Condemn'd with ghofts in endless night to lie,
Before I break the plighted faith I gave :
No;
he who had my vows, fhall ever have ;
For whom I lov'd on earth, I worthip in the grave.
She said: the tears ran gufhing from her eyes,
And stopp'd her speech. Her fifter thus replies:
O dearer than the vital air I breathe,
Will you to grief your blooming years bequeath?
Condemn'd to wafte in woes your lonely life,
Without the joys of mother or of wife?
Think you these tears, this pompous train of woe,
Are known or valued by the ghoft below?
I grant, that while your forrows yet were green,
It well became a woman and a queen
The vows of Tyrian princes to neglect,
To fcorn Iärbas, and his love reje&t;
With all the Libyan lords of mighty name;
But will you fight against a pleafing flame?
This little spot of land, which heaven bestows,
On every fide is hemm'd with warlike foes:
Getulian cities here are spread around;
And fierce Numidians there your frontiers bound;
Here lies a barren waste of thirsty land, ·
And there the Syrtes raise the moving fand:
Barcæan troops befiege the narrow shore,
And from the fea Pygmalion threatens more.
|