Serg. I know this face; he is a Persian born: I travell'd with him to Ætolia.
Cloan. And I in Athens with this gentleman, Unless I be deceived, disputed once.
Dido. But speak, Æneas; know you none of these?
Æn. No, madam; but it seems that these are kings.
Dido. All these, and others which I never saw, Have been most urgent suitors for my love;150 Some came in person, others sent their legates, Yet none obtained me: I am free from all; And yet, God knows, entangled unto one. This was an orator, and thought by words To compass me: but yet he was deceiv'd: And this a Spartan courtier, vain and wild; But his fantastic humours pleased not me: This was Alcion, a musician; But, play'd he ne'er so sweet, I let him go: This was the wealthy king of Thessaly;160 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 [489] I swear, by heaven and him I love, I was as far from love as they from hate.
Æn. 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, Yet boast not of it, for I love thee not,—170 And yet I hate thee not.—O, if I speak, I shall betray myself! [Aside.]—Æneas, come: [490] We too will go a-hunting in the woods; But not so much for thee,—thou art but one,— As for Achates and his followers. [Exeunt.
SCENE II.
Enter [491] Juno to Ascanius, who lies asleep.
Juno. Here lies my hate, Æneas' cursèd brat, The boy wherein false Destiny delights, The heir of Fury, [492] the favourite of the Fates,[493] 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; For here, in spite of Heaven, I'll murder him,10 And feed infection with his let-out [494] 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 [495] 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, That only Juno rules in Rhamnus town. [496]20