Æneas, through whose father's heart unquiet love there ran,
Sent on the swift Achates now unto the ships to speed,
To bear Ascanius all these haps, and townward him to lead;
For on Ascanius well beloved was all his father's thought:
And therewithal gifts good to give from Ilium's ruin caught
He bade him bring: a cope all stiff with golden imagery;
With saffron soft acanthus twine a veil made fair to see;
The Argive Helen's braveries, brought from Mycenæ erst,650
When she was seeking Pergamos and wedding all accursed:
Her mother Leda gave her these and marvellous they were.
A sceptre too that Ilione in days agone did bear,
The eldest-born of Priam's maids; a neckchain pearl bestrown,
And, doubly wrought with gold and gems, a kingly-fashioned crown.
So to the ships Achates went these matters forth to speed.
But Cytherea in her heart turned over new-wrought rede,
New craft; how, face and fashion changed, her son the very Love
For sweet Ascanius should come forth, and, gift-giving, should move
The Queen to madness, make her bones the yoke-fellows of flame.660
Forsooth the doubtful house she dreads, the two-tongued Tyrian name;
And bitter Juno burneth her, and care the night doth wake:
Now therefore to the winged Love such words as this she spake:
"O son, my might, my only might, who fearest nought at all
How his, the highest Father's bolts, Typhœus' bane, may fall,
To thee I flee, and suppliant so thy godhead's power beseech:
Thy brother, e'en Æneas, tossed on every sea-side beach
Thou knowest; all the fashioning of wrongful Juno's hate
Thou knowest; oft upon my grief with sorrow wouldst thou wait.
Him now Phœnician Dido holds, and with kind words enow670
Delays him there, but unto what Junonian welcomes grow
I fear me: will she hold her hand when thus the hinge is dight?
Now therefore am I compassing to catch their craft in flight,
To ring the Queen about with flame that her no power may turn,
That she may cling to me and sore for mine Æneas yearn.
Now hearken how I counsel thee to bring about my will:
The kingly boy his father calls, he whom I cherish still,
To that Sidonian city now is ready dight to fare,
And gifts, the gleanings of the sea and flames of Troy, doth bear,
Whom soaked in sleep forthwith will I in high Cythera hide,680
Or in Idalium's holy place where I am wont to bide,
Lest any one the guile should know and thrust themselves between:
But thou with craft his fashion feign, and with his face be seen
Well known of all, for no more space than one night's wearing by;
And so, when Dido, gladdest grown, shall take thee up to lie
Upon her breast 'twixt queenly board and great Lyæus' wave,
And thou the winding of her arms and kisses sweet shalt have,
Then breathe the hidden flame in her and forge thy venomed guile."
His lovesome mother Love obeyed, and doffed his wings awhile,
And as Iulus goeth now rejoicing on his way.690
But Venus all Ascanius' limbs in quiet rest doth lay,
And cherished in her goddess' breast unto Idalian groves
She bears him, where the marjoram still soft about him moves
And breatheth sweet from scented shade and blossoms on the air.
Love wrought her will, and bearing now those royal gifts and rare,
Unto the Tyrians joyous went, e'en as Achates led.
But when he came into the house, there on her golden bed
With hangings proud Queen Dido lay amidmost of the place:
The father then, Æneas, then the youth of Trojan race,
There gather, and their bodies cast on purple spread abroad.700
Folk serve them water for their hands, and speed the baskets stored
With Ceres, and the towels soft of close-clipped nap they bear.
Within were fifty serving-maids, whose long array had care
To furnish forth the meat and drink, and feed the house-gods' flame;
An hundred more, and youths withal of age and tale the same,
Set on the meat upon the board and lay the cups about.
And now through that wide joyous door came thronging from without
The Tyrians, and, so bidden, lie on benches painted fair.
They wonder at Æneas' gifts, and at Iulus there,
The flaming countenance of God, and speech so feigned and fine;710
They wonder at the cope and veil with that acanthus twine.
And chiefly that unhappy one doomed to the coming ill,
Nor hungry hollow of her heart nor burning eyes may fill
With all beholding: gifts and child alike her heart do move.
But he, when he had satisfied his feignèd father's love,
And clipped Æneas all about, and round his neck had hung,
Went to the Queen, who with her eyes and heart about him clung,
And whiles would strain him to her breast—poor Dido! knowing nought
What God upon her bosom sat; who ever had in thought
His Acidalian mother's word, and slowly did begin720
To end Sychæus quite, and with a living love to win
Her empty soul at rest, and heart unused a weary tide.
But when the feasting first was stayed, and boards were done aside,
Great beakers there they set afoot, and straight the wine they crowned.
A shout goes up within the house, great noise they roll around
The mighty halls: the candles hang adown from golden roof
All lighted, and the torches' flame keeps dusky night aloof.
And now a heavy bowl of gold and gems the Queen bade bring
And fill with all unwatered wine, which erst used Belus king,729
And all from Belus come: therewith through the hushed house she said:
"O Jupiter! they say by thee the guesting laws were made;
Make thou this day to Tyrian folk, and folk come forth from Troy,
A happy day, and may our sons remember this our joy!
Mirth-giver Bacchus, fail thou not from midst our mirth! be kind,
O Juno! and ye Tyrian folk, be glad this bond to bind!"
She spake, and on the table poured the glorious wave of wine,
Then touched the topmost of the bowl with dainty lip and fine,
And, egging on, to Bitias gave: nought slothful to be told
The draught he drained, who bathed himself within the foaming gold;
Then drank the other lords of them: long-haired Iopas then740
Maketh the golden harp to sing, whom Atlas most of men
Erst taught: he sings the wandering moon and toiling of the sun,
And whence the kind of men and beasts, how rain and fire begun,
Arcturus, the wet Hyades, and twin-wrought Northern Bears:
And why so swift the winter sun unto his sea-bath fares,
And what delayeth night so long upon the daylight's hem.
Then praise on praise the Tyrians shout, the Trojans follow them.
Meanwhile unhappy Dido wore the night-tide as it sank
In diverse talk, and evermore long draughts of love she drank,
And many a thing of Priam asked, of Hector many a thing:750
With what-like arms Aurora's son had come unto the King;
What were the steeds of Diomed, how great Achilles was.
At last she said:
"But come, O guest, tell all that came to pass
From earliest tide; of Danaan craft, and how thy land was lorn,
And thine own wanderings; for as now the seventh year is worn
That thee a-straying wide away o'er earth and sea hath borne."