Rather with steel thy guilty breast invade,
And take the fortune thou thyself haft made.
Your pity, fifter, firft feduc'd my mind;
Or feconded too well what I defign'd.
These dear-bought pleasures had I never known,
Had I continued free, and ftill my own;
Avoiding love, I had not found despair:
But fhar'd, with favage beafts, the common air;
Like them a lonely life I might have led,
Not mourn'd the living, nor disturb'd the dead.
These thoughts the brooded in her anxious breaft;
On board, the Trojan found more easy rest.
Refolv'd to fail, in fleep he pass'd the night;
And order'd all things for his early flight.
To whom once more the winged god appears: His former youthful mien and shape he wears, And, with this new alarm, invades his ears: 805 Sleep'ft thou, O goddess-born! and canft thou drown Thy needful cares, so near a hostile town, Befet with foes? nor hear'st the western gales Invite thy paffage, and infpire thy fails? She harbours in her heart a furious hate; And thou fhalt find the dire effects too late ; Fix'd on revenge, and obftinate to die : Hafte swiftly hence, while thou haft power to fly. The fea with ships will foon be cover'd o'er, And blazing firebrands kindle all the shore. Prevent her rage, while night obfcures the skies; And fail before the purple morn arife.
Who knows what hazards thy delay may bring?
Woman's a various and a changeful thing.
Thus Hermes in the dream; then took his flight,
Aloft in air unfeen; and mix'd with night.
Twice warn'd by the celestial messenger,
The pious prince arose with hafty fear:
Then rouz'd his drowsy train without delay,
Hafte to your banks; your crooked anchors weigh;
And spread your flying fails, and stand to sea.
A god commands; he stood before my fight;
And urg'd us once again to fpeedy flight.
O facred power, what power foe'er thou art,
To thy blefs'd orders I resign my
Lead thou the way; protect thy Trojan bands;
And profper the defign thy will commands.
He faid, and, drawing forth his flaming sword,
His thundering arm divides the many-twisted cord:
An emulating zeal infpires his train;
They run, they fnatch; they rush into the main.
With headlong hafte they leave the desert shores,
And brush the liquid feas with labouring oars.
Aurora now had left her faffron bed,
And beams of early light the heavens o'erfpread,
When from a tower the queen, with wakeful
Saw day point upward from the rosy skies:
She look'd to feaward, but the fea was void,
And fcarce in ken the failing fhips defcry'd :
Stung with defpight, and furious with defpair,
She ftruck her trembling breast, and tore her hair.
And fhall th' ungrateful traitor go, the faid,
My land forfaken, and my love betray'd?
Shall we not arm, not rush from every street,
To follow, fink, and burn his perjur'd fleet ?
Haste; haul my gallies out; pursue the foe :
Bring flaming brands; set fail, and swiftly row.
What have I faid? Where am I? Fury turns
My brain, and my diftemper'd bofom burns.
Then, when I gave my perfon and my throne,
This hate, this rage, had been more timely shown.
See now the promis'd faith, the vaunted name,
The pious man, who, rushing through the flame,
Preferv'd his gods, and to the Phrygian shore
The burden of his feeble father bore!
I should have torn him piece-meal; ftrow'd in floods His fcatter'd limbs, or left expos'd in woods:
Destroy'd his friends and fon; and, from the fire,
Have fet the reeking boy before the fire.
Events are doubtful which on battle wait;
Yet where's the doubt to fouls fecure of fate!
My Tyrians, at their injur’d queen's command,
Had tofs'd their fires amid the Trojan band:
At once extinguish'd all the faithlefs name;
And I myself, in vengeance of my fhame,
Had fall'n upon the pile to mend the funeral flame.
Thou fun, who view'ft at once the world below,
Thou Juno, guardian of the nuptial vow,
Thou Hecate, hearken from thy dark abodes ;.
Ye furies, fiends, and violated gods,
F
All powers invok'd with Dido's dying breath,
Attend her curfes, and avenge her death.
If fo the Fates ordain, and Jove commands,
Th' ungrateful wretch fhould find the Latian lands,
Yet let a race untam'd, and haughty foes,
His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose;
Opprefs'd with numbers in th' unequal field,
His men discourag'd, and himself expell'd;
Let him for fuccour fue from place to place,
Torn from his fubjects, and his fon's embrace:
Firft let him fee his friends in battle flain,
And their untimely fate lament in vain :
And when, at length, the cruel war shall cease,
On hard conditions may he buy his peace.
Nor let him then enjoy fupreme command,
But fall untimely by fome hoftile hand,
And lie unbury'd on the barren fand.
These are my prayers, and this my dying will :
And you, my Tyrians, every curse fulfil;
Perpetual hate, and mortal wars proclaim
Against the prince, the people, and the name.
Thefe grateful offerings on my grave bestow,
Nor league, nor love, the hoftile nations know:
future age,
Now, and from hence in every
When rage excites your arms, and strength supplies
Rife fome avenger of our Libyan blood;
With fire and fword purfue the perjur'd brood :
Our arms, our feas, our fhores oppos'd to theirs,
And the fame hate defcend on all our heirs.
This faid, within her anxious mind she weighs
The means of cutting fhort her odious days.
Then to Sichæus' nurfe fhe briefly faid
(For when she left her country her's was dead),
Go, Barce, call my fifter; let her care
The folemn rites of facrifice prepare :
The sheep, and all the atoning offerings bring,
Sprinkling her body from the crystal spring
With living drops: then let her come, and thou
With facred fillets bind thy hoary brow.
Thus will I pay my vows to Stygian Jove,
And end the cares of my difaftrous love.
Then caft the Trojan image on the fire,
And, as that burns, my paffion fhall expire.
The nurse moves onward, with officious care,
And all the speed her aged limbs can bear.
But furious Dido, with dark thoughts involv'd,
Shook at the mighty mischief fhe refolv'd.
With livid fpots distinguish'd was her face,
Red were her rolling eyes, and difcompos'd her pace:
Ghaftly the gaz'd, with pain fhe drew her breath,
And nature shiver'd at approaching death.
Then swiftly to the fatal place fhe pass'd,
And mounts the funeral pile, with furious hafte :
Unfheaths the fword the Trojan left behind
(Not for fo dire an enterprize defign'd).
But when the view'd the garments loosely spread,
Which once he wore, and faw the confcious bed,
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