Asdru. Live both high parents of so happy birth,
Your stems may touch the skies and shadow earth;
Most great in fame, more great in virtue shining.
Prosper, O powers! a just, a strong divining. 60
Io to Hymen!
Chorus. Io to Hymen!
Enter Carthalon, his sword drawn, his body wounded, his shield struck full of darts; Massinissa being ready for bed.
Car. To bold hearts Fortune! be not you amazed,
Carthage! O Carthage! be not you amazed.
Mass. Jove made us not to fear; resolve, speak out;
The highest misery of man is doubt.
Speak, Carthalon!
Car. The stooping sun, like to some weaker prince,
Let his shades spread to an unnatural hugeness,
When we, the camp that lay at Utica,
From Carthage distant but five easy leagues, 70
Descried from off the watch three hundred sail,
Upon whose tops the Roman eagles stretch’d
Their large spread wings, which fann’d the evening air,
To us cold breath; for well we might discern
Rome swam to Carthage.
Asd. Hannibal, our rancour[303] is come back; thy slight,
Thy stratagem, to lead war unto Rome,
To quite ourselves, hath now taught desperate Rome
T’assail our Carthage: now the war is here.
Mass. He is nor blest, nor honest, that can fear. 80
Han. Ay, but to cast the worst of our distress——
Mass. To doubt of what shall be, is wretchedness:
Desire, fear, and hope, receive no bond
By whom, we in ourselves are never but beyond.
On!