Then let Aeneas go aboard with us.
DIDO. Get you aboard. Aeneas means to stay.
AENEAS. The sea is rough. The winds blow to the shore.
DIDO. O false Aeneas! Now the sea is rough,
But when you were aboard, 'twas calm enough.
Thou and Achates meant to sail away.
AENEAS. Hath not the Carthage queen mine only son?
Thinks Dido I will go and leave him here?
DIDO. Aeneas pardon me, for I forgot
That young Ascanius lay with me this night.
Love made me jealous. But, to make amends,
Wear the imperial crown of Libya.
Sway thou the Punic sceptre in my stead,
And punish me, Aeneas, for this crime.
AENEAS. This kiss shall be fair Dido's punishment.
DIDO. O, how a crown becomes Aeneas' head.
Stay here, Aeneas, and command as king.
AENEAS. How vain am I to wear this diadem
And bear this golden sceptre in my hand.
A burgonet of steel and not a crown,
A sword and not a sceptre fits Aeneas.
DIDO. O keep them still, and let me gaze my fill.
Now looks Aeneas like immortal Jove.
O where is Ganymede to hold his cup
And Mercury to fly for what he calls?
Ten thousand Cupids hover in the air
And fan it in Aeneas' lovely face.
O that the clouds were here, wherein thou fleest,
That thou and I unseen might sport ourselves.
Heaven, envious of our joys, is waxen pale,
And when we whisper, then the stars fall down
To be partakers of our honey talk.
AENEAS. O Dido, patroness of all our lives,
When I leave thee, death be my punishment.
Swell, raging seas. Frown, wayward destinies.
Blow winds. Threaten ye rocks and sandy shelves.
This is the harbour that Aeneas seeks.
Let's see what tempests can annoy me now.
DIDO. Not all the world can take thee from mine arms.
Aeneas may command as many moors
As in the sea are little water drops.
And now, to make experience of my love,
Fair sister Anna, lead my lover forth
And, seated on my jennet, let him ride
As Dido's husband through the Punic streets,
And will my guard with Mauritanian darts
To wait upon him as their sovereign lord.
ANNA. What if the citizens repine thereat?
DIDO. Those that dislike what Dido gives in charge,
Command my guard to slay for their offense.
Shall vulgar peasants storm at what I do?
The ground is mine that gives them sustenance,
The air wherein they breathe, the water, fire,
All that they have, their lands, their goods, their lives;
And I, the goddess of all these, command
Aeneas ride as Carthaginian king.
ACHATES. Aeneas, for his parentage, deserves
As large a kingdom as is Libya.
AENEAS. Ay, and unless the destinies be false,
I shall be planted in as rich a land.
DIDO. Speak of no other land. This land is thine.
Dido is thine; henceforth I'll call thee lord.
Do as I bid thee, sister. Lead the way.
And from a turret I'll behold my love.
AENEAS. Then here in me shall flourish Priam's race,
And thou and I, Achates, for revenge
For Troy, for Priam, for his fifty sons,
Our kinsmen's lives, and thousand guiltless souls,
Will lead an host against the hateful Greeks
And fire proud Lacedaemon o'er their heads.
Exeunt all except Dido and a Carthaginian Lord.
DIDO. Speaks not Aeneas like a conqueror?
O blessed tempests that did drive him in!
O happy sand that made him run aground!
Henceforth you shall be our Carthage gods.
Ay, but it may be he will leave my love
And seek a foreign land called Italy.
O that I had a charm to keep the winds
Within the closure of a golden ball,
Or that the Tyrrhene sea were in mine arms,
That he might suffer shipwrack on my breast
I must prevent him. Wishing will not serve.
Go, bid my nurse take young Ascanius
And bear him in the country to her house.
Aeneas will not go without his son.
Yet, lest he should, for I am full of fear,
Bring me his oars, his tackling, and his sails.